WATCH: Searching for Justice — How incarceration affects families

More than 5 million children in the U.S. have had a parent incarcerated, according to the Annie E. Casey foundation.

Incarceration separates families, but what comes after is also a challenge. People leaving jail or prison often face an uphill battle trying to repair and rebuild relationships upon release.

Sometimes, a lengthy sentence means permanent loss of custody of the child. In other cases, child support debt can become insurmountable, which can lead to loss of drivers licenses or additional criminal penalties or jail time.

PBS NewsHour co-anchor Geoff Bennett hosted a live discussion on Tuesday, Oct. 10 on reentry and the family. It’s part of NewsHour’s series “Searching for Justice,” focused on post-incarceration challenges.

Watch the conversation in the player above.

Bennett spoke with Tyrone Walker, the director of reentry services at Georgetown University’s Prisons and Justice Initiative; Lynne Haney, a professor of sociology at New York University and author of “Prisons of Debt: The Afterlives of Incarcerated Fathers”; and attorney Vonya Quarles, co-founder and Director of Starting Over, Inc., a nonprofit that provides transitional housing and other reentry services.