On September 11, 2026, a federal jury in Los Angeles found rapper Lil Durk not guilty of murder for hire in the 2022 shooting that killed Saviay’a “Lul Pab” Robinson, the cousin of rapper Quando Rondo (AP report). Durk still faces a separate racketeering trial tied to alleged gang violence in Chicago, now pushed to August 2027 (Complex). He is presumed innocent on those charges as well.

For many listeners who watched his rise, the headlines reopened a bigger question. What happens to a child when a father disappears into the federal prison system, and what happens to the home, the neighborhood and the family left behind? It is a question worth asking out loud.

This article uses public reporting about Lil Durk and Pooh Shiesty as a lens on parental incarceration and generational trauma in Black families. It is not a clinical assessment of anyone named here, and every legal matter below is described as reported by the press or alleged by prosecutors.

Lil Durk’s Father and the Weight of Parental Incarceration

Durk was a baby in 1993 when his father, Dontay “Big Durk” Banks, was arrested in a federal crack cocaine conspiracy case in Chicago. Reports say as much as $8 million tied to the ring was seized, and Banks was sentenced to life in 1994. He came home in February 2019, roughly 25 years later, after winning an appeal (XXL). Banks has said publicly that investigators offered him a way out if he would give them Gangster Disciples co-founder Larry Hoover, and that he refused (XXL).

Whatever anyone thinks of that choice, a child lived inside it. Chicago magazine reported that Durk grew up in his grandmother’s South Side home and heard the stories about his father long before he could know him (Chicago magazine). That is the part of parental incarceration that rarely makes headlines: an absence that is also a legend. An incarcerated father can become a mythic figure, and a son can end up carrying the emotional weight of the empty chair right alongside the reputation attached to his father’s name.

The same reporting says Banks worked to make amends after his release and did not want his son to follow his path. Repair after prison is part of the story too.

Parental Incarceration in Black Families: What the Research Shows

Parental incarceration is not spread evenly. A National Institute of Justice review found that Black children were about 7.5 times more likely than white children to have an incarcerated parent (NIJ). Sociologist Christopher Wildeman estimated that about one in four Black children born in 1990 had a parent imprisoned by age 14, compared with about one in 25 white children (Wildeman, Demography).

How parental incarceration affects children’s mental health

Researchers treat having a parent locked up as an adverse childhood experience. The Annie E. Casey Foundation has described it as a stressful, traumatic experience on par with abuse, domestic violence and divorce, and found that when a father is incarcerated, family income drops by an average of 22 percent (Colorlines). Children are more likely to struggle with depression, anxiety, school and behavior. In a large Minnesota study, closeness to a parent or caregiver was protective (Journal of Adolescence summary).

Many children also grieve in silence because of stigma. Clinicians describe this as ambiguous loss: the parent is alive, but not at home (Brown and Gibbons).

What the numbers do not say

You may have heard that most children of incarcerated parents end up in prison themselves. Research reviews do not support that claim. One review cited by Ebony put the risk of justice-system involvement at roughly three in ten, about three times the baseline (Ebony). That risk is real, and it is far from destiny. Many children show remarkable resilience, especially when they have steady caregivers and support.

When the Crew Becomes the Family

When systemic forces pull fathers out of homes, people adapt. Street crews, and sometimes whole collectives, can step in as surrogate kinship networks. The name of Durk’s collective, Only The Family, says something about that need for belonging. When you grow up without a traditional two-parent household, the people around you can become your main support system, and protecting them can feel like survival.

In that kind of environment, conflict often gets processed through loyalty and protection instead of calm problem solving. A threat to one person can feel like a threat to everyone, and a business dispute can turn personal fast. That is how cycles of retaliation can trap young men inside the justice system again and again. We are describing a general pattern here, not explaining the allegations against any one person. Courts decide that.

Two Fathers, Two Paths: Lil Durk and Pooh Shiesty

Durk’s story shows one way a father’s legacy gets passed down: the absent blueprint, where a locked-up father leaves behind a legend his son feels pressure to honor. A second pattern shows up when a father is present and, according to prosecutors, involved.

Memphis rapper Pooh Shiesty, whose legal name is Lontrell Williams Jr., grew up around music because of his father, Lontrell Williams Sr., who rapped as Mob Boss and founded Mob Ties Records. In April 2026, a federal grand jury in Dallas indicted both men, along with seven others, on kidnapping and robbery charges tied to an alleged January incident at a Dallas recording studio involving rapper Gucci Mane. Prosecutors say Williams Sr. helped plan it. Both men pleaded not guilty. Williams Sr. was released on bond, Pooh Shiesty remains in custody, and trial is now set for February 22, 2027 (KERA News).

One father was gone for decades. The other was close by. Both sons now face serious federal cases, and neither has been convicted on the charges pending against him. The point is not that a father’s choices decide a son’s fate. It is that absence and closeness can both carry unprocessed pain, loyalty and identity when no one helps a family work through them.

Generational Trauma in Black Families Is Structural, Not Just Personal

Generational trauma, also called intergenerational trauma, describes how the effects of overwhelming stress can travel through families: through parenting patterns, silence, hypervigilance, mistrust and survival rules that once protected people but now cost them. Clinical researchers point to the compounding role of historical and race-based trauma, community violence and mass incarceration in Black families, and they describe trauma-informed, culturally attuned family work as a path forward (Journal of Marital and Family Therapy).

Poverty and disinvestment are a major driver of the cycle. When neighborhoods lack economic resources and safety nets, street organizations have historically stepped in as providers and protectors. Following a parent into the justice system is not simply a personal failure or a lack of character. It is shaped by communities where survival strategies have been criminalized for generations.

Generational trauma is not just a metaphor. It lives in bodies, in households, and in the way families talk or do not talk about what happened. Breaking the cycle takes changing the conditions that make prison feel like a family inheritance, and it also takes healing work inside the family.

Parental Incarceration and Generational Trauma in Texas

This is not only a national story. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2016 report A Shared Sentence estimated that 477,000 Texas children had a parent incarcerated at some point in their lives. Arlington sits between Dallas and Fort Worth, and the Pooh Shiesty case is being heard in Dallas federal court. For many families in Arlington and across the Dallas-Fort Worth area, parental incarceration is not a headline. It is a visit schedule, a collect call, a missing paycheck, and a child who stopped talking about where Dad is.

How Therapy in Arlington, TX Can Help Break the Cycle

Healing does not require pretending the past did not happen. In therapy, people can name what they lost, make sense of loyalties that no longer serve them, and build new patterns for their own children. At Kenyatta Black Counseling, our Black therapists in Arlington offer trauma-informed therapy, individual counseling and relationship counseling for adults carrying this history, and for parents and caregivers trying to support a child. Approaches researchers have explored with children of incarcerated parents include trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy and play therapy, and your counselor can help you work out what fits your family.

Grief belongs in this conversation even when no one has died. Our post on grief therapy in Arlington, TX speaks to loss that has no funeral. If constant alertness, numbness or anger sounds familiar, read about our approach to trauma and PTSD. And if the men in your family learned to carry pain quietly, depression in Black men looks at how that pain shows up. We see clients in person at our Arlington office and through teletherapy across Texas.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is generational trauma in Black families?

Generational trauma is the way painful experiences, such as racism, violence, poverty or a parent’s incarceration, can shape how later generations think, parent, trust and cope. It travels through family patterns, silence and survival rules, and it can change when families name it and heal together.

How does parental incarceration affect children’s mental health?

Research links it to higher rates of anxiety, depression, behavior problems and school struggles, partly through lost income, instability, stigma and grief. A steady caregiver and close contact with the parent, when it is safe, are protective.

Will a child with an incarcerated parent end up in prison?

No. The risk of justice-system involvement is higher, roughly three times by one research review, but most children do not follow that path. Support and stable caregiving matter.

Can therapy help with generational trauma?

Yes. Trauma-informed therapy helps people understand inherited patterns, process grief and anger, and build new ways of relating to their families.

Is there a Black therapist in Arlington, TX who works with generational trauma?

Yes. Kenyatta Black Counseling is a trauma-informed practice with Black therapists at 3939 W Green Oaks Blvd, Ste 214, Arlington, TX 76016, offering in-person and virtual sessions across Texas. Call 469-490-1442.

Why does a counseling practice write about Lil Durk and Pooh Shiesty?

Public cases give families a way into hard conversations about fathers, loyalty and loss. We use reported facts as a lens, not a diagnosis, and we do not assess anyone named.

Talk With a Black Therapist in Arlington, TX

If this article hit close to home, you do not have to carry it alone. Call 469-490-1442 or book an appointment. Evening and weekend appointments are available. We see clients in person at 3939 W Green Oaks Blvd, Ste 214, Arlington, TX 76016, and by teletherapy across Texas. You can also check our insurance page or meet our team.

If you or someone you love is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional mental health care. Information about legal cases reflects public reporting as of October 8, 2026 and may change. Anyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Sources

• AP via WAFB: Lil Durk acquitted of murder-for-hire at Los Angeles trial
• Complex: Lil Durk’s second federal trial pushed back to next August
• XXL: Lil Durk’s father reunited after prison
• XXL: Lil Durk’s father on refusing to snitch on Larry Hoover
• Chicago magazine: profile of Dontay Banks Sr.
• KERA News: Pooh Shiesty’s Dallas trial moved to February 2027
• National Institute of Justice: Hidden Consequences, the impact of incarceration on dependent children
• Wildeman (Demography): Parental imprisonment, the prison boom, and the concentration of childhood disadvantage
• Colorlines: Annie E. Casey Foundation report on parental incarceration
• Ebony: 3 ways you can help children with incarcerated parents
• Journal of Adolescence study summary: adolescents with an incarcerated parent
• Lee et al., Journal of Marital and Family Therapy: intergenerational trauma in Black families
• TF-CBT with children of incarcerated parents (PubMed Central)
• Brown and Gibbons: child-centered play therapy and ambiguous loss