Short answer. Not permanently, and not on every sentence. Parental authority is suspended upon conviction of a crime which carries with it the penalty of civil interdiction — so the trigger is that penalty, not imprisonment as such. The authority is automatically reinstated upon service of the penalty, or upon pardon or amnesty.
What the law says
Parental authority is suspended upon conviction of the parent or the person exercising the same of a crime which carries with it the penalty of civil interdiction. The authority is automatically reinstated upon service of the penalty or upon pardon or amnesty of the offender.
Family Code, Article 230 — Suspension for Civil Interdiction. Read the full provision →
Suspended, not terminated
The distinction runs through this whole chapter and it decides the question: parental authority is suspended upon conviction of the parent or the person exercising the same of a crime which carries with it the penalty of civil interdiction. The authority is automatically reinstated upon service of the penalty or upon pardon or amnesty of the offender. Suspension holds the authority in abeyance; it does not extinguish it. A parent in that position has not been divested, and nobody else has acquired their authority permanently by their conviction.
The trigger is the penalty, not the prison term
Read the condition precisely. What suspends authority is conviction of a crime which carries with it the penalty of civil interdiction — a penalty defined by the penal law and attaching only to certain sentences. Many convictions and many periods of imprisonment do not carry it. So the answer for a particular family is read off the judgment rather than inferred from the fact of detention, and the first thing a lawyer will ask for is the decision itself and the penalty actually imposed.
Reinstatement happens by itself
The article says the authority is automatically reinstated upon service of the penalty or upon pardon or amnesty. That is unusual in this part of the Code and worth appreciating: Article 229 requires a final judgment to revive an authority that terminated on its grounds, whereas here nothing has to be applied for. What ends the suspension is the same event that would end the penalty. The practical caution is evidentiary — you will still need the documents showing the penalty was served, pardoned or covered by amnesty.
Who decides for the child in the meantime
Suspension leaves a gap that the Code fills in the ordinary way. Where one parent is absent, Article 212 has the parent present continue exercising authority, and remarriage does not disturb that. In default of parents, Article 216 gives substitute parental authority to the surviving grandparent, then the oldest sibling over twenty-one, then the child's actual custodian over twenty-one. The duty of support is unaffected throughout — Article 201 measures it by the giver's means and the child's necessities, and a suspension is not a reason for it to stop.
Related provisions
- Family Code, Article 229 — Revivable Termination of Parental Authority
- Family Code, Article 212 — Authority of the Surviving Parent