The Statistics
- There are an estimated 1.7 million children - who have a father or mother serving a sentence in a state or federal prison (Parents in Prison and Their Minor Children, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, NCJ222984. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, Glaze, Lauren E. and Laura M. Maruschak, 2008).
- In Minnesota there are an estimated 15,000 children of prisoners. Breaking that down further, there are an estimated 10,000 children with an incarcerated parent in the 7-county metro area. In the Rochester area there are an estimated 450 children of prisoners.
- A recent press release shows that 1 out of 99 Americans are now incarcerated. That translates to about 7 million children with an incarcerated parent. These children are at risk for the cycle of trauma, addictions, rage and criminality. The Federal government recognizes these children as among the highest at-risk group of kids in our nation. We, however, believe that intervention, not incarceration, is the answer to this destructive cycle.
- According to a
recent
Pew Report, 1 in 31 Americans are now under correctional control.
In Minnesota, that number is actually 1 in 26. Minnesota has the 4th
highest percentage of adults on probation or parole. Another striking
number is that in 1982, only 1 in 98 adults were under correctional
control in Minnesota, an increase of 284%.
- An
estimated 7.3 million children have a parent
in prison or under some form of state or federal supervision (Families
Left Behind: The Hidden Costs of Incarceration and Reentry, Urban
Institute Justice Policy Center, rev. 2005).
- Some 10
million young people in the United States have had a mother or father-or
both-spend time behind bars at some point in their lives (Partnerships
between Corrections and Child Welfare, The Annie E. Casey
Foundation, 2007).
- Between 1995 and 2005, the number of
incarcerated women in the United States increased by 57 percent compared
to an increase of 34 percent for men (Prisoners in 2005,
Bureau of Justice Statistics).
- Seventy-five percent of
incarcerated women are mothers (Incarcerated Parents and Their
Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 2000).
- Sixty-three
percent of federal prisoners and 55 percent of state prisoners are
parents of children under age 18 (Incarcerated Parents and Their
Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 2000).
- The
average age of children with an incarcerated parent is eight years old;
22 percent of the children are under the age of five (Incarcerated
Parents and Their Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special
Report, 2000).
- African-American children are nearly nine
times more likely and Hispanic children are three times more likely to
have a parent in prison than white children (Incarcerated Parents
and Their Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report,
2000).
- More than 60 percent of offenders in state and
federal prisons in the United States are incarcerated more than 100
miles from their last place of residence (Incarcerated Parents and
Their Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 2000).
- Parental
incarceration creates financial instability and material hardship as
well as instability in family relationships and structure (Parental
Incarceration in Fragile Families: Summary of Three Year Findings,
an unpublished report to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2007).
- Having
an incarcerated parent often results in school behavior and performance
problems as well as social and institutional stigma and shame (Vulnerability
of Children of Incarcerated Addict Mothers: Implications for Preventive
Intervention, Children and Youth Services Review, 2005).
- In addition to lowering the likelihood of recidivism among incarcerated parents, there is evidence that maintaining the child-parent relationship while a parent is incarcerated improves a child's emotional response to the incarceration and encourages parent-child attachment (Examining the Effect of Incarceration and In-Prison Family Contact on Prisoners' Family Relationships, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 2005).