There is an 82% rise in the number of children with parents imprisoned
As of 2007, 1.7 million children had a parent in prison,
an 82 percent increase from 936,000 in 1991, says
The Sentencing Project. The racial/ethnic variation is broad:
1 in 15 African-American children has a parent in prison,
as does 1 in 42 Latino children and 1 in 111 white children.
Because sixty-two percent of parents in state prisons are
more than 100 miles from home, visits from children decline over time.
In 2004, more than half of parents in state prisons and
nearly half in federal prisons had never had a visit from their children.
The Sentencing Project backs parent-child relationships through programs such as that
of the Bedford Hills, N.Y. women's prison in which newborn babies
can live with their mothers for a period of time.
The advocacy organization also urges amending legislation that
impedes the prospects for successful reentry and uniting parents
with children, such as the ban on receipt of welfare and food stamps
for those with drug convictions.
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