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An Estimated 809,800 Inmates in the Nation's Prisons Were Parents to 1,706,600 Minor Children at Midyear 2007

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Last update: 4:56 p.m. EDT Aug. 26, 2008 WASHINGTON, Aug 26, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- An estimated 809,800 prisoners of the 1,518,535 held in the nation's prison at midyear 2007 were parents of minor children, according to a report by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Parents in prison - 52 percent of state inmates and 63 percent of federal inmates - reported having an estimated 1,706,600 minor children. Among state inmates, the percent of parents in prison decreased from 55 percent in 1997 but has remained stable for federal inmates. About 2.3 percent of the 74 million children in the U.S. resident population who were under the age of 18 on July 1, 2007, had a parent in prison. Black and Hispanic children were about eight and three times, respectively, more likely than white children to have a parent in prison...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on August 26, 2008 (boomark / email).