1.5 Million Kids Have Parent in Prison

W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 31 -- Nearly 1.5 million American children have amother or father in federal or state prison — a figure that hasgrown in step with the swelling of the nation’s prison population,the Justice Department reported Wednesday.

The department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics said that at theend of last year 1,498,800 children under age 18 had a parent inprison in this country.

That was a 60 percent increase since 1991 — up 562,300 from the936,500 children in that category then. During the same interval,the nation’s prison population grew by an almost identical 62percent, to 1,284,894 prisoners in 1999.

The 1999 prison population contained 721,500 inmates who wereparents of a minor child. The percentage of prisoners with childrenwas essentially unchanged — 57 percent in 1991 and 56 percent in1999.

A majority of the children with imprisoned parents, 58 percent,was younger than 10 years old, and the average age was 8 years old.As of Dec. 31, 1999, they represented 2.1 percent of the nation’s72 million minor children.

Federal inmates had more contact with their children than didstate inmates, according to the bureau’s 1997 survey of state andfederal inmates.

Phone Calls, But Few VisitsAmong state inmates, 40 percent of the imprisoned fathers and 60percent of the mothers reported weekly or more frequent contactwith their children by phone, mail or visit. At federal prisons, 60percent of fathers and 70 percent of mothers had such contactweekly or more often.

But a majority of state inmates — 57 percent of fathers and 54percent of mothers — reported never having had a personal visitwith their children since being locked up. Among federal inmates,44 percent of fathers and 42 percent of mothers reported no visitswith children after incarceration.

As of 1997, a majority of all inmates — 62 percent of stateprisoners and 84 percent of federal ones — were held more than 100miles from their last place of residence. But far more stateinmates, 17 percent, than federal prisoners, 7 percent, were housedwithin 50 miles of their last home.