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CJA Blog > Children of Incarcerated Parents by the Numbers

The following information is taken from Parents in Prison and Their Minor Children by Glaze and Maruschak, published by the US Department of Justice and summarized in the article Kinship Care When Parents are Incarcerated: What We know, What We Can Do by Creasie Finney Hairston, PhD, published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Until recently very little research has been done on the impact of incarceration on the children and families left behind. The US Department of Justice has been tracking information on children of incarcerated parents for more than ten years so we do know some of the dimensions of the problem.

The parents

• 2.25 million persons are incarcerated in federal, state and local prisons
• Average sentence 7.5 years, average time served five years
• 93% are male and poor
• 40% are African American
• 62% of female prisoners and 51% of male prisoners have children under the age of 18
• 57% of Hispanic males are fathers
• 54% of African American males are fathers
• 45% of Caucasian males are fathers

The children

• 1.7 million children have a parent in a federal or state prison
• 22% of these children are under the age of five
• 28% are five to 10 years old
• 34% are 10 to 14 years old
• 16% are 15 to 18 years old

Before becoming incarcerated:

• 64% of mothers and 46% of fathers lived with their children
• 36% of mothers and 54% of fathers lived separately from their children
• 18% of mothers and 14% of fathers lived with their children in a two-parent household
• 42% of mothers and 17% of fathers lived in a single-parent household
• 70% of mothers and 26% of fathers provided most of the daily care for their children
• 18% of mothers and 63% of fathers shared responsibility for daily care of their children with another adult
• Five times more fathers than mothers headed a single-parent household

The problem of incarceration and divided families disproportionately affects poor families of color. Many incarcerated parents have not completed high school and have serious substance abuse issues. Many of these parents will remain in prison while their children reach adulthood.

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