Children of Prisoners

Children of Prisoners Facts at a Glance: 75% of women in prison are mothers and 66% have children under age 18. 6% of women entering prison are pregnant. 55% of men in prison are fathers of children under age 18. 32% of men in prison have more than one child under the age of 18. On any given day there are more than 500,000 fathers in prison. Almost 200,000 of children under the age of 18 have an incarcerated mother. More than 1,700,000 children under the age of 18 have an incarcerated father. Source: Child Welfare League of America, Federal Center for Children of Prisoners, An Overview of Statistics.

Table 1. Estimated # of incarcerated parents in 1999 and its effects.
Estimates for 1999	# of households with minor children affected by the imprisonment of a resident parent	# of parents imprisoned	# of children affected by the imprisonment of a parent
Total	336,300	721,500	1,498,800
Fathers	300,900	667,900	1,372,700
Mothers	35,400	53,600	126,100
State Prison	291,000	642,300	1,324,900
Fathers	259,900	593,800	1,209,400
Mothers	31,100	48,500	115,500
Federal Prison	45,300	79,200	173,900
Fathers	41,000	74,100	163,300
Mothers	4,300	5,100	10,600
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Incarcerated Parents and Their Children by Christopher J. Mumola, August 2000.

Facts at a Glance:

Facts for 1999:

55% of State prisoners were parents of children under 18

• 63% of Federal prisoners were parents of children under 18
• 93% of incarcerated parents were male
• 89% of incarcerated parents were in State prisons
• 46% of parents lived with their children before being incarcerated
• 2.1% of the nation’s children (1,498,800 children) had a parent in State or Federal prison
• 7.0% of Black children (767,200 children) had a parent in prison
• 1.6% of Hispanic children (302,600 children) had a parent in prison
• 0.8% of White children (384,500 children) had a parent in prison

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Incarcerated Parents and Their Children by Christopher J. Mumola, August 2000.

Table 2. Selected characteristics of incarcerated parents of minor children in 1997.
Percent of incarcerated parents in 1997 with the given characteristics	State Prisoners	Federal Prisoners
Gender
Male	92.6%	93.2%
Female	7.4	6.8
Race/ethnicity
White (non-Hispanic)	28.9%	21.9%
Black (non-Hispanic)	49.4	44.0
Hispanic	18.9	30.0
Other	2.8	4.0
Age
24 or younger	15.8%	7.8%
15-34	44.9	41.8
35-44	32.1	35.1
45-54	6.6	12.8
55 or older	0.6	2.5
Marital status
Married	23.0%	35.8%
Widowed	1.6	1.6
Divorced	20.5	19.0
Separated	7.2	6.0
Never married	47.7	37.6
Education completed
8th grade or less	12.7%	11.5%
Some high school	27.1	16.7
GED	30.6	27.0
High school graduate	16.1	19.8
Some college or more	13.4	25.0
Employment before current arrest
Employed	70.9%	73.5%
Unemployed	29.1	26.5
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Incarcerated Parents and Their Children by Christopher J. Mumola, August 2000. Data is extracted from the 1997 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities.

Facts at a Glance:

Facts for 1997:

• 55% of State prisoners were parents of children under 18 (65% of female prisoners, 55% of male prisoners)
• 63% of Federal prisoners were parents of children under 18 (63% of male prisoners, 59% of female prisoners)
• 32% of State inmates had more than one child under 18 (45% of women, 31% of men)
• 39% of Federal inmates had more than one child under 18
• 32% of children with incarcerated parents were under age 5
• 58% of children with incarcerated parents were under age 10
• 46% of incarcerated parents lived with at least one child prior to being imprisoned; 45% of State prisoners and 57% of Federal prisoners
• 64% of mothers in State prisons and 84% of mothers in Federal prisons lived with their children prior to being incarcerated
• 44% of fathers in State prisons and 55% of fathers in Federal prisons lived with their children prior to being incarcerated

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Incarcerated Parents and Their Children by Christopher J. Mumola, August 2000. Data is extracted from the 1997 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities.

Table 3. Percent of parents in prison who lived with their minor children prior to being incarcerated, by gender, 1997.
	State Prison			Federal Prison
	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female
Percent of parents who lived with their children at time of arrest	45.3	43.8	64.3	57.2	55.2	84.0
Child's current caregiver:
Child’s other parent	85.0	89.6	28.0	87.6	91.7	30.7
Child’s grandparent	16.3	13.3	52.9	12.2	9.8	44.9
Child’s other relatives	6.4	4.9	25.7	6.2	4.2	33.9
Foster home or agency	2.4	1.8	9.6	1.3	1.1	3.2
Other (includes child living alone)	5.3	4.9	10.4	6.8	6.4	11.9
1. The following columns may add up to more than 100% as some parents had several children and the children lived with different caregivers. Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Incarcerated Parents and Their Children by Christopher J. Mumola, August 2000. Data is extracted from the 1997 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities.

Table 4. Frequency of contact by incarcerated parents with their children, by gender, 1997.
	State Prison			Federal Prison
	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female
Any contact
Daily	10.1	9.5	17.8	15.1	14.6	21.1
Once a week	31.2	30.3	42.4	43.7	43.4	48.5
Once a month	22.2	22.6	18.0	23.8	23.9	22.0
Less than once a month	16.1	16.6	9.7	10.0	10.3	5.0
Never	20.4	21.1	12.2	7.5	7.8	3.3
Telephone
Daily	6.6	6.2	11.3	13.0	12.8	15.0
Once a week	19.8	19.2	27.0	36.3	35.9	41.2
Once a month	16.5	16.6	15.3	23.2	23.1	24.9
Less than once a month	15.4	15.5	13.8	11.3	11.4	9.2
Never	41.8	42.5	32.6	16.2	16.7	9.7
Mail
Daily	4.8	4.4	9.6	4.3	3.9	9.5
Once a week	23.2	22.2	35.6	30.4	30.0	35.9
Once a month	23.1	23.3	20.6	30.4	30.5	27.8
Less than once a month	18.2	18.6	13.2	18.9	19.2	14.5
Never	30.8	31.6	21.0	16.1	16.4	12.3
Personal visits
Daily	0.8	0.7	1.1	0.4	0.3	0.9
Once a week	6.6	6.5	8.0	7.1	7.1	6.6
Once a month	13.9	13.8	14.7	15.1	15.3	12.0
Less than once a month	22.2	22.2	22.1	33.4	33.0	38.5
Never	56.6	56.8	54.1	44.1	44.2	42.0
1. The following columns may add up to more than 100% as some parents had several children and the children lived with different caregivers. Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Incarcerated Parents and Their Children by Christopher J. Mumola, August 2000. Data is extracted from the 1997 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities.

Table 5. Personal income of incarcerated parents in the month before the arrest, by gender, 1997.
	State Prison			Federal Prison
	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female
Less than $200	16.5%	16.0%	22.9%	16.5%	16.2%	20.6%
$200-$599	20.5	19.9	28.4	14.4	13.8	23.6
$600-$999	16.9	16.7	18.7	15.8	15.4	21.6
$1,000-$1,999	24.4	25.1	16.7	23.8	24.1	19.4
$2,000-$4,999	13.4	13.9	7.7	14.4	14.8	8.2
$5,000 or more	8.2	8.4	5.6	15.1	15.7	6.6
1. The following columns may add up to more than 100% as some parents had several children and the children lived with different caregivers. Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Incarcerated Parents and Their Children by Christopher J. Mumola, August 2000. Data is extracted from the 1997 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities.