Over 700,000 prisoners in the US are parents to nearly 1.5 million children. When a parent is arrested, their children may be placed in foster care if there is no one else to care for them. More than half of foster care cases do not have the goal of family reunification. Black and Hispanic children are much more likely to have a parent in prison compared to white children. Many incarcerated parents have young children under 5 and have difficulty maintaining personal visits with their children while imprisoned, especially since most are held over 100 miles away from their previous home.

1. Incarcerated Custodial Parents and their children
An estimated 721,500 prisoners are parents to 1,498,800 children.
If there is not a person present at the time of arrest for the parent
to leave their child with, the kids go into foster care.
51% of foster care cases nationally do not have the end goal of
family reunification.
Of the Nation’s 72.3 million children in 1999, 2.1% had a parent in
prison. Black children were nearly 9 times more likely to have a
parent in prison than Anglo children while Hispanic children were 3
times as likely.

2. The researchers found that:
-22% of all minor children with a parent in prison were under 5.
-10% of mothers and 2% of fathers in State prison reported a child now
living in a foster home other than a relatives.
-A majority of both fathers (57%) and mothers (54%) in State prison reported
never having a personal visit with their children since admission.
-Over 60% of parents in State prison reported being held over 100 miles from
their last place of residence.
Age % of children w/ Parents in prison, 1997
Less than 1 year old 2.1%
1-4 years old 20.4%
5-9 years old 35.1 %
10-14 years old 28.0 %
15-17 years old 14.5 %