Dear John, Parents of children under 18 comprise half of the imprisoned population in the United States, and the prevalence of parental incarceration varies considerably by race, according to new research brief by The Sentencing Project. Overall, 2.7 million children have a parent serving time in prison or jail on any given day, and over 5.2 million have had an incarcerated parent at some point during their lives. In 2018, 20% of Native children, 13% of Black children, 6% of Latinx children, and 6% of white children had experienced parental incarceration at some point in their lives. The impacts of parental incarceration on children can include psychological stress, antisocial behavior, academic suspension or expulsion, and economic hardship. Fortunately, some states have begun taking family relationships into account during sentencing, have improved the treatment of pregnant people in the criminal legal system, and improved state-level laws regarding parental rights for people in prison. But the harms of parental imprisonment remain widespread. Learn more in Parents in Prison, authored by Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Ph.D., Senior Research Analyst at The Sentencing Project, and research fellows Emma Stammen and Kevin Muhitch. |
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