Humane Exposures Blog

The Annie E. Casey Foundation analyzed 2011-2012 statistics nationwide and found that about 5 million children have grown up with a parent incarcerated at some point. “There are too many kids who are suffering because their parents are in prison, and they didn’t do anything wrong,” said Jim Munkres, spokesman of Idaho Voices for Children.

Lauren Necochea, director of Idaho Voices for Children,

Photo by Susan Madden Lankford

said it is known that children having an incarcerated parent could have future issues with brain development and performance in school. “We know that when a parent is incarcerated, there is an impact on financial stability (in the family), and toxic stress has long-lasting effects,” Necochea said.

In the recent report, the Annie Casey Foundation stated:

We call on correctional systems, communities and state and local public agencies to help stabilize families and preserve their connections during incarceration — and successfully move forward once parents come home.

The foundation suggested that correctional systems should connect parents returning to the community with opportunities for employment and promote family stability when offenders are re-entering their family’s home.

Kentucky maintains the highest rate of kids with parents who have been incarcerated, at 13%, closely followed by Indiana at 11%. Next at 10% are the states of Oklahoma, Ohio, Michigan, New Mexico and Tennessee. The next worst group of states, with 9% of kids having a parent in the pokey (28% above the national average) are Arizona, Nebraska, West Virginia and Wyoming. The best state is New Jersey with only 3% of children having parents behind bars.

Patrick McCarthy, president and CEO of the Casey Foundation, said.

Our nation’s over-reliance on incarceration has left millions of children poorer, less stable and emotionally cut off from the most important relationship of their young lives. We are calling on states and communities to act now, so that these kids — like all kids — have equal opportunity and a fair chance for the bright future they deserve.

In the last six months, the Idaho Department of Correction has released about 400 inmates onto probation and parole through efforts to reduce the prison population. The newly released inmates were placed back into the community due in part to the Justice Reinvestment Initiative. The initiative is a statewide effort to reduce the number people in prison for property and drug offenses and instead keep violent offenders in prison.

Most incarcerated parents in state and federal prisons nationwide are men, and about 45 percent of men age 24 or younger are fathers. For the same age group, about 48 percent of women in federal prison and 55 percent in state facilities are mothers.

The number of children with a father in prison increased by more than half between 1991 and 2007, and those with a mother behind bars more than doubled, according to the Casey Foundation.

Within the Idaho Department of Correction’s custody, about 83 percent of current female inmates have children. That’s about 1,200 of the approximate 1,500 females.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation stated in the report that single-parent household also struggle with poverty due to less income. They found that household income drops by about 22% when a child’s father is incarcerated.