BJS Reports - Parents 1997 Survey - State and Federal Prisons (BJS has stopped doing this survey - last one done in 1999 – problem has grown since then) Page 1 Summary and Highlights

BJS Reports - Parents Thirty years ago US prison pop less than 300,000 Today 700,000 + Parents in prison Less than half are violent offenders (1/4 for mothers) Poor - 70% less than high school diploma 75% minority (Poor, Minority, Petty offenders!)

BJS Reports - Parents About half lived with children before incarceration - 2/3 of mothers Most have 1 or 2 minor children (Table 1) Not the “welfare stereotype” of poor people with many kids

BJS Reports - Parents About 1.5 million children (Huge increase over last 30 years!) Fathers - children usually live with mother (Usually poor single mother) Mothers - children usually live with GP, other Rel, (Makes poor relatives poorer!) -- OR foster care or “ward of the court”

BJS Reports - Parents Less than half have weekly contact with children More than half, no contact since admission More than half, prison more than 100 miles away

BJS Reports - Parents Page 2 3/4 of children are minorities Black kids 9x more likely than white kids Hisp kids 3x more likely than white kids to have a parent in prison

BJS Reports - Parents Page 3 Table 3 49% black, 29% white, 22% hisp median age 32 40% some high school or less

BJS Reports - Parents Page 5 Table 6 Contact with children visitation unusual, prison far away *** Go Over In Class

BJS Reports - Parents Page 6 Table 7 Current Offense (mostly nonviolent) property and drug offenses *** Go Over In Class

BJS Reports - Parents Page 6 Table 8 Time to Serve *** Go Over In Class

BJS Reports - Parents Page 7 Table 9 Criminal History Status -- about half none History -- less than half violent Priors -- most have few priors Repeat petty offenders!!

BJS Reports - Parents Page 8 Table 10 Drug Use Ever used - most, but soft drugs Within month - fewer, soft drugs At the time - very few

BJS Reports - Parents Page 9 Table 11 Alcohol Alcohol much more connected with crime! *** Go over in class

BJS Reports - Parents Page 9 Table 12 Mental Illness 1 in 7 fathers almost 1 in 4 mothers

BJS Reports - Parents Page 10 Table 13 Employment/Income/Homelessness Very economically unstable! *** Go Over In Class

BJS Reports - Parents Putting all the pieces together: Thirty years ago, we had very few parents in prison, and very few children had parents in prison. Only a very tiny number of children had mothers in prison.

BJS Reports - Parents Then came the conservative-driven Get Tough on crime and War on Drugs -- and the resulting Imprisonment Binge. These new policies targeted young, poor, male minorities, mostly petty offenders -- but they eventually began to net young, poor, female minority petty offenders as well. Many of the new targets are parents.

BJS Reports - Parents Policymakers, prison administrators, and the public pay little attention to the drastically different consequences of the new policies. Over the last 30 years, a large and disastrous new problem has emerged - the destruction of tens of thousands of poor families, and especially children, by the imprisonment binge itself.