Section II: Incarceration & Its Consequences

Families of Prisoners:

• Number of prisoners with minor children, 1999384: 642,300
• Number of minor children with parents in prison, 1999385: 1,324,900
• Increase between 1991 and 1999 in the number of minor children with a parent in prison386: 472,600
• Percent of male state prisoners with minor children, 1997387: 54.7%
• Percent of female state prisoners with minor children, 1997388: 65.3%
• Percent of female state prisoners with minor children reporting monthly visits from their children, 1997389: 23.8%
• Average sentence for parents in state prison, in months390: 80
• Average sentence for parents in federal prison, in months391: 103
• Percent of state prisoner parents incarcerated 100-500 miles from their last place of residence392: 51.2%
• Percent of federal prisoner parents incarcerated more than 100 miles from their last place of residence393: 84.0%

A recidivism study on the impact of visits:

• Percent of prisoners who had no visits in their final year of prison who were arrested in their first year on parole394: 50%
• Percent of prisoners who had three visits in their final year of prison who were arrested in their first year on parole395: 30%
• Number of times a parolee who did not receive visits was more likely to be returned to prison than a parolee that had received three or more visits in the last year of incarceration396: 6

This page is an excerpt from The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry (2003) by Peter Wagner, published by the Western Prison Project and the Prison Policy Initiative..