Two percent of the nation's 72 million children--1.5 million youngsters--had a parent in prison in 1999, according to statistics released in August by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Most of those children were younger than 10; the average age was 8.
The bureau also found that:
* 93 percent of imprisoned
parents were male.
* 90 percent of fathers in state prisons said at least one of their
children was living with the child's mother.
* 28 percent of imprisoned mothers said the father was the
current caregiver.
* 57 percent of imprisoned fathers and 54 percent of imprisoned mothers said they'd never had a
personal visit with their children since entering prison.
* The percentage of black children with an imprisoned parent was nearly nine times greater than that of white children; the percentage for Hispanic children was about three times greater than that of white children.
* 60 percent of parents in state prisons said they'd used drugs in the month before arrest.
* 14 percent of parents in prison said they had a mental illness.
* 70 percent of incarcerated parents didn't have a high school diploma.
* 18 percent of imprisoned mothers and 8 percent of fathers were homeless before entering prison.
--T. DeANGELIS
