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:
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93 percent of imprisoned parents were male.
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90 percent of fathers in state prisons said at least one of their children was living with the child's mother.
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28 percent of imprisoned mothers said the father was the current caregiver.
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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.
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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.
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60 percent of parents in state prisons said they'd used drugs in the month before arrest.
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14 percent of parents in prison said they had a mental illness.
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70 percent of incarcerated parents didn't have a high school diploma.
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18 percent of imprisoned mothers and 8 percent of fathers were homeless before entering prison.
--T. DeANGELIS
