Parents in Prison and Their Minor Children: Comparisons Between State and National Estimates

AuthorGrant Duwe,Lauren Hindt,Rebecca Shlafer
Published date01 June 2019
DOI10.1177/0032885519836996
Date01 June 2019
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/0032885519836996
The Prison Journal
2019, Vol. 99(3) 310 –328
© 2019 SAGE Publications
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0032885519836996
journals.sagepub.com/home/tpj
Article
Parents in Prison and
Their Minor Children:
Comparisons Between
State and National
Estimates
Rebecca Shlafer1, Grant Duwe2,
and Lauren Hindt3
Abstract
To estimate the number of parents in state prisons in Minnesota, 2,242
adults completed a brief survey. More than two thirds reported having
minor children. More women than men reported being a parent; over half
reported living with their children before arrest. In a multivariate model,
parent gender, residing with children pre-incarceration, and child age
predicted interest in parenting programming. The current study yielded
a higher prevalence of parental incarceration than national and other
state estimates. Findings underscore the importance of documenting the
prevalence of parents in prison and identifying programs and policies to
address their needs.
Keywords
prisons, incarcerated parents, children
1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
2Minnesota Department of Corrections, St. Paul, USA
3Loyola University, Chicago, IL, USA
Corresponding Author:
Rebecca Shlafer, Department of Pediatrics, Medical School, University of Minnesota, 717
Delaware Street, SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414, USA.
Email: shlaf002@umn.edu
836996TPJXXX10.1177/0032885519836996The Prison JournalShlafer et al.
research-article2019
Shlafer et al. 311
Introduction
Since the 1970s, the era of mass incarceration in the United States has ushered
in unprecedented growth in state prison populations. In 1978, the state impris-
onment rate (per 100,000) was 119 (Bureau of Justice Statistics [BJS], 2016).
After reaching a high of 447 in 2007, the rate has recently fallen, dropping to
412 in 2014—the most recent year for which data are available (Carson,
2015). Still, the rate in 2014 was 3.5 times greater than it was in 1978.
The surging prison population has, at various times, given rise to a host of
concerns. For example, as state prison populations grew sharply during the
1990s, so did interest in the issue of prisoner reentry (Lynch & Sabol, 2001).
The federal government has sponsored several major initiatives for the imple-
mentation of community-level prisoner reentry projects across the country
since the early 2000s (Young, Taxman, & Byrne, 2002). The rapid growth in
state prison populations also meant that many institutions were operating
above capacity. In one notable example, California was required to reduce its
prison population as a result of a federal order (Brown v. Plata, 2011). In
recent years, there has been discussion about reducing the federal prison pop-
ulation and, more specifically, enacting sentencing reform, mostly for drug
and nonviolent offenses (Samuels, La Vigne, & Taxy, 2013; Smarter
Sentencing Act, 2015; Subramanian & Delaney, 2014).
As we note in more detail below, one issue that has been largely over-
looked in the public debate over mass incarceration is its impact on children
and families (Travis, Western, & Redburn, 2014). This issue has likely been
overlooked, at least in part, because of a lack of current data on the number
of children and families affected. In 2007—the last year for which national
data are available—it was estimated that more than 1.75 million children
younger than the age of 18 had a parent in a state or federal prison in the
United States (Maruschak, Glaze, & Mumola, 2010). More recent estimates
using data from the National Survey of Children’s Health indicate that more
than 5 million U.S. children have experienced the incarceration of a coresi-
dent parent although this study cannot discern which parent was incarcerated
or whether the parent’s incarceration was in jail or prison (Murphey &
Cooper, 2015). National estimates suggest 53% of men and 61% of women
in the U.S. prison population are parents with minor children (Maruschak
et al., 2010). In 2007, this represented nearly 810,000 incarcerated parents,
most of whom were men.
Although there are substantially more fathers than mothers incarcerated in
the United States, rates of maternal incarceration are increasing at a much
faster rate (Maruschak et al., 2010). Between 1991 and 2007, the number of
incarcerated fathers increased 77% (Maruschak et al., 2010). In contrast,

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