© Jim Young / Reuters
A new report examining the devastating toll of incarcerated parents on children, families and their community has found that over five million children have a parent in jail, leading to poor education outcomes, economic strife and psychological problems.
"The saying is all too familiar: Do the crime, do the time. But in America's age of mass incarceration, millions of children are suffering the consequences of their parents' sentences and our nation's tough-on-crime practices," stated the report, A Shared Sentence
released on Monday by The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Over a period of four decades, the report found that the number of children with a father in prison or jail at some point in their childhood rose by 500 percent. The sharp increase came along with the emergence of laws and policies mandating long sentences for drug possession as well as three-strikes laws and incarcerations for low-level crimes.For the children, most younger than 10, these circumstances created great instability. When fathers are incarcerated, family income can drop by an average of 22 percent, the report found.
Many of the families already relying on public programs such as food stamps struggled with the loss of income and became more dependent."Mothers...report being unable to pay for necessities such as food, utilities, rent and medical care for their children," stated the report.
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