a timely BJS report

timely because i have been working on this issue for a while now. the report: Parents in Prison and Their Minor Children

highlights:

The nation’s prisons held approximately 744,200 fathers and 65,600 mothers at midyear 2007.

Parents held in the nation’s prisons—52% of state inmates and 63% of federal inmates—reported having an estimated 1,706,600 minor children, accounting for 2.3% of the U.S. resident population under age 18.

Growth in the number of parents held in state and federal prisons was outpaced by the growth in the nation’s prison population between 1991 and midyear 2007.

if only i had time to read it.