A Need for a Focused Effort


On any given day in the U.S., there are over 2 million children
with a parent in prison.


  • 75 percent of women incarcerated in New York State report that they are mothers and 57 percent report that they are fathers.

  • Some 50 percent of mothers and fathers in New York prisons for drug convictions do not receive visits from their children.

  • Rather than spending public resources to warehouse low-level nonviolent drug offenders with mandatory minimum sentences, we need to redistribute these resources back into our communities, particularly for treatment and programs that expand educational opportunities for children whose parent(s) are incarcerated.