COLUMBUS – Millions of American children suffer the consequences of their parents’ sentences and the nation’s tough-on-crime practices, according to a new report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
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“It’s a very startling point in a child’s life,” said Renuka Mayadev, executive director of Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio. “Where the criminal justice system sees a criminal, a child sees mommy or daddy.”
More than 5 million children nationwide, including 271,000 in Ohio, have experienced the separation of a parent because of incarceration — whether it’s several nights in jail or years in prison, the report found.
Kids feel the absence when the refrigerator is bare because their family has lost income, the report says. They feel it when they have to move, sometimes repeatedly, because their family can’t pay the rent or mortgage. And they feel it when they hear the whispers in school, at church or in their neighborhoods about their moms or dads.
It’s a particularly acute problem in Ohio, where 10 percent of children have a parent who is locked up. Only seven other states have double-digit percentages, the report found. Kentucky has the highest with 13 percent of its child population (135,000 kids) having an incarcerated parent.
While all children are affected by parental incarceration, it is seven times more likely among African-American children and three times more likely among Latino children than whites, the report said.
Ohio’s prison population has increased 12 percent in the past decade, even while the violent-crime rate has reached a 30-year low, Mayadev said.
The report recommends increased education and job training for people in prison, and incentives for housing authorities to reduce the barriers people with criminal records face in finding affordable homes.