According to the website for the Strengthening Families Affected by Incarceration about 2.7 million children won’t be celebrating the holidays with a parent because that parent is behind bars. On any given day, there are an estimated 2.7 million children in the United States with at least one parent in prison or jail.  My home state of Minnesota does not collect information about incarcerated parents and their children, but based on the national statistic, the Strengthening Families Affected by Incarceration collaborative estimates  that at least 10,000 children in Minnesota have a parent currently in prison or jail. Check out the facts of:

Who has an incarcerated parent in Minnesota?

What is the impact on chemical use by these youth?

What is the impact on mental health of these youth?

Those are the facts, here’s the fiction

Locked Out:  This urban fiction series features diverse characters and is set in cities around the United States (Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and St. Paul)

Locked Out explores the complex ways that parental incarceration affects teens, from physical absence to family histories of crime to stigmas and emotional health.  Research has shown parental incarceration to be associated with poor academic achievement, involvement in delinquency and gang-related activities, violence, and eventually adult criminal behavior. These books offer accessible, relatable stories of teens dealing with the significant challenges that an estimated 1.7 million children of incarcerated parents in the US face.