By Associated Press
Oklahoma City, OK –
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) A report by the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy says children whose mothers are in prison are five times more likely to end up in prison themselves.
The annual Kids Count Factbook released Tuesday says those children also often leave children behind when they are incarcerated perpetuating the cycle.
Each year since 1993 Oklahoma has had more women per capita in prison than any other state in the nation. The state also is fifth in the nation in the number of men per capita in prison.
The report says about 27,300 children in the state have at least one parent in prison and that half of those children are younger than 10.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.