BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Gov. Edwards joined the Council on the Children of Incarcerated Parents and Caregivers for a Zoom meeting on Thursday morning.
Gov. Edwards provided a “shocking” statistic about how many children in the state have at least one family member behind bars.
Edwards said, “the estimate is that we got about 94,000 children in our state who have at least one of their parents or a caregiver incarcerated.”
Gov. Edwards stated that Louisiana still has too many people in jails.
Children’s development, education, social and emotional wellness is impacted negatively when they have a parent or caregiver behind bars, according to Gov. Edwards.
Edwards also noted that children who have a parent in jail are more likely to be suspended, expelled or have a negative interaction with police.
Some the members of the Council on the Children of Incarcerated Parents and Caregivers are also part of a non profit organization called Daughters Beyond Incarceration.
The non-profit provides support for children of incarcerated parents.