On Thursday, December 15th  at 11 a.m. Eastern, the Economic Policy Institute will hold a media teleconference to discuss a new report from EPI research associates Leila Morsy and  Richard Rothstein that outlines the impact of mass incarceration on children.

Research in criminal justice, health, sociology, epidemiology, and economics shows that children of incarcerated parents are at increased risk of dropping out of school, are more likely to develop learning disabilities, are more prone to misbehavior, and are at greater risk of conditions such as asthma, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and homelessness.

Since as many as one-in-four African American students has a parent who is or has been incarcerated, the discriminatory incarceration of African American parents is an important cause of their children’s lowered performance, especially in schools where the trauma of parental incarceration is concentrated. Simply put, our criminal justice system makes a significant contribution to the racial achievement gap in both cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

What: Press call to discuss new research on the impact of mass incarceration on children

Who: Richard Rothstein, EPI research associate and author of the forthcoming book on the history of state-sponsored residential segregation, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.
Leila Morsy, EPI research associate and lecturer at the University of New South Wales, will be available for interviews before and after the call

When: Thursday, December 15th
11 a.m. Eastern

Call-in number: 800-311-9402
Passcode: 9796

To RSVP and receive an embargoed copy of the paper email news@epi.org.