The Missouri Department of Corrections puts a number on its homepage that most correctional systems do not lead with: 96 percent. Ninety-six percent of the people who enter Missouri's prisons come back to Missouri cities and towns. The department has built its public identity around that fact, framing its work as preparation for the near-certain return. A Safer Missouri, says the motto. The standard of excellence in corrections. And behind both of those: the knowledge that almost everyone inside will be outside again, living next door to someone.
What that number means for the children of incarcerated parents in Missouri is specific. The parent who is inside today will almost certainly be home. The question is not whether they come back. The question is what they come back as, and what relationship is waiting for them when they do.
I went into the federal system, not MODOC. I went in when my kids were 9, 11, 12, 15, 18, and 20. What I know from 66 months is that the relationship I came home to was built during the sentence, not after it. Every call that showed my children I was paying attention. Every letter addressed to a specific child about their specific life. Every time I treated the contact as if it mattered, because it did. Missouri knows that 96 percent of its people are coming home. Both parents need to start building what that homecoming looks like, right now.
St. Louis and Kansas City, and the geography in between
Missouri has two major cities at its eastern and western edges. St. Louis sits on the Mississippi, the gateway to the east. Kansas City anchors the western end, where Missouri meets Kansas and the plains begin. Between them is a state that runs through the Ozarks, through former lead-mining country in the southeast, through flat agricultural land in the northwest, and through the small cities of the central corridor.
The MODOC's facilities are spread across that middle geography. Potosi Correctional Center, maximum security and death row, is in Washington County in the Ozarks near Mineral Point, roughly an hour and a half southwest of St. Louis. Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center is in Bonne Terre, also in the southeast. Farmington Correctional Center is in St. Francois County. Crossroads Correctional Center is in Cameron in far northwest Missouri. Chillicothe Correctional Center, which houses women, is in Livingston County in north-central Missouri.
A family in St. Louis with a parent at Potosi is making a 90-minute drive into the Ozarks. A family in Kansas City with a parent at Crossroads in Cameron is making a two-hour drive northwest. The distances are not extreme by the standards of Alaska or California, but they are real, and for families with limited transportation options, a 90-minute drive with children is a significant logistical undertaking.
The JPay tablet system and what it means for contact
Missouri issues JPay computer tablets to inmates in all adult institutions. Those tablets are not luxuries. They are communication infrastructure. Through the Securus Technologies platform that runs on the tablets, families can send text messages with up to five photos attached, 30-second VideoGrams, and emails. The tablet also allows Snap n' Send photo sharing.
This matters for children because it means the contact channel is not limited to scheduled phone calls. A parent in a Missouri facility can send a message to a child's family account in the evening. A child can send a message back. The communication can be more frequent and more varied than in states where the only channel is a monitored phone call during limited hours.
The practical note is that sending and receiving emails through the JPay system carries a small fee. Families should set up JPay accounts and fund them before expecting to receive messages. The cost per message is modest but not nothing, and families should budget for it alongside the cost of phone calls.
What 96 percent means for both parents
If 96 percent of Missouri's incarcerated people come home, then the choices both parents make during the sentence are building the foundation for a homecoming that is very likely to happen. That is the frame both parents need to hold.
My wife never said a word against me to our six children during 66 months. She had every reason. She had six kids in a situation I had created. She chose to let them love me without penalty. What I have with my adult children today is the direct result of that choice. When I came home, I came home to a family that had kept the door open. That was not an accident. That was 66 months of my wife making the same choice over and over.
The parent inside a Missouri facility carries the same obligation from the inside. The Securus phone call, the JPay message, the video call: all of those are how the child experiences the parent during the sentence. Use them to be genuinely present. Ask what happened at school. Remember what the child said last time. Ask about it by name this time. The 96 percent are coming home. Make sure the child is glad when you do.
What the ages mean in Missouri
My children were 9, 11, 12, 15, 18, and 20 when I went in.
The 9-year-old in Missouri whose parent is at Potosi or Crossroads or Chillicothe needs the same thing every 9-year-old in this series needs: to hear it said directly that none of what happened is their fault. Children under 10 build private, silent explanations for a parent's absence. The explanation they most often reach is that they caused it. That belief does not surface in behavior adults can easily see. It settles in and shapes how the child understands themselves for years. In Missouri, where the MODOC has organized itself around the knowledge that parents are coming back, the parent inside can do the same: organize the sentence around the knowledge that the child is waiting. Call consistently. Say it every time: this is not your fault. I love you. I am coming home.
The 11 and 12-year-old in Missouri is navigating middle school in a state with wide geographic and cultural range, from the urban neighborhoods of St. Louis and Kansas City to small Ozarks towns and farm communities in the northwest. In each of those contexts, a parent's incarceration is something the child carries into the school environment. The incarcerated parent who uses the JPay system to send a message the night before the 12-year-old's big test, who asks about it on the call the next day, who shows the child that they are tracking the specific things happening in the specific child's specific life, is doing parenting that the distance and the facility walls are designed to prevent. That specific attention is the proof of presence.
The 15-year-old in Missouri is evaluating authenticity. A teenager whose parent calls from Farmington or Moberly or Cameron to lecture them about their choices has made a private calculation. A parent who calls to listen, who uses the phone and the JPay messages to show genuine interest in who the teenager is becoming, will keep the teenager in the relationship. Ask more than you tell. The 15-year-old who still answers by the end of the sentence is the one who believed the parent was real.
The 18 and 20-year-old is an adult deciding what to carry forward. Show up as someone worth the decision.
What the outside parent carries in Missouri
The outside parent in Missouri is managing children, a household, and the logistics of a sentence being served at a facility that may be 90 minutes or two hours away. They are navigating the online visiting application, the background check process, and the schedule of a correctional facility that operates on first-come first-served entry.
What they need from the incarcerated parent is acknowledgment. One call where the person inside names what they see the outside parent carrying and says thank you, in specific and genuine terms, is worth more than any instruction delivered from inside a Missouri correctional facility. My wife carried six children through 66 months. She deserved to hear that I saw it. I said so as often as the access allowed.
For the outside parent in Missouri: the children will carry what they hear you say about the incarcerated parent across the years of the sentence. In a state where 96 percent of incarcerated people come home, the children you are raising are going to have a parent who returns. What relationship that parent comes home to depends on what you built for them to come home to. My wife built a relationship worth coming home to. Protect it.
How communication works in Missouri
Phone calls go through Securus Technologies. Outgoing calls only; inmates cannot receive incoming calls. Set up a prepaid account before the first call. FCC rate caps effective April 6, 2026, limit calls to $0.11 per minute at prisons and large jails plus a facility fee.
Tablets are issued to all inmates in Missouri adult institutions. Through Securus/JPay, families can send emails, text messages with up to five photos, 30-second VideoGrams, and Snap n' Send photos. Sending and receiving emails carries a small fee; fund a JPay account at jpay.com before expecting to receive messages.
For in-person visits: complete the online Application to Visit at doc.mo.gov. Background checks are conducted on all applicants. Once approved, the incarcerated person is notified; they then notify the visitor of the approval. Visitors enter on a first-come first-served basis starting no earlier than 30 minutes before visiting begins. Up to 3 visitors per offender plus up to 3 additional visitors who are age 5 and under. Visitors 13-18 need a school photo ID or valid government ID. Visitors under 18 must be accompanied by an authorized adult visitor. Bring coins in a clear sandwich bag or transparent pouch for vending machines. No cell phones, wallets, or purses inside; leave them in the vehicle.
Mail: personal mail address is P.O. Box 236, Jefferson City, MO 65102.
MODOC inmate search: web.mo.gov/doc/offSearchWeb. MODOC HQ: Jefferson City, MO; doc.mo.gov.
Federal inmates in Missouri fall under BOP jurisdiction. BOP communication uses TRULINCS for email via CORRLINKS and TRUFONE for phone. FCC rate caps apply; First Step Act programming offers 300 free minutes per month.
Where this leaves you
Ninety-six percent. Missouri leads with that number because it understands what it means. Almost everyone inside comes back. The children of incarcerated people in Missouri are not waiting for an uncertain outcome. They are waiting for a return that is almost certain to happen.
What is not certain is what the parent comes back as, and what relationship is waiting for them. Both of those are built during the sentence, not after it. The incarcerated parent who calls consistently, who uses JPay to stay in daily contact, who asks real questions and listens to real answers, who tells the 9-year-old it is not their fault, who tracks the middle schooler week by week, who listens to the teenager without a lecture attached: that parent is building what they come home to. The outside parent who keeps the door open, who protects the children from the adult conflict, who speaks carefully about the incarcerated parent in front of children who are listening: that parent is doing the same.
Missouri knows 96 percent are coming home. Make sure what comes home is worth the wait.