Poor families are less likely to have nutritionally adequate diets than non poor families.
Children who have inadequate diets lag in growth and have more frequent, more severe, and longer-lasting infectious diseases. These figures are particularly important for African-Americans because of the high rate of poverty for this group. For children younger than 18 years old, the poverty rate in 1991 was 16.8 percent for white children, 40.4 percent for children of Hispanic origins, and 43.9 percent for black children. Incarceration Ending up in a prison means that, among other restrictions, one is not able to earn an income. It also means that the community looses the income that might have been spent in the neighborhoods.