Bernard and Scott Peters, father and son, are serving time together in a cell in New York State’s Elmira Correctional Facility, says the New York Times. Bernard, 69, and Scott, 42, have been cellmates for most of their 15 years in prison. It’s rare for a father and son to share a cell, but of the estimated 600,000 parents of minor children in state prisons in 2004, half had a relative who was currently or used to be incarcerated, says the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
New York officials do not know how many parent-child pairs were sharing cells in the prison system, which includes 57,000 offenders at 67 facilities. Only 3,000 of more than 20,000 maximum-security cells statewide are double-bunk cells. The Peterses are each serving 25-to-50 year terms for attempted murder and robbery–part of what the Times calls a violent string of crimes in 1995 that netted them $2,900 in cash.