SMITHFIELD — One day last September, corrections officials took a snapshot look at their jailed population with a specific purpose in mind: to get a rough count of how many children were left behind when one, if not both, of their parents went to prison.

It was, in some ways, a rough measure of the prison’s future population, too, experts say.

On that day, Sept. 30, the Adult Correctional Institutions held 3,081 inmates who were either awaiting trial on criminal charges or already sentenced. Of those inmates, 2,051 reported being parents to 4,520 children.

The number of children was probably under-reported. Prison officials say women often hide that they are mothers for fear of losing their children because of their incarceration. And men don’t want to admit to being in arrears for financial support for any additional children.

Yesterday, about 130 state social workers, child-welfare experts and probation officers met at Bryant University to discuss the interrupted lives children of incarcerated parents endure.

They talked about needing new ways to help a hidden population of children, many of whom, the odds show, will know extreme poverty, domestic violence, meager education, depression and even their own incarceration.

There was talk of trying to better coordinate social services and of “breaking the cycle” of crime, but few proven solutions.

Ultimately it won’t be state agencies and additional tax dollars — particularly in this economy — that will ease the problem, said Corrections Director A.T. Wall. “It will be the community.”

“Families, churches, neighbors, not-for-profit agencies, local business people” — people who “have an organic connection” to these criminal offenders and their children, said Wall.

“We as state agencies absolutely play a role, but unless the community steps up to the plate…” He paused for a moment. “Our institutional staff says goodbye to them at the door.”

IN 1975, the ACI held 15 women.

On Sept. 30 of last year, the figure stood at 238 — an increase of 1,140 percent, the department says.

Of the 132 sentenced mothers that day, 49 percent were serving sentences for nonviolent offenses, 23 percent for violent offenses, 22 percent for drug offenses, 5 percent for breaking and entering and 1 percent for sex-related offenses.

Of the 1,546 sentenced fathers, 38 percent were serving sentences for violent offenses, 21 percent for drug offenses, 18 percent for nonviolent offenses, 14 percent for sex-related crimes and 9 percent for breaking and entering.

Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director for Rhode Island Kids Count, said incarcerated parents often make informal arrangements with family members to care for their children, so the children rarely come to the attention of child-welfare agencies or other support systems.

Two-thirds of inmates also have no high school diploma or General Equivalency Diploma. And 60 percent are “functionally illiterate,” said Wall.

Corrections philosophy has evolved over time, Wall said, and the department now believes that in addition to protecting society from its criminals, it must also prepare those criminals for their almost certain return to society. For everyone’s sake.

And the best way to prevent criminals from reoffending, said Wall, is to help reintegrate them into their own families where their support systems should be greatest. If successful, it can prevent another generation from starting a life of crime.

Toward that end, the department has created the position of a parenting coordinator to help inmates and their children improve their relations rather than experience alienation. There are also parenting programs for new and expecting parents.

Sharon Schwartz-Vanderhoff, sitting in the audience yesterday, knows the harsh reality facing newly released inmates.

An adult probation officer who works in Pawtucket, she deals daily with young men and women who as former offenders are also parents.

“Eighty percent of this is related to substance abuse,” she said. Addictions have literally destroyed these people’s ability to make sound judgments in their lives.

Some women she knows, “have absolutely no one in their lives and they think, ‘Well if I have a child I will have someone who loves me.’ ”

In a world perceived to have few promises, motherhood becomes the path to happiness and almost glamorous, she said.

“We need to show them that it’s difficult, that it’s expensive, that it’s not cool to be a mother,” Schwartz-Vanderhoff said. “There needs to be more personal responsibility taught and more birth-control education, starting right in junior high school.”

Roberta Richman, assistant director of rehabilitative services for the Corrections Department, said prison staff do teach parent counseling and birth-control measures for both men and women. And the inmates listen.

It’s when they get released and start feeding their drug addictions again that their judgment gets blurred.

“They don’t intentionally go out and have babies,” Richman said. “It happens in the course of them living their reckless lives. I have begged women to think about the future before they have sex, but personal accountability works when you are working with people who understand personal accountability.

“We work with people with a pervasive level of immaturity because so many of them are addicted and they’ve been addicted since they were very young.”

tmooney@projo.com