Should Mothers Be Allowed to Have Their Babies and Raise Them in Prison - Term Paper Example

Tashia Walker Edward Feighny English 1302 3 July Outline Introduction Discussion I. Thesis ment: Mothers should be allowed to have their babies and raise them in prison until they complete their jail terms II. Reasons for i. It helps incarcerated women maintain their family ties ii. There are health benefits both for the mother and the child iii. There are economic benefits accrued from allowing mothers to raise their children in prison. iv. It reduces cases of reoffending among women v. Prison babies are more stable as opposed to those in foster care. III. Reasons against i. Children should not be made to pay for their parent’s mistakes and confining them in prison surroundings is an indirect punishment. ii. Prison is a crowded environment, which lacks sufficient resources and is therefore not an ideal place to raise a child. IV. Conclusion V. Works Cited Should Prisons Allow Moms to Have Their Babies or Children with Them in Prison? The practice of allowing mothers to raise their children in prison is a controversy that has continued to attract heated debates, both by critics and proponents. The US prison system facilitates women serving sentences which do not exceed 18 months to raise their babies while at the same time facilitating the mothers with skills and guidance on how to bring up healthy and disciplined children. Critics of this practice argue that such a policy is expensive for the taxpayers and that it neglects the core purpose of imprisonment, which is to punish the offenders. Supporters, on the other hand, claim that it is advantageous to the society and the prisoners, as well as the babies. This is because it reduces recidivism as mothers are facilitated with a chance to bond with their children, thus, enabling them to redefine their priorities among other benefits (Martone 54-63). This paper is a critical evaluation on whether women should be allowed to bring up their children in prison. Mothers should be allowed to have their babies and raise them in prison until they complete their jail terms. The fastest growing part of the world’s population in prison is women. Most of these women are either mothers or are the main providers for their children. Given this, it is fair to find ways to help incarcerated women maintain their family ties. It is also important to consider the rights of children whose mothers are in prison. Many women’s correctional institutions have gone to the extent of allowing inmates to keep their children in the facilities. It is considered that the bond between a child and her mother should not be broken just because mothers have been imprisoned. Furthermore, it is a proven fact that the life that these children would live outside the prisons without their mothers would be worse. Taking these children from their mother’s care indirectly means taking them into the streets. On the other hand, there are damaging effects on both mothers and children as a result of imprisonment. There are reported cases of issues related to decreased mental health and problematic drug addiction among women as a result of giving them custodial rights. “Many researches show that making custodial sentences as a tool of reduction of reoffending and offending to be inappropriate and ineffective” (Edwards and Mauthner 35). In addition, it is highly important to consider the health benefits that are accrued from allowing mothers to rear their children in prison. To begin with, babies who are born in prison should not be separated from their mothers in order to ensure that they are breastfed at least for the recommended period of six months. Breast milk is rich in nutrients and antibodies, which protects the child from illnesses. Research indicates that more than 1000 infant deaths are avoidable on yearly basis if only 90% of mothers accepted to breastfeed their babies for six months or more. Children who are not breastfed are considered as having higher chances of acquiring health complications such as and not limited to; asthma, diarrhea, diabetes, cancer, obesity among others. The US government could save approximately $13 Billion annually, which it spends on treating complications that are otherwise preventable through breastfeeding (Martone 15-23). Women population in jail is increasing in the recent decades. The number of women in jail has increased eight times than they were 30 years ago. This is not as a result of increase in crimes committed by women but as a result of the fact that the statute does not allow judges to consider the extent to which these women are involved in crimes. Judges sentence these women to prison, “on the basis that they are involved in a crime without considering how involved they are” (Hairston 210). They also don’t consider the number and age of children under their care or whether the mothers are single or not. Most of these women’s involvement in a crime is mostly not to a big extent. Their involvement may be as minimal as taking phone messages of a boyfriend or petty theft. But due to the fact that they are partly involved in a crime, they are sent to jail. The result of this has been an increase in women population in jail. Most authorities were not preparing for this influx. Women’s needs are of cause different from those of men. An influx of men in prison does not raise as much concern as that of women since their needs are different. Therefore, female prisoner’s needs should be treated differently from those of male’s needs. Gender specific factors such as needs of related children should be taken into account. Another factor that should be taken into account includes record of child and spousal sexual abuse. Human rights advocates such as the director of Nevada DOC, Jackie Crawford have given special attention to rights of women in prisons. She has written that there is a need for prison administrators to address behavior patters of female offenders because women are prone to emotions and in most cases when imprisoned, “they develop far more relationships within the facilities than men” (Phillips and Bloom 532). Prisons are now adapting themselves to give room to children in their facilities. A child can now get access to good education while staying with his mother in prison. Some prisons that have prison-based programs offer vocational training on childhood parenting and development skills to women. Some have even had their programs molded on the prison’s nursery. Other than the nursery, “there are other prisons that offer parenting centers, prenatal centers, and infant day care centers” (Johnston 46). These programs assist the imprisoned mothers to get involved in support groups, and get information on breastfeeding. They also help them in learning about child development and growth. There are also rooms placed in prisons where mothers can play games with their children, which is essential in developing and maintaining maternal bonds which would otherwise be absent if the prison system did not allow mothers to raise their children in prison. Researchers have proven that parental imprisonment and the subsequent separation have a huge effect on small children. The separation of the child from his mother is often traumatic to him. Most of the studies on these children constantly report that they experience a wide range of problems during imprisonment of their mothers. Most of these problems are psychosocial and include and not limited to; withdrawal, depression, clinging behavior, hyperactivity, running away, aggressive behavior, regression, sleep problems, poor school performance, delinquency, eating problems and truancy. According to Johnston, the impact of imprisonment on children varies and “depends on age, neighboring community and family response, individual and environment character” (95). There is therefore a need to keep that bond between the imprisoned mother and her child by allowing her to stay with her child for a period of time. There is an increasing need for prisons to build their facilities in such a way that allows mothers and their young children to live together in incarceration. For some, this may appear to be a ridiculous issue since as most people think, these mothers are “bad” and it is therefore not wise for their children to grow up with criminals. But most people who have a high value on family setup see the idea of keeping children with their mothers as sensible since the bond between a mother and a child is the strongest of all human bonds. In many cases, “that bond cannot be severed even after the mother commits a crime” (Phillips and Bloom 532). The alternative proves to be more traumatic to the child since in most cases the children move from one foster home to another. This results to the children not having a strong attachment to anyone and ends up highly disoriented. Prisons are definitely not best place for infants to be raised. However, most researchers say that it is better than doing the alternative. The program of keeping children in prison seemed strange when it begun but most researchers consider it advantageous. Joseph Carlson, a professor and researcher of criminal justice at University of Nebraska say the program “creates a win-win situation” to both mothers and their babies (Johnston 46). After his ten year study on female inmates, he concluded that the program helps mothers to reform and thereby reduces crime. He also says that the program helps in reducing regeneration cycle of inmates’ children becoming criminal. This program not only allows the children to feel loved but also creates a need for the mothers to keep their children out of prison. Seeing her child live the life that she alone was supposed to live after she commits a crime and given that the child is innocent makes her change her ways and waits for the future whereby she would ensure the child lives a normal life. Therefore, having a child to take care in prison prompts the mothers to change their behavior, readapt and rehabilitate to society. Some inmates are always reluctant to give their children to foster care or family care. They say that the children are like “A breath of life” in the deadening and stuffy confines of prisons. The children bring a sense of calm to both the mothers and other inmates who have no children. The children also divert the mind of their mothers from succumbing to sorrow since they keep them busy (Craft 22). Inmate mothers are thoroughly screened to ensure that the child will be safe and get the best care. “Time has proven that those facilities which let women to reside in prison together with children reduce prisoner’s bad conduct” (Luke 930). Some might think that since prisons hold many kinds of bad characters, a child staying in these facilities is exposed to danger. But this is not always the case because mothers in prison or otherwise tend to be protective of their children as well as those of other mothers. On the other hand, it is very important to look at the other side of the coin. What we need to ask ourselves is how prison time affects children. To begin, there is a lot of repression on the children. They are mostly punished for normal behaviors such as crying in the middle of the night since by so doing, they end up causing disturbance such as waking every one in the facility. Although they go to school on week days, they are mostly separated from their peers. There is also lack of 24 hour medical services in prison (Craft 31). Some mothers are not happy to spend time in prisons with their children because the children are indirectly punished for their crimes through solitary confinement. The general societal view on children living in prisons is often negative. Children living in prison always “tend to make most people think of them as though they have come into conflict with the law” (Luke 936). Sometimes, people even do not want to get into contact with them because they think that they bring shame to the society. The crimes of their mother lead them to living behind bars. They spend their precious years living in closed environment and therefore have no hope for a better future. It is even hard to imagine what kind of dreams they might have for their future. It is often sad for small children to share imprisonment together with their mothers. When they stay with their mothers, they share the same kind of poor lifestyle prisoners have i.e. Harsh, overcrowded and deficient systems (Craft 44). Most fathers do not ask for their children to remain with them at home. This shows that these women are the children’s primary caretakers. In many countries, there are efforts to make special provisions to mothers who have small children but in other cases there are no such arrangements and therefore the children end up suffering in the prison. In these cases, they share a bed with their mothers if it is available. They even have to share the limited space in the prison with other adult prisoners. When the conditions in the prison facilities are harsh and resources are scarce, the children also suffer since “the general rule” mostly applies to them too (Luke 943). In some countries, the children are invisible to justice system and therefore do not get the necessary social services. In extreme cases, these children are not even registered in the records of the facilities and end up living in the prison on informal basis. In fact, while the number of male and female prisoners in the whole world is known and recorded, the number of small children that live with their mothers in prisons all over the world is not recorded or known. Having seen the pros and cons of letting mothers keep their children in hospitals, it is fair to say that there are sufficient advantages of letting mothers keep their babies in prison. However, although keeping them together is beneficial to both of them, we cannot overlook the fact that the child is exposed to a life that he or she could have lived better outside the prison. Not all prisons should be allowed to let mothers keep their babies in prison. The prison should first have the necessary facilities that are needed in order to enable the child live a healthy and happy life. Legislation should be put in place to ensure that all issues that concern babies of imprisoned women especially a child should be the main concern. This legislation should also make sure that women that have babies in prisons have as much help as possible. They should be educated on how to raise their child and also given better treatment so that they could carry out their child rearing and parental responsibilities in the right way. The circumstances of their families, condition of the prison, the term that a woman is serving and the availability of social services should be their primary concern before letting them keep their children in prison facilities since they directly affect the life of the child. Work Cited Craft, Sharon. Parenting and Prison. CreateSpace, 2010. Print. Edwards, Rosalind, and Melanie Mauthner. Ethics and Feminist Research: Theory and Practice. London: Sage, 2005. Print. Hairston, Creasie. Mothers in Prison. New York: Lexington Books, 2002. Print. Johnston, Denise. The Care and the Placement of Prisoners’ Children. New York: Lexington Books, 2001. Print. Luke, Katherine. “Mitigating the Ill Effects of Maternal Incarceration on Women in Prison and Their Children.” Child Welfare 81(2002): 929-948. Print. Martone, Cynthia. Loving Through Bars: Children with Parents in Prison. Santa Monica Press, 2005. Print. Phillips, Susan, and Barbara Bloom. “In Who’s Best Interest? The Impact of Changing Public Policy on Relatives Caring For Children with Incarcerated Parents.” Child Welfare 77 (2006): 531-541. Print. Read More