Mothers Should Raise Children In Prison

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From 1997-2007, the rate of women becoming incarcerated increased by 99 percent (Perry et al. 458). This raises the question of what happens to the children of these women. One solution is full time residency programs in which mothers can raise their children in a prison program which provides a safe and steady environment for the child. Despite the claim that a prison environment is abusive to a child, mothers should be able to raise their children in prison because of the benefits to the child, benefits to the mother, and reduced rate of recidivism. Before one can form an opinion on this issue, one must first understand the background and circumstances. In New South Wales, Australia, the Mothers and Children Program Policy is the main legislation …show more content…

These children are already in danger to develop “developmental, behavioral, educational, and psychiatric problems” (Kenny 12). The possibility of “poorer peer relations, greater moodiness and symptoms of depression and anxiety compared with securely attached children.” For children coming from homes of financial stress, these effects have a greater effect on attachment quality (Kenny 6). “The impact of a break in parent-child attachment can lead to maladaptive coping mechanisms by the child, including truancy at school. This may, in turn, lead to a decrease in school attainment or cognitive development, drug and alcohol abuse, and other disruptive or antisocial behaviors.” (Perry et al. 459). One study found that children of incarcerated parents were up to six times more likely than the average person (Perry et al. 461). This is quite alarming considering that another study found that offenders who had been incarcerated in a juvenile facility were more likely to be prolific offender (Nelson).
After an investigation of the behaviors of children living with an incarcerated parent and children living apart from their incarcerated parent, one study came to a surprising conclusion. “Co-residing children showed rates of clinically significant attention deficit/hyperactivity, anxious/depressed, and withdrawn behavior comparable to rates found in a normative sample, while separated children showed …show more content…

Many people could argue that keeping those feelings locked up is not healthy for the mother and could affect her parenting. For mothers who can only see their children during short visits, it can be difficult for her and her child to say goodbye to each other. One mother reports of her child, “Sometimes she gives me dirty looks or frowns at me when she’s leaving. Like puzzled, like ‘Why am I going?’. It makes me upset too” (Perry et al. 461). One could conclude that the feelings of this mother are shared by many

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