Should babies born in jail stay with their mothers?

Call it bonding behind bars: Babies born to incarcerated women should stay with their moms in prisons, says a Vancouver university professor and former prison physician who helped draft new guidelines for mother-child units.

Ruth Elwood Martin is hopeful that those guidelines will be implemented in penitentiaries across the country.

Martin used to work part-time as a doctor at B.C.’s Alouette Correctional Centre for Women (ACCW). There, from 2005 to 2008, pregnant inmates were allowed to return to the prison with their babies after giving birth at a local women’s hospital. That program ended when the warden at the time retired.

“I saw first-hand what a positive impact that had,” says Martin, a clinical professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, and director of the Collaborating Centre for Prison Health and Education. “From a medical point of view I was aware of evidence from international sources about mother-child units in [prisons in] other countries and the benefits of babies staying with their mothers in terms of breastfeeding, infant boding, and infant attachment.”

Martin helped draft “Guidelines for the Implementation of Mother-Child Units in Canadian Correctional Facilities,” which were released late last year.

The guidelines came about following a landmark 2013 B.C. Supreme Court ruling that found it unconstitutional to keep babies and mothers apart after a former ACCW inmate’s baby was taken away two days after she gave birth while behind bars.

In federal prisons, participation in mother-child programs has risen dramatically recent years, according to Howard Sapers, Correctional Investigator of Canada.

From the mid-2000s through to 2011 there was “virtually no participation,” Sapers says. There were three children in fiscal year ending March 31, 2014; six in the fiscal year ending 2015; and 10 in most recent fiscal year.

“It’s tripled in three years,” Sapers says. “This is a result of new policy as well as some new physical capacity.”

Four out of the five federal institutions for women now have purpose-built space to accommodate the mother-child program.

“This is certainly not unique to corrections, but there is general agreement that the bond between mother and child is very important, and it’s important that it be established in a positive way immediately, and the first few years of life in particular are very important in terms of the well-being of both the mother and the child,” Sapers says.

Of course, when the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) is involved, there are challenges and concerns, chief among them the well-being and safety of the child. However, Sapers notes there has never been a security incident at a Canadian penitentiary involving a mother and child in the program.

“There is an appropriate policy framework in place,” Sapers says. “I think there are also appropriate security monitoring and surveillance initiatives in place.”

Participation in the program is assessed on an individual basis, says Megan Hooper, CSC communications advisor.

“The best interests of the child are the pre-eminent consideration in all decisions relating to participation in the mother-child program, including the safety, security and health of the child,” Hooper says. “The program is intended to foster positive relationships between federally incarcerated women and their children by providing a supportive environment that promotes stability and continuity for the mother-child relationship, and to assist in the rehabilitation and successful reintegration of these women offenders.”

Although the guidelines have not been officially endorsed by the Correctional Service of Canada, Martin says federal and provincial prisons are incorporating them into their mother-child units. Several organizations, including the Colleges of Family Physicians of Canada, have endorsed them, and Martin says the United Nations is currently looking at them.

Not everyone agrees that babies should be with their moms behind bars, however.

James G. Dwyer, a law professor at Utah’s William & Mary School of Law, wrote a 2014 research paper called “Jailing Black Babies.” In it, he argues incarcerated women are “generally not well functioning, psychologically healthy people who happen to land in prison one day because of aberrational misconduct.”

“The great majority of these women suffer from deep, serious mental health problems and addictions and have been involved in criminal activity for a long time,” Dwyer writes. “Most had very poor upbringings themselves-a large portion having suffered from physical or sexual abuse as children-and never developed a secure attachment to their own parents. “

Dwyer says that the same conditions that exacerbate inmates’ psychological and personality problems are also likely to affect children adversely,

“The physical environment in prisons is generally stifling, harsh, unstimulating, and foreboding,” he writes. “The social environment is rife with hostility, fear, and depression.

“Many incarcerated women, both those in nursery units and those in normal units, describe prison life as socially and emotionally isolating, entailing complete severance of ties with family and friends and conditions not conducive to forming positive new ties,” he notes. “Infant brains process information from their environments intensely, and experiences even in the earliest days of life can psychologically affect a child throughout life.”

Of the more than 100 women’s prisons in the U.S., there are eight nurseries. However, nearly 100 countries, including South Sudan and France, have national laws that allow for incarcerated mothers to stay with their babies.

Martin says that the guidelines for mother-child units are predicated on the clear and compelling evidence that early mother-infant bonding supports positive future outcomes for the child. The wide range of psychological, physiological, and developmental harm caused by separation of a child from his or her mother is well-documented.

Mother-child units in correctional facilities allow children to bond with their mothers in a safe and supportive environment while giving women the chance to develop positive parenting and social skills, Martin says. Through this lens, incarceration can be viewed as a transformative period for mothers and their children.

Furthermore, children born to incarcerated women have a right to non-discrimination.

“The baby should not be discriminated against,” Martin says. “We know that for baby to be with mother, to bond right from the first hour and to breastfeed, has long-term health benefits for that baby….We know that, if mothers are given support and are given parental coaching and support, they can be taught to be the best mother they can be. Women’s prisons can provide a safe, child-friendly, secure environment. I’ve seen it in my own experience.”

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