Children of Female Prisoners: Misdirected Punishment?
The offences of women prisoners are prevailingly related to drugs, prostitution or crimes related to domestic abuse. They are often themselves victims of sexual, physical and psychological abuse. Most are sentenced for non-violent crimes. According to statistics just under 6% of the total prison population in the United Kingdom constitutes female offenders. However, a whopping 66% (above 70% in the US) have dependent children, and around one third of them are sole guardians. These women feel they have failed as parents and suffer the shame and separation from their children. Yet, the ones who are mostly affected by the incarceration might not be the mothers themselves, but the young ones they’ve left behind. They are the true victims of the prison sentence.
Due to the lower number of women’s prisons often times, mothers are send to serve their sentence far away from their children, making frequent visits difficult, if not impossible. Kids often get the right to visit their mothers in prison as a regular visitor, which is not sufficient. This causes them to lose contact with their parent and become alienated. Visiting in prison is an upsetting and frightening experience in its own, especially for young children. They feel pain from the separation, an emotional conflict, and anger at the system, the people that put their mommy behind bars. The specific needs and emotional state of these young ones is perhaps not acknowledged accordingly. In most countries there is no official agency that provides special support or information to the offspring of female prisoners.
Incarcerating a mother leads to a multitude of affects. Not only are the children torn away from their closest being, the one on whom they’ve depended for everything, but in many instances, they are separated from family, brothers and sisters. If there is no other parent or guardian, they are given for care to relatives, family friends or foster parents. Often this necessitates relocating, changing schools, and leaving friends. Their whole way of life may change, further eliminating any feeling of stability and security. These children are prone to depression, poor performance and problems in school, aggressive behaviour, and low self-esteem. They feel cast away from society and even disrespect for authority. Many times, kids follow in the footsteps of their incarcerated parent. The likelihood that children of prisoners will get involved in criminal activities and end up in jail as adults is 85%. These children are vulnerable to getting involved in crimes. The vicious cycle repeats itself.
Children born to mothers in prison, on the other hand, are sentenced from the moment they were born. A miniscule proportion of the lucky female inmates with babies have the opportunity to stay with their child in a specialized unit. Most infants end up cared for by relatives, family friends, foster parents or even get adopted. During their forming years, they do not have their most important person, their mommy, close to them. They are impeded from forming this vital human bond.
The prodigy of female prisoners experiences the cold shoulder treatment from society, even though on the surface it might not seem so. Apart from the emotional distress and the separation from their parent, their whole life is disrupted. They feel shame and social stigma for a crime they did not commit. It makes one wonder, who is it that we are really punishing? Is the child, an innocent, being punished more severely than the mother herself?
Perhaps the prison system designed for man initially, does not fulfil its purpose for women, for mothers? Or perhaps society itself is not doing enough to help these kids, and their needs and problems are being overlooked? Whatever the answers, one thing is clear. When improving the efficiency of a system for punishment, the offenders should be considered as people, as mothers and fathers and appropriate tools and punishments should be designed with that in mind.
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