pregnancy and prison (whats the law of your land?)

[yellowfish]

after reading this piece i was wondering how a developed "civilised nation" handles these instances
surely your cops arest and incacirated pregnant moms or do the get homejail (the strap on the ankle that goes off when they leave the premises)
does the state take the kids away and have them addopted

what happens with crack babies

sorry its a lot of questions but bieng a father i just go into overdrive when it comes to what is best for the child
Pollsmoor Prison has a new inmate - just a day old.

The mother, a prisoner in the female section, gave birth on Friday, bringing to 14 the number of babies behind bars at the Tokai prison.

The issue of babies behind bars, some of them up to 15 months old, came under the spotlight on on Friday. The Deputy Minister of Correctional Services, Hlengiwe Mkhize, launched the Imbeleko Project at Pollsmoor, an initiative to improve the lives of children locked up with their mothers.

Mkhize said the project focused on creating a child-friendly environment inside the prison by converting cells into suitable mother-and-child units, as well as finding alternative placements for children once they were two years old.
In terms of the Correctional Services Amendment Act, proclaimed last month, a woman can have her child with her in detention only until the child is two, as opposed to the previous age limit of five.

Mkhize said the visits to jails had shown that incarcerating children with their mothers for long periods negatively affected their growth.

She said the National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders agreed in a 2006 study - "The Influence of Imprisonment on infants and children incarcerated with their mothers" - that the facilities catering for infants and children with their incarcerated mothers were a restrictive environment hampering the child's psychological, cognitive and social development.

The 14 mothers at Pollsmoor are serving sentences for a variety of offences including murder, arson, theft, fraud and forgery, and they range in age from 20 to 46.

There are an estimated 121 babies in prisons nationally, with the most (54) in Gauteng. The Western Cape has 20 as does KwaZulu-Natal, while the Eastern Cape has just two.

The Imbeleko Project, which refers to the act of carrying a baby on the back, has already been rolled out in Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

The Inspecting Judge of Correctional Services, Deon Hurter van Zyl, said the project's launch was an important step forward.

Inmate Fadia Poole, who spoke at the launch, said prison mothers were grateful they were allowed to bond with their babies.

"We feel that the appropriate age is two for them to stay with us, although some feel that three would be better."

Poole said five years was too long, because the children would then remember being in prison even though they had committed no crime.

But she said they requested that once their babies did leave prison, they would be permitted to visit their mothers at weekends.

[jrmcg]

i can answer the crack baby question. weve adopted one. her mother was a crackhead while she was pregnant with her. emily is five right now and currently laying beside me on the couch. shes in kindergarten and struggling very badly. every night we go over her word list and 2 seconds later, she forgets what she just said. she is developmentally challenged. she has bad teeth. at 5, she has already had dental surgery and tubes placed in her ears. all of her problems are traced back to her mothers problems.

[fmb]

My brother is a foster parent to a five year old whose birth mother was a meth addict. The young boy is a little hyperactive and he has a few, small issues. Fortunately, I think he'll be okay. My brother and his wife are adopting him; the adoption process should be completed this coming Tuesday.

In the US, pregnant women do wind up in prison; mostly, the kids are placed with other family members. The use of ankle bracelet monitoring in the US is a relatively recent adoption. In my state (South Carolina), ankle monitoring has been available for a few years.

I don't believe prison is any place for a child to be, even if this practice allows the child and mother to be together.

[Abbylicious]

Originally Posted by jrmcg

i can answer the crack baby question. weve adopted one. her mother was a crackhead while she was pregnant with her. emily is five right now and currently laying beside me on the couch. shes in kindergarten and struggling very badly. every night we go over her word list and 2 seconds later, she forgets what she just said. she is developmentally challenged. she has bad teeth. at 5, she has already had dental surgery and tubes placed in her ears. all of her problems are traced back to her mothers problems.

I think that's awesome of you actually, and I've actually been considering adoption myself as opposed to having kids of my own. (After I'm to the point where I'm married and ready to be a parent anyway)

[joerockhead]

Bravo to you and your families for doing something that has to be very difficult.

[jrmcg]

we had 2 girls before. emily was one of them. we fostered them for a year. they finally went back home. their mom had another one in the meantime, which made 3. they were eventually taken from her again, and we were asked to take all 3. so we did.
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