In the United States, opportunities for prison moms to see their children exist on a smaller scale. The majority of the mothers cited in the DOJ study reported never having had a personal visit from their children since their admission to state prison.
In the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women at St. Gabriel, Louisiana, one of the largest prisons for women in the country, some 75 percent of the prison's nearly 1,000 inmates are mothers. The institution has a program that allows them to spend Saturday or Sunday afternoons with their children. Other states and institutions are experimenting with similar programs to foster the mother/child bond.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons operates the Mothers and Infants Together (MINT) program for pregnant inmates. Though not all pregnant inmates qualify, many do and are able to spend three months prior to delivery and two months after the birth in a halfway house facility. There, the women learn improved parenting skills and form bonds with their newborns, who are placed with relatives when their mothers return to serve our their sentences.
A few states offer programs where newborns can stay with qualified mothers for varying lengths of time. In California for example, female inmates selected as fit mothers can live together with young children in small community-based facilities.
Louisiana Correctional Institute for women warden Johnnie Jones has been on the job since 1978. He believes that allowing children to spend more time inside the prison could be a good thing.
"I think it would be good," he told Ultimate Explorer. "The reason why I think it would be good is because if you had the women and children here it would be more like a family setting, as opposed to a prison."
The idea has its own challenges as well. Many of the incarcerated mothers were not model parents before they ran afoul of the law. Drug and alcohol abuse are common problems, and only 64 percent of the women in the DOJ study reported living with their children just prior to incarceration.
Some of the incarcerated mothers Ling spoke with generally affirmed that while visits were welcome, "prison is no place for kids." Others were distraught over the unclear fate of children living on the outside.
While these issues are debated, the children suffer. One thing that many people agree upon is that more should be done to be sure that kids with mothers behind bars get the care that they deserve.
"You know prisons, they don't operate in isolation," Jones told Ultimate Explorer. "They operate within a political setting, you see, and what is politically expedient or more acceptable, that's generally what we do. If the community will start clamoring about making provision for women in prison and their children, something will be done about it."
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