Health

B.C. mothers are not allowed to keep their babies in jail

by Amy Judd | August 14, 2008 at 10:09 am

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As reported yesterday on NowPublic, mothers in Ohio prisons are part of a new plan to allow them to keep their children with them in jail.

But mothers in British Columbia, Canada, will not have the same privilege.

Corrections BC has cancelled a plan today that allowed pregnant inmates to keep their newborns with them while they were in jail. Now however, the new babies will have to go to relatives or be placed into the foster care system.

The change, apparently for safety reasons, angered Alison Granger-Brown so much that she left Corrections B.C.

"I perceived they were taking us away from rehabilitation and therapeutic programing and deeper into policy that was more about containment," said Granger-Brown, a social worker within the prison system.

She said there were obvious benefits to the program of mothers nursing and bonding with their babies.

But there was an added bonus: Other women in the Alouette Correctional facility connected with the children.

"Women didn't use bad language around the children. They were gentle," she said. "It just changed the culture."

Former inmate Jennifer Smith, 24, said if it wasn't for the program allowing her to keep her daughter, Sierra, she would likely be back on drugs.

"She wouldn't be here with me. I wouldn't be where I am. I would probably be out using still," Smith said.

"Because if she was taken from me from the beginning I would miss that bond."

The fact that the staff lacked the training to care for the babies seems to be a key decision for the plan to be cancelled.

"If something went wrong and we didn't respond appropriately, we just couldn't risk putting an infant in that situation."

No other province allows women to keep their babies in jail, and prisons in BC are working on a program instead that will allow the mothers visiting rights with their children for a few hours a day, but it may not be enough of an incentive to keep the mothers from re-offending.