Maternity Care For Women During Prison

The Pocatello women prison is overcrowded, something is wrong with our women. Fair enough, more women are going to jail now, years ago it was unlikely if a woman went to jail. Women were looked on as a mother figure, or caregiver. However, times have changed, and we now have more women committing crimes than men or just as much men. Nevertheless, State prisons are a financial institution and a business, it takes a lots of money to run a functional Prison. Pocattelo need three prisons built in the next five years, costing one hundred and sixty milions dollars. This paper will focus on the state of Idaho and the city of Pocatello prison sitting story problems. I will talk about , , financial issues faced in building a new prison, recidivism rate of women inmates ,education and conclusion.

These women need regular medical surveillance even for the minor things. According to Cynthia Chandler and Carol Kingery, “The dramatic increase in imprisonment in the United States has been accompanied by epidemic rates of HIV among prisoners. Moreover, women currently incarcerated in the U.S. suffer disproportionately higher rates of HIV infection than do free people and male prisoners.” These women need counseling and therapy especially if they have cancer, HIV/ AIDS, or mental illnesses. This neglect can be extremely fetal. Many women have already died because of this; we do not want the numbers to increase. Proper treatment is necessary.

Male prisoners also continue to make up the majority of the prison population. However, women prisoner rates have been on the rise and have exceeded that of male growth rates since 1995. In fact, due to the increase of the women prison population, various issues have arisen which require women to be treated differently from men. Such issues correctional facility’s face because of this increase include program delivery, housing conditions, medical care, staffing, and security (American Corrections, 2016). These problems are in part due to the different social and economic differences women are faced with in prison and while preparing for their release back to society.

Mother Behind Bars examines a lot of inadequate policies and procedures that these states have in place for federal and state correctional facilities. This report card bring up the issue on prenatal care, shackling, prison nurseries, and family based treatment as an alternative to incarceration however in this paper I will focus on the restraints on these pregnant inmates. New Jersey received a grade of D for shackling policies. Besides New Jersey thirty-seven other states obtain a D/F for their failure to comprehensively limit, or limit at all, the use of restraints on pregnant women transportation, labor, delivery, and postpartum recuperation (National Women’s Law Center, 2010). The use of restraints can compromise the health and safety of the women and the unborn child. Shackling pregnant women is dangerous and inhumane; women prisoners are still routinely shackled during pregnancy and childbirth. The reason these women are shackled is for safety and security, despite the fact that shackling pregnant women is degrading, unnecessary and a violation of human rights some state still condone this practice.

The rate of women being incarcerated in prisons has dramatically risen over the last decade. While these women are being locked up for crimes ranging from drug possession to murder, they often come into the prison system with children or pregnant. Nationwide, nearly 2 million children have parents in prison. The number of those with incarcerated mothers is growing rapidly. A recent report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that the number of minors with mothers in prison increased by more than 100 percent in the last 15 years [ (Schwartzapfel, 2008) ]. While some women must give up their children before or after they enter prison, a handful of women get to keep their children. These women serve their sentences at one of nine

The number of women in prison has substantially increased over the last several decades, with a 60 percent rise worldwide. This phenomena is especially apparent in the United States of America, with some states recording rises up to 400 percent over the last thirty years. Despite women only representing 7 percent of the prison population, their incarceration has a major impact on society. With the majority of women in prison being mothers, over one million U.S children are said to be directly affected by these statistics. It is widely recognized that incarcerated mothers and their children represent a high-risk group. Many incarcerated women have or still are experiencing a number of difficulties that may directly or indirectly impact their

Like many other Americans, I too am on the Orange is the New Black bandwagon, albeit a little late. While going through the episodes and without giving away any spoilers I began to have a lot of different thoughts about pregnant inmates, the experience of having a child while incarcerated and where said child ends up. This question ultimately led me to look into prison nurseries. There are currently only 9 states in the US that have a program that resemble a prison nursery, before the 1970’s most female prison facilities provided a form of nursery program for female inmates who gave birth while incarcerated. This topic brings about very strong emotions and firm ideals. A research paper published by William and Mary Law School titled, Jailing Black Babies, written by James G. Dwyer expresses concerns such as violating the infants 14th amendment and the lack of evidence of the benefits that prison nurseries have for the children. Kerstin Pagling notes the economical issues associated with mother and children prison programs. This essay will argue that prison nurseries are an essential human right because they allow for the essential mother-child bond to develop, as well as allow the mother to participate in her own rehabilitation for societal advancement.

(Ferst & Erickson-Owens, 2008) Many of these women were lacking education, had been unemployed or underemployed and were lacking adequate health insurance prior to being incarcerated. (Siefert & Pimlott, 2001) In general, most women enter the prison system with a plethora of physical and emotional obstacles; in addition, the health concerns of pregnancy and childbirth increase the challenges presented to institution medical staff to provide the necessary medical and emotional support that this woman will need. The prison health care system has improved considerably over recent years, especially in the area of women’s health and mental health services, often times due to intervention by health, women and civil rights advocacy groups. (Birth, 2000)

Programs in prisons that are tailored to women’s unparalleled needs would benefit society in the grand scheme of things. On an individual level it could break the cycle of abuse, victimization, and self-loathing. It is essential that the double damage done to female offenders be repaired because they deserve an unbiased chance at a good life. After all, they could represent your mother, aunt, sister, niece, wife and girlfriend. In her book, A woman doing life: Notes from a prison for women, Erin George did a fine job in depicting the life of women during the time they were incarcerated. She also included a light reflection of what life was like before prison and what life could be like after prison. This book included vivid passages of how

The Federal Bureau of Prisons, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, the American Public Health Association, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Bar Association have all outlined minimal standards for pregnancy-related health care in correctional settings, and 34 states have established policies for prenatal care in the United States. Prenatal care for women in jail is shared between the medical staff in the prison and people in the data base. Depending on available resources at the prison, most of the time women have to be transported for prenatal care and delivery. Some states use shackles for security purposes during the transportation, labor, delivery, and postpartum care. Many women

This article is about a program that has been running in jail. This program allows mothers and children to share time together while the mother is serving her sentence. It creates a great starting relationship between the children and the mother, which children need when they are young to continue on their life. It’s been seen by people that by having the presence of a young child or infant in the room full of women prisoners, their behaviour tend to alter. They become more aware of how they act and what they say. There are a few jails currently that offer this program. The facilities are a bit different with this program, with warm coloured walls and daycare like home. Many doctors believe that this is a way that can alter the prisoner's behaviour and prevent more criminal activity from happening again if they have a bright side to look forward to. For example for mothers they want the best for their children and their bright side

The small number of women in jails have resulted in security classifications being mixed together, making it difficult to operate and overcrowding has caused a breakdown of the classification system. We have to recognize that men and women respond differently, men tend to externalize stress, which produces bodily behavior and aggression and women tend to internalize stress, which produces self-harming behavior and create formation of surrogate families while incarcerated; while males may bond as teams, creating. According to “Ten Truths that Matter When Working with Justice Involved Women,” there are ten truths relating to the differences of male and female classification in jails. One, women are a fast-growing criminal justice population, yet they pose a lower public safety risk than men. Two, women

This research paper will focusing on incarcerated female inmates in the US prison system. Mainly the systemacy, environment and also the ills which is hindering its advancement of this sector of the criminal justice system. Also, diving into the diversity, political affiliations etc.

Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women notes that, “the vast majority of the 2000 or so inmates who give birth in American prisons are separated from their babies shortly after birth.” Bedford Hills “is one of the handful of women's prisons that allow some incarcerated moms to keep their newborns with them” while doing their time. “New mothers live with their infant children for up to 18 months” (Brown).

The doctors have to see what drug they are on , but the main reason for the testing is to get see if the women are pregnant or if they have any serious health issues. Once finding out the women are pregnant the prison systems tell the ladies and schedule them a due date. This is good , but the bad thing is they are put in the prison with every other women. One would think since they are pregnant the prison system would separate them but no they do not. Pregnant women have to do every task the other women do. Like cleaning and cooking. The women that are in the clean task might not realize this but they are inhaling toxic chemicals. But this does not happen in every prison. For example there is a prison in Ohio that separates the soon to be mothers from the other inmates. These soon to be mothers are not in the same conditions as the other women. They are in bright colored rooms and they read a lot to get ready for when their baby is born (Leone 12). There are only 5 other states in the united states that have a program like in Ohio (Gormsen 14). Knowing there are only six states that have this program, that means there are forty four states that have pregnant women working in extreme conditions and possibly harming their child because of the prison system .