preview

The Pros And Cons Of The Separation Of Children In Prisons

Good Essays

According to statistics made available by the Ministry of Justice in March, “there are about 200,000 children with a father or mother in prison – more than three times the number of children in state care” (Vallely, 4). So what happens to all these children with parents behind bars? Researchers, psychologists, and parents alike have begun to analyze a new solution that has been implemented in many places around the world that attempts to address the many issues that may come out of separating a child from his/ her mother. This solution they have come up with is keeping a child in prison with their mother anywhere from a couple months like in a number of prisons in the United States to six years like in Mexico City. There have been both pros …show more content…

Mentioned earlier was the fact that Mexico City requires children to stay with their mothers in prison and that is true no matter the crime that was committed. A mother currently in a jail in Mexico City is Cecilia Nava Lopez and she is in on charges of causing her stepchild’s death, but even still she is allowed to keep her child that is alive, with her in her cell. The logic behind these laws simply does not make sense when we say we put criminals away to get them away from the general population, but then the justice system decides to allow the most vulnerable part of our population to live inside the prisons with them. Overall my point is not that all women in jail are violent offenders that would hurt children, but rather that there are some that are and without children being safely separated from the general prison population there is no reason we should allowing children to be in direct harms way. Besides from lack of nurturing and potential danger, the last point that I will make regards the children’s health.
The third and final point worth making before I refute arguments made by those in favor of these programs is that in jail inmates lack proper healthcare and when you bring in …show more content…

The fact that children have a calming effect on the world around them is true, but they should never be used and possibly abused for that reason. Another argument for children to stay with their mothers comes from Tessa Baradon, a manager of a parent infant project. She says that there is “no “good” time to separate a mother and her baby” (Gale Group). Although she does say that some times are worse than others, the definition of attachment theory in psychology suggests that, “infants need to establish a relationship with at least one primary caregiver in order to ensure healthy social and emotional development” (Hansen- Weaver). This means that even though there may not be a good time to separate a baby and his/her mother, the attachment that a child makes does not have to be to its biological mother, but it could rather be to whatever

caregiver is going to be responsible for that child for a large majority of his/her life. Although this debate could continue on, the pro side focuses on the benefits for the mother rather than the harmful effects on the child and that is reason enough to be against

Get Access