Oklahoma Nesties
Dannyand Allison
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Jail babies
I was up late last night finishing up final papers and watched a documentary over babies born in jail to mothers who were incarcerated for non-violent and violent crimes. The non-violent mothers were incarcerated for 18 months or more for drugs, prostitution, and petty theft (like stealing formula from CVS). The violent mothers were incarcerated for murder, gang related shootings, etc. The mothers had to apply to stay in the maternity wing. There was a list of requirements an inmate had to meet such as, no violent outbursts since the start of their sentence. If they were denied they had 24 hours with their baby and it was either released to the families care or put into the foster system. If they were granted stay into the maternity wing they could stay and raise the baby in the "open" cell area with other moms. These babies never come into contact with other inmates who aren't in the maternity wing. What do you think about this? Do you think mothers shouldn't be allowed to raise babies in jail? Do you think do the crime, do the time? No matter what? Do you think mothers should be given a second chance because the baby didn't do anything wrong and needs time to bond with its' mother? Special snowflake?
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Re: Jail babies
I am all about moms who are non-violent offenders raising their babies, particularly if the sentence is relatively short. Otherwise you miss out on some great bonding time. There's a National Geographic Taboo special about moms in India raising their children behind bars. In some instances, the moms have been there for years without a trial. There are playgrounds and classrooms, etc. (so it's not like the kids are in a cell with their moms) but at age 5, the kids have to leave. I think that would almost be rougher than never having known mom at all.
I imagine that raising kids behind bars would reduce recidivism for adult non-violent offenders.
Oklahoma definitely has to do something (See this: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2044089,00.html)
In fact, I think diversion programs, like the Women in Recovery program mentioned in the article (more here: http://newsok.com/women-in-recovery-program-in-tulsa-succeeding-with-treatment-instead-of-punishment/article/3522965) are FAR better alternatives for nearly all persons who have drug related offenses, not just parents.
I saw this documentary and found it amazing. I have heard of this in the past but watching a special put a different perspective on the issue.
I think it's a good idea to allow the mothers in jail a chance to raise their babies. From the links 5thofJuly posted, it sounds like many of the women had poor parenting examples growing up and in turn have poor parenting skills of their own. Jail may offer these women a safe environment free of drugs, abusive boyfriends, and peer pressure from "bad" groups of friends in which they can learn how to be raise a child. Maintaining their child-raising privileges seems like a powerful motivator to be on good behavior and perhaps learn new life skills to be able to provide for their children once the women are released from jail.