Pubdate: Sat, 22 Mar 2003
Source: Chapel Hill News (NC)
Copyright: 2003 Chapel Hill News
Contact:  http://www.chapelhillnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1081
Author: Ellie Kinnaird

AN ALTERNATIVE FOR INMATE MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN

The children have always paid a price when mothers go to prison. Under the 
present system, a baby born to a mother who is in prison is taken away 
within hours and is often sent to a relative or a foster parent in a 
haphazard method.

In North Carolina, infants face a long separation, given that their mothers 
will be incarcerated, on average, for 36 months for nonviolent offenses. 
The child will probably experience at least one change in caregiver during 
the time his mother is serving her sentence, placing him at risk for 
attachment and developmental problems. Later, the child can have trouble 
relating, because he has not bonded with any one caretaker and does not 
even know the mother when she is released.

There is a high statistical chance that the children will themselves end up 
in the criminal justice system. Certainly the separation is one risk factor 
to be considered in determining the likelihood of that path. We also know 
from studies that the most important brain and social development occur 
between birth and age three.

Thus, if we can prevent that separation and provide for a stable, enriched 
environment, both mother and child can become productive citizens, instead 
of the continuation of generations of involvement in the criminal justice 
system.

The mother is often a single parent with substance-abuse problems, and 
there are no residential programs with rehabilitation and educational 
services to keep inmate mother and child together in our state. For two 
years, I and a committee made of professionals in child care, the prison 
system, health care providers and researchers have been planning a 
nonprofit alternative for mothers in the prison system and their children. 
Our planning would not have been possible without the generous support of 
Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and the Governor's Crime Commission.

Several other states provide places to reunite mother and child during the 
final portions of a woman's sentence. In those states, if a nonviolent 
female offender is pregnant and/or has other children, she may be eligible 
for admission into a community nonprofit facility where her children will 
live with her. In North Carolina, as many as 20 women with up to 40 
children could be housed in a residential facility.

The number of women held in North Carolina's eight correctional facilities 
for female offenders - 2,005 inmates in 2000 - has more than doubled in the 
past decade. Approximately 13 percent of North Carolina's female offenders 
are pregnant when admitted into prison. Of these, more than 4 percent, or 
about 80 offenders, deliver their babies annually while incarcerated. The 
number of babies born during their mothers' incarceration is likely to 
increase as the population of female inmates is projected to exceed 2,600 
by 2009. Many of the fathers play little or no role in the lives of their 
children, thus we will also provide non-residential services to the father 
to strengthen the family.

For inmates who participated in community prisoner mother/child programs in 
other states, the recidivism rate is 10 percent compared to 40 percent in 
the general population of prison inmates, indicating a significant 
reduction in recidivism by the program. The high success rate of the other 
similar programs speaks volumes about how valuable this type of program 
would be to North Carolina.

If kept together, mother and child would be less expensively housed in a 
nonprofit facility than in a prison facility, and they would be more 
efficiently treated. Currently, alternative caregivers in North Carolina 
receive welfare assistance totaling between $2,652 and $3,780 per child per 
year; therefore, the state might retain some of these dollars if children 
are placed in a community prisoner mother/child program. The average cost 
to taxpayers to house a pregnant female offender is approximately $24,200 a 
year.

The program would be set up as a national pilot from which others can 
learn. At this time, there is a limited body of research on children of 
incarcerated parents; thus, as a demonstration project, its findings would 
have the potential to add to this research. The findings will be reported 
and disseminated to various groups working in the field to allow for the 
program's replication.

North Carolina will not provide monetary support for the project with the 
exception of the per-diem per inmate on an annual basis. We hope to raise 
$3.4 million in private funds over the next two years to construct a 
facility, and we have one community initiative in place in collaboration 
with Yarns Etc. We are also looking to federal resources.

This program is one of those efforts that can salvage the lives of children 
by preventing the potential they are born with from withering away in 
poverty and emotional turbulence. It will also lead to a safer, more stable 
environment for all our communities.

State Sen. Ellie Kinnaird is a staff attorney for N.C. Prisoner Legal 
Services, and practices family law for inmates, largely visitation between 
children and their parents. A copy of a public policy report on the program 
is temporarily available at www4.ncsu.edu/~cwarren/mcpp_report.html. For 
information on the project's Chapel Hill fund-raiser, go to www.yarnsetc.com.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens