Women in Prison

[Stan]

(Posted and written by a friend of mine on Facebook"

 

"Please pray for my forgiveness and for my unborn child." (A common prayer request we receive from our inmate sisters)

Being newly incarcerated is challenging on many levels but particularly for expectant mothers, and especially if they're in Maximum security. The first question they ask after entering prison is "What do I do with my baby?" It's a tough question to deal with and there aren't any easy answers.
Here's a few scenarios. After birth at a local hospital, a family member or a friend will assume care of the baby until mom is released. This isn't a great solution if they live far away, and many do. Canada is a big place with relatively few federal prisons scattered throughout the country. In a system like this mothers often find themselves incarcerated in institutions far from home. Visitations would be a rare event, if they occur at all.
Alternatively, a family can volunteer to take care of the child, or Social Services can intervene and shuttle the baby into the foster care system. This isn't a great solution either.
Many of these young moms are very familiar with the foster care system, having been bounced from one home to another themselves as they grew up. Tales of abuse are not uncommon and they'd hate to see their child experience the same thing. Their reluctance is understandable.
What about breastfeeding? Moms must express their milk and pass it on to the caregiver, which, again, is fine if they live close by. Infants taken out of town, however, must go straight to formulas. Anything but ideal for the infant.
The situation is somewhat rosier for those moms in Minimum security. Theoretically, they are allowed to keep their babies with them in prison and care for them until their kids attain the age of two or three. But because of prison overcrowding, or individual warden preferences, this doesn't always happen.  
Justice must be served of course, and inmates must do their time, including young mothers. But I can't help but conclude that the most innocent among us, the most vulnerable of us all, our infants, end up being punished along with their mothers. While the mom languishes in jail, counting the days of confinement, marking them off on the wall of her cell so to speak, is her infant, in some faraway town, doing the same on the side of the crib?
Yes, we can blame the moms. That's easy to do. It's easy to do until you actually meet them and hear their stories and see what forces ushered them down the wrong road which ultimately led them to their current predicament. 
No, blaming doesn't help. What IS the best solution? Don't know. But I think it begins, as it always does, by reaching out, walking together, sharing the journey, step by agonizing step, as much as the situation allows. Isn't that what He does with us?
God bless them all! And may God bless the child not yet born, regardless of how and where he/she enters this world.

30July2016 EIFW
(Edmonton Institute For Women)