World's Personal Issues: Mini Prisoners

We already know that America has a prison population problem. In 2012, there was about 113,000

women who were either federal or state prison. Recent statics showed that 6.7% of women were in federal prison. We know that prisoners average cost is around $30,000 to $40,000 a year. But what does one do about the cost of a prisoner and their unborn child. It’s an overlooked problem that is common among female prisoners. The cost of a baby in prison is around $24,000 but only 10 states have nursery prisons. These nursery allow the prisoner to keep their babies with them up to the age of 30 month. (Depending on the prison) Many of the prisons support that it is important for the babies to bond with their mother.

In Sociology there was an experiment done with a baby monkey. The baby monkey was put in a cage with two robot moms. One of the robot moms had a soft cloth over itself and the other mom had a feeding bottle. In the experiment it was concluded that the baby monkey attached itself to the cloth mom and would only go the non-cloth mom to retrieve food. In conclusion it is shown that nature and nurture are equivalent to each other.

So these babies need to form a bond with an adult that should be there for their childhood. It is best to encourage bonding with the mother as soon as the baby is born because it could go through unstable emotions and could affect their basic social skills and future. Advocates say it gives the mother incentives to improve their life for their child. Mothers who have been separated from their babies are more like to return to prison.

So what does one do, do we either encourage more states to create nursery prisons. Many would say that this would encourage the poor to commit more crimes to get government help. Or do we just sweep up the babies as soon as their born to a foster home or adoption center. Jim Dwyer, opposes that children should be raised in prisons and even suggest that women should terminate their child because they use them as an excuse to receive a lower sentence. Though it is stated in the article that Dwyer opinion seems a bit racist because he aims his theory toward black mothers.

We should look at what is best for the children. We do not want these kids being influence in prison and repeating the actions of a parent but we can not separate them from their mother. Its a complicated situation that is overlooked and should be fixed in a way that best for the children.