328 12 Corrections and Prison Practices—Family Forensic*
Feinman (1994) reported that some states have laws which allow the state to deter-
mine whether an incarcerated mother is unfit and to take away her children via a
foster home or adoption. Once again, this creates additional loss for the child.
There are several solutions that could be implemented so that the child will
not have to go through the trauma of enduring the incarceration of one's mother.
Perhaps the most comprehensive is one that permits children to live with their
mothers while in prison for a certain length of time (Feinman, 1994; Jaffe, Pom, &
Wicky, 1997). Jaffe et al, (1997) report that the negative impact of this solution is
that a child will have to experience the prison environment. The children may have
to live in a small cell with their mother under very high levels of stress. Prison life is
very regulated and limits the amount and type of information a child experiences,
therefore placing a limit on the child's growth. The authors report that the mother
is constantly watched and cannot freely care for her child. She also must rely on
the prison to help meet the child's needs. Others opposed to this solution feel that
prison is not a place for raising children and that these youths would learn to become
criminals by associating with their offending mothers (Feinman, 1994). Jaffe et al.
(1997) suggest the positive impact of this solution is that it emphasizes the mother-
child bond and the important part it plays in a developing child. Being with one's
mother is critical for a developing child and having her taken away during the early
years could create some very negative consequences.
Some correctional institutions have implemented programs to allow children
to remain with their incarcerated mothers. In the city of New York, the Legal
Aid Society brought a lawsuit against the Department of Corrections based on the
notion that separating a mother and newborn child is an action of cruel and unusual
punishment under the Eighth Amendment. Apparently, there was a New York State
law which allowed infants to remain in state prisons until the age of 1 year, so the
Legal Aid Society wanted that law applied to the city jail. The court agreed with
this argument, and, since 1985, incarcerated mothers have been allowed to have
their newborn children remain with them in a special area of the jail designed for
such a purpose (Feinman, 1994). The Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New
York has been a model prison for such programs as it was the first women's prison to
implement a nursery for mothers and their infants (Brownell, 1997). Positive results
have been reported in relation to these nursery programs. They decrease tensions
and increase obedience and morale among female inmates. They also affect the staff
in a positive way (Feinman, 1994).
A similar program in Nebraska was implemented in order to decrease the ef-
fects of separation between a mother and her child due to incarceration. Children
younger than 18 months old can remain at the correctional facility with their moth-
ers in a nursery equipped for six infants. The mothers must take prenatal courses,
and other inmates can become involved by babysitting or providing support for the
mothers (Hromadka, 1995).
California also offers incarcerated mothers a chance to remain with their children.
The program is called Mother-Infant Care, and it is offered to minimum-security