Letters to the Editor
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"Anytime a mother gets imprisoned it's obviously a lose-lose-lose situation for mother, baby and society at large."
So...what then?
Women who are mothers should get a free pass for crimes? Mothers should never be incarcerated?
And isn't the incarceration of fathers also a losing situation for all? Oh, I forgot - fathers are irrelevant and unnecessary.
And how exactly is jailbird Mommy a "lose" situation for baby?
Perhaps laws should be enacted where, depending on the mother's crime, the baby should be put up for adoption. Then the baby can be raised by a decent, law-abiding family.
It may sound harsh for a mother to lose a child - but being a parent is a privilege, not a right.
If you abuse yourself, your child and your community by committing crimes - then you forfeit the right to raise someone in this world.
The world would be a lot better off this way!
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Insane
I have to ask the question: is there any case of young children being allowed (or required!) to live with their *father* behind bars?
The policy seems beyond wacky to me; why can't grandparents (or an un-incarcerated father) care for these children outside of prison?
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Motherhood Worship
I hate to say it, but on this one, the men's rights guys have it nailed. Why no kids with their dads in the joint?
I can see it for nursing moms, and a baby can't tell a jail from a playpen (a baby jail that all my kids hated loudly and famously). But once a year or so old, there is no rational reason to put babies in jail. Other than motherhood worship.
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There already is a time off discount for having a vagina, and a time off discount for having birthed a baby
In this country in fact, it's RECENTLY been proposed that women should not be incarcerated because most of their troubles began with a man. Woohoo! Vagina power!
http://glennsacks.com/blog/?p=1588
And in this country in fact, good, unincarcerated fathers have not always been given the kids and there is recent legislation to place kids in prison with mom even when dad is present.
http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/47840
As usual, Glenn Sacks is way ahead of you gals on this, and if you were to read him, you could stay up with the rest of us, instead of slowing us down.
Please do try to keep up girls, no dilly dallying, musn't straggle, these issues are too important to have them delayed while you get your nails done.
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I'm torn. Anytime a father gets imprisoned it's obviously a lose-lose-lose situation for father, baby and society at large.
Hey Carol, do you agree that "Anytime a father gets imprisoned it's obviously a lose-lose-lose situation for father, baby and society at large"?
How can you reconcile the two statements:
I'm torn. Anytime a mother gets imprisoned it's obviously a lose-lose-lose situation for mother, baby and society at large.
I'm torn. Anytime a father gets imprisoned it's obviously a lose-lose-lose situation for father, baby and society at large.
?
Norman coordinate.
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Any REAL mother would NOT want her baby in jail with her!
Remember how Solomon determined who was the "real" mother of the disputed baby in the Bible story?
He proposed to cut the baby in half...and the woman who objected, handing the baby over to the other woman so that he'd stay alive, was obviously the real mom!
Any woman who understands that if you do the crime, you must do the time, and has even a modicum of knowledge of what life behind bars is like, will gladly (if reluctantly) turn her baby over to relatives or foster care, so the kid can have some kind of "normal" life while mom serves her sentence and hopefully rehabilitates herself so she CAN be a good mother after her debt to society is paid.
And yes...this applies to dads as well.
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More than likely...single Moms
Women in Mexico are frequently in for crimes that are non-violent. There are prostitutes, petty theft, mules (willing and unwilling), etc. I know of a woman in Zihautanejo that got five years in prison for passing a counterfeit 200 peso bill (about $20.50 US). She wasn't accused of counterfeiting, just passing on a bad bill.
If she was a single Mom, should her child be shipped to an orphange? Let alone given up for adoption?
Also, here in Mexico, you will find many fewer "single Dads". Maybe it's a cultural thing but if it happens, his parents, family are more likely to help. If he's married, his wife will take care of the kid. Single mom's have a rougher road to hoe and not as many options.
BTW, the women's prisons here are scary, but NOT compared to the men's facilities. Gang violence, brutal behavoir, etc. would make most fathers I know not inclined to want their children to be around.
The women that would accept their kids to be in prison with them know that the alternatives are worse.
It sucks for everyone.
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"Required" is no good
Well, yeah--"motherhood worship" may also be just a teeny bit behind policies that discourage birth control and abortion, no? That's what happens when you care more about "motherhood" than mothers, not to mention children. The problem is when one course of action is required in all cases. Not all women should be parents. GOD, obviously. Don't think you're going to see many straw-feminists arguing this one, sorry!
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But just one more thing
The world is a depressingly imperfect, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad place. So in some cases, jail with mom is better than a tenement with grandma or dad. Particularly if mom isn't going to be in jail longer than the period of time during which the child can stay with her. In SOME cases. My problem is with the one-fits-all approach that seems to be in play here.
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US Approach
The US approach to incarcerated women and their children is no better. Here we separate the mothers and the children right away and often send these children to foster care where they live, often, in abusive, neglected, and cramp conditions. Many times, these kids never make it out of the foster care system and many times lose contact with their mothers.
Allowing mothers and their children to stay together in prison is meant to keep that early and important bond between mother and child strong and help ensure that they stay connected as the child leaves the prison. Foster care for its part, is meant to take care children- temporarily- who parents truly can't for what ever reason. Despite the major downsides to both, the point is that both ideas in principle are good ones but in practice, however they don't necessarily end up being good ideas. Our societies at large have done little to actually make these options safe and positive.
The answer? An end to the the prison industrial complex and the creation of a real system of rehabilitation for women who have made mistakes or have major problems in their lives, where they can keep their kids with them, safely. And, if that fails, a foster care system, that truly protects and nurtures children who should not be anywhere near their mothers for one reason or another or just need a safe and mostly temporary place to be while them mother gets help. Making sure this happen is up to us a society as a whole to fight for.