Maternal imprisonment, the impact on children's psychology and high costs

The large number of mothers serving sentences for nonviolent and relatively minor crimes should be terminated and community women's centers should be used, according to research - republished by the Guardian - which found that parent-child separation may increase the risk of exploitation. children and cost dearly even for an individual case.

A report by Counting the Cost of Maternal Prison has looked at the impact of mothers' incarceration on both themselves and their children and, for the first time, calculated the financial cost.

One of the cases involved a mother who was convicted of drug possession in order to promote them. This led her child to enter an institution from which she is at high risk of escaping. The cost of the mother incarcerating and caring for her child while incarcerated was almost 265.000 XNUMX.

The impact

Along with the despair that mothers feel about violent separation from their children, the impact on their children can include school exclusion, suicide attempts, increased vulnerability to exploitation, mental health problems, and youth crime.

Unfortunately, the Ministry of Justice does not collect comprehensive data on how many women prisoners have children or the number of children affected. It is estimated that this number reaches 17.000 children each year in England and Wales.

Only 4% of the prison population are women. The majority of women are imprisoned for non-violent crimes. In 2020, 72% of women were jailed for non-violent offenses and 70% were sentenced to less than 12 months in prison.

Some mothers hid from social services that they had children when other family members cared for them, fearing that employees would send their children to institutions.

The research includes interviews with mothers who have been in prison, adults describing their long-term impact from their mother's imprisonment during childhood, and various professionals and charities working with women in prison.

The report also conducted the first comprehensive survey of the public's attitude towards maternal imprisonment.

More than half of a nationally representative sample of 2.573 adults surveyed in August 2021 said funds earmarked for 500 new women's prisons should be used to support more women with community sentences and three-quarters said children separated from their incarcerated mothers should be provided with counseling support.

in.gr