Giving Birth Behind Bars

However, this program is the exception rather than the rule. The half a dozen or so residential parenting programs across the nation are controversial. Some are not convinced that prisons are an acceptable place for toddlers; funding for these programs, as for prisons in general, is limited. Competition to be placed in the programs creates rifts within communities and many people feel that “if you do the crime, you should do the time.” But as the number of women in prisons increases, leaving behind young children on the outside and giving birth on the inside, the ones that really may be paying are the children. And as a new generation of at-risk children are born, it is unlikely the prison rates will go down any time soon.

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