AN ALTERNATIVE FOR INMATE MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN

The children have always paid a price when mothers go to prison. Under the
present system, a baby born to a mother who is in prison is taken away
within hours and is often sent to a relative or a foster parent in a
haphazard method.

In North Carolina, infants face a long separation, given that their mothers
will be incarcerated, on average, for 36 months for nonviolent offenses.
The child will probably experience at least one change in caregiver during
the time his mother is serving her sentence, placing him at risk for
attachment and developmental problems. Later, the child can have trouble
relating, because he has not bonded with any one caretaker and does not
even know the mother when she is released.

There is a high statistical chance that the children will themselves end up
in the criminal justice system. Certainly the separation is one risk factor
to be considered in determining the likelihood of that path. We also know
from studies that the most important brain and social development occur
between birth and age three.

Thus, if we can prevent that separation and provide for a stable, enriched
environment, both mother and child can become productive citizens, instead
of the continuation of generations of involvement in the criminal justice
system.

The mother is often a single parent with substance-abuse problems, and
there are no residential programs with rehabilitation and educational
services to keep inmate mother and child together in our state. For two
years, I and a committee made of professionals in child care, the prison
system, health care providers and researchers have been planning a
nonprofit alternative for mothers in the prison system and their children.
Our planning would not have been possible without the generous support of
Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and the Governor's Crime Commission.

Several other states provide places to reunite mother and child during the
final portions of a woman's sentence. In those states, if a nonviolent
female offender is pregnant and/or has other children, she may be eligible
for admission into a community nonprofit facility where her children will
live with her. In North Carolina, as many as 20 women with up to 40
children could be housed in a residential facility.

The number of women held in North Carolina's eight correctional facilities
for female offenders - 2,005 inmates in 2000 - has more than doubled in the
past decade. Approximately 13 percent of North Carolina's female offenders
are pregnant when admitted into prison. Of these, more than 4 percent, or
about 80 offenders, deliver their babies annually while incarcerated. The
number of babies born during their mothers' incarceration is likely to
increase as the population of female inmates is projected to exceed 2,600
by 2009. Many of the fathers play little or no role in the lives of their
children, thus we will also provide non-residential services to the father
to strengthen the family.

For inmates who participated in community prisoner mother/child programs in
other states, the recidivism rate is 10 percent compared to 40 percent in
the general population of prison inmates, indicating a significant
reduction in recidivism by the program. The high success rate of the other
similar programs speaks volumes about how valuable this type of program
would be to North Carolina.

If kept together, mother and child would be less expensively housed in a
nonprofit facility than in a prison facility, and they would be more
efficiently treated. Currently, alternative caregivers in North Carolina
receive welfare assistance totaling between $2,652 and $3,780 per child per
year; therefore, the state might retain some of these dollars if children
are placed in a community prisoner mother/child program. The average cost
to taxpayers to house a pregnant female offender is approximately $24,200 a
year.

The program would be set up as a national pilot from which others can
learn. At this time, there is a limited body of research on children of
incarcerated parents; thus, as a demonstration project, its findings would
have the potential to add to this research. The findings will be reported
and disseminated to various groups working in the field to allow for the
program's replication.

North Carolina will not provide monetary support for the project with the
exception of the per-diem per inmate on an annual basis. We hope to raise
$3.4 million in private funds over the next two years to construct a
facility, and we have one community initiative in place in collaboration
with Yarns Etc. We are also looking to federal resources.

This program is one of those efforts that can salvage the lives of children
by preventing the potential they are born with from withering away in
poverty and emotional turbulence. It will also lead to a safer, more stable
environment for all our communities.

State Sen. Ellie Kinnaird is a staff attorney for N.C. Prisoner Legal
Services, and practices family law for inmates, largely visitation between
children and their parents. A copy of a public policy report on the program
is temporarily available at www4.ncsu.edu/~cwarren/mcpp_report.html. For
information on the project's Chapel Hill fund-raiser, go to www.yarnsetc.com.