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A prison celebration of Mothers' Day

By Douglas A. Berman

This AP article, headlined "Nursery programs allow imprisoned moms, newborns to bond," is fitting for the day. Here is an excerpt:New York has had prison nurseries for more than a century; Washington, Ohio, California and Nebraska started ones in recent years, and West Virginia is preparing to launch one, too. The programs come at a time when the nation?s female inmate population is rising. The Bureau of Justice Statistics shows the number of women in prisons and jails jumped from more than 163,000 in 2000 to nearly 210,000 in mid-2006, fueled largely by an increase in drug convictions that carry mandatory sentences. Many of those inmates are mothers who experts say benefit from staying with their children, even if it?s behind bars. The Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, whose nursery program Indiana modeled, has seen 14 of its 128 participants re-offend, an 11 percent recidivism rate compared with the institution?s rate among all inmates of about 30 percent, spokeswoman Elizabeth Wright said...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 11, 2008 (boomark / email).