Babies and toddlers are living with their mums in prison. We need to look after them better

We don't have much information on how spending time in an adult prison affects a child's later development. From shutterstock.comWomen are going to prison at a higher rate than ever in Australia. Our tough sentencing policies sent women to prison at twice the rate of England and Wales in 2018. At least one in two imprisoned women in Australia has a history of mental illness, and/or abuse as a child. Indigenous women are over-represented in prisons. They make up more than one-third of Australia’s female prisoner population, but only 3% of our female population as a whole. Read more: As we imprison more adults, what’s happening to the children? One in two imprisoned women are mothers, and 5-10% are pregnant. They desperately

From http://theconversation.com/babies-and-toddlers-are-living-with-their-mums-in-prison-we-need-to-look-after-them-better-117170

from
https://healthnews010.wordpress.com/2019/05/17/babies-and-toddlers-are-living-with-their-mums-in-prison-we-need-to-look-after-them-better/