The Inmate World (141)

The Inmate World
Author’s Name:
Institutional Affiliation:
Prison birth
The pregnant prisoners who give birth while incarcerated are separated from their babies almost immediately after giving birth. After delivery, usually, the incarcerated mother will be allowed 24 hours with the baby in the hospital and then be separated from the infant. Upon separation, the infants can either be given to relatives or placed in foster care. Their mothers are then taken back to jail or prison. This is not fair treatment because such a separation will devastate both the infant and the mother. It is a violation of the basic human rights as well as a constitutional violation.
Infants that are separated from their mothers may experience severe behavioral and emotional problems in the future. Such problems may include low self-esteem, problems with handling life stressors, and problems with social relationships among peers. The mothers may experience serious psychological problems after separation. It is a traumatizing experience for them, and it has been proved to increase recidivism rate. There are some correctional facilities that offer prison nursery programs. Though such programs help, there are challenges such as limitations in rehabilitation services and capacities. Correctional facilities should hence come up with better ways of handling prisoners that give birth while incarcerated (Sichel, D. L. (2007).
Housing assignments
Different policies exist when it comes to cellmate assignment in prisons.

Some policy systems allow the inmates to choose their cellmates while other policy systems allow for random allocation of inmates. Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages. In a system where the prisoners are at liberty to choose their cellmates, there is the advantage that inmates will choose cellmates they get along with well. This will reduce cellmate conflicts hence making the prisoners easy to manage. The disadvantage of such a policy system is that inmates choose fellow gang members as cellmates, therefore increasing prison gang rivalry.
A policy system that enforces random inmate paring as its advantages as well as some shortcoming. The advantage of such a system is that inmates are paired with strangers, and therefore, they will hardly be able to cooperate in committing offenses while serving their time. The disadvantage of such a system is there are certain difficulties encountered when determining how to pair inmates. Some inmates are incompatible and will often result in violence and conflicts amongst themselves. Other inmates will also be exposed to torture, sexual abuse and mistreatment by their cellmates when the guards are away (Trammell, R. (2011).
References
Sichel, D. L. (2007). Giving birth in shackles: A constitutional and human rights violation. Am. UJ Gender Soc. Pol’y & L., 16, 223.
Trammell, R. (2011). Symbolic violence and prison wives: Gender roles and protective pairing in men’s prisons. The Prison Journal, 91(3), 305-324.