Hellobee Boards

I think it depends on the circumstances. If the mother has only a year, or even 18 months left on her sentence and wants to keep the kid then I think it would be nice if there was a way she could do that. It seems like at that age the baby wouldn't really know the difference between prison and a home. But if she's going to be there for 3 years or 5 years... maybe the child should stay with relatives or in foster care.

If we had a prison environment similar to that in, say, Norway, I wouldn't see a problem. The issue is with the American prison culture, and the setting in which we (rarely and poorly) support and rehabiliate prisoners, and not necessarily with a young child being suitably raised behind bars. Of course, if the mother in question was unstable and dangerous, an alternative situation would clearly be a better fit. But yanking a child from a currently sober woman imprisoned for drug possession seems barbaric to me.