More resources for incarcerated mothers and their children

In the March 13 op-ed “Criminal justice reform: A women’s issue” by Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) and Holly Harris, what happened to not even a mention of the more than 10,000 women who are pregnant at time of their sentencing? What about the 10,000 children born every year to incarcerated mothers?

{mosads}Women who are pregnant at time of sentencing, some shackled during labor, often spend as little as 24 hours with their babies before the newborns are removed to extended family or the foster care system. As someone born inside the walls of a women’s prison — to a mother I never got to know — I know the trauma and issues associated with broken attachments that lingered through my childhood and into my adult life.

Babies born in prison often enter the world with any combination of fetal addictions, psychological trauma and other developmental issues as I carried. As soon as these children emerge from the cradle into public space — through public healthcare, education, social and community services or legal systems — they become more than statistics. They become ours.

Prison nurseries are an under-utilized but effective resource for incarcerated women with infants. Women at the Ohio Reformatory for Women are able to spend up to three years in the nursery with their prison-born babies, and their rate of recidivism is just three percent.

I’ve spoken for many years as an advocate for awareness and change within prison systems all over the country. I’ve met with judges, criminal lawyers, social workers, child-welfare specialists, parenting experts and prison staff. Most agree: Prison doesn’t serve pregnant women well.

Women in prison aren’t a constituency with voting or economic power, and it’s difficult to engage the public to become their advocates. The key is to reframe the issue to engage child advocates — social workers, educators, healthcare experts, even religious leaders, even the courts — to bend the ear of legislators on this social and moral imperative.

It’s time to demand more resources for incarcerated mothers and their children. Change won’t come until the public speaks up — until we make enough noise for not only reform for women in prison, but also specifically for mothers who are pregnant at the time of their sentencing, and their babies born behind walls.

From Deborah Jiang-Stein, executive director, unPrison Project, Minneapolis, Minn.

Safety calls for Trump to take third swing at travel ban

If the Trump administration takes a third swing at rewording the executive order banning travel of refugees and immigrants to the United States from six countries, I would hope it would be broadened to include any country in the world that is a failed state. Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen certainly fit this
criterion.

If we go this route though, let’s do it post haste. Under ever-increasing U.S. military pressure, the ISIS caliphate is bound to implode. When it does, the West can expect another wave of migrants heading their way. And let’s not fool ourselves: sprinkled in amongst the innocents will be battle-hardened ISIS fighters.

If the court strikes this executive order down as well, the Trump administration should without hesitation defy it. Public safety demands it.

From Jim Eschrich, Lenexa, Kan.