An occupational perspective on infants behind bars

Abstract

ABSTRACTInfants up to two years of age residing with their incarcerated mothers in South African prisons experience a restrictive environment with limited resources and opportunities for learning, playing, and interacting, with potential impact on their development. As a result, special Mother Baby Units were introduced by the Department of Correctional Services in 2011. This study sought to describe the current Mother Baby Units as the context for occupational participation of infants, and to describe the mothers’ perceptions of the effect of this environment on the health, well-being, and normal development of their infants. Using a descriptive qualitative methodology, data were gathered in three different facilities. Observational checklists were used to assess the environments and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 mothers. Themes were identified using content analysis of data and revealed a situation of occupational injustice, with factors inherent to the correctional environments depriving infants of opportunities for optimal occupational participation. Despite identifying many hindering factors, mothers reported that these living arrangements provided them the opportunity to engage in vital mothering co-occupations. From an occupational perspective, we recommend revision of policies to provide infants with an environment more representative of the outside world, while affording them the opportunity to live with their mothers, albeit in prison.