Motherhood in Prison Threats and Opportunities of mothering while incarcerated

Abstract

Purpose of the study: The purpose of this paper is to present sentenced mothers in conditions of penitentiary isolation, according to the polish penal law. Women endure imprisonment much worse than men and have more difficulties adjusting to prison's isolation. Especially those who have children - they are concerned about the future and fate of their children. Polish provisions provide that children can stay in jail before turning 3 in the special "House of the Mother and Child" and let women to take constant and direct child care.
 Methodology: This paper combines two methods: a comparison of legal documents and legal writers' thoughts and author observation of this phenomenon.
 Main findings of the study: Putting children in the House of the Mother and Child in prisons is very controversial. It is hard to say if it is the best option to let the children stay with their mothers in prison. On the one hand it has a positive effect on both the development of the child as well as the social rehabilitation of the mother. The mother also learns to fulfill her parental responsibilities. On the other hand, the opponents of the incarceration of mothers with children claim that a child brought up behind bars will have a permanent memory of this experience.
 Application of the study: The presented research relates to various scientific fields, e.g. criminal law, executive penal law and sociology.
 Originality/Novelty of the study: This study shows that it is important to reconsider, what matters to the futures of babies and to start a new conversation about situation of mothers in prison. There is still a need to collect and analyse the information by both legal practice and legal theory, because it can lead to new solutions in dealing with this group of convicts.