Nine Babies In Prison

There are nine babies in the country's prisons.

Six female prisoners are also expecting babies in the next few weeks, according to the deputy Director of the Prisons Service, H.O. Korney.

The babies were either born during their mother's incarceration or brought in by their mothers.

"We, as a country, [ ] need to act decisively to spare these vulnerable children the hazards of prison life by introducing sentencing reforms to make the incarceration of expectant mothers and nursing mothers the very last resort," Korney told a conference on child welfare and protection last week.

Korney said the OAU Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child requires State Parties to ensure that a mother shall not be imprisoned with her child. They should also establish and promote alternative measures to institutional treatment of expectant mothers and mothers of infants and young children.

But he said the prison regulations and standing orders allow the child of a female prisoner to be received into a prison and remain until it has been weaned.

After it has been weaned, the baby is released to a relative who is willing and able to receive him or her. The Social Worker (Aftercare Agent) attached to the prison sends the baby to a children's home if the prisoner's relatives fail to come forward. Some mothers fiercely resist the release of their children, he said.

Koney said postnatal care for the mothers and their babies are also pose serious problems to the Prison Service.

In the absence of assistance from relatives or non-governmental organisations, the officer-in-charge uses his/her meager imprest to provide clothing and other necessaries for the babies.

They (babies) require careful attention when they fall sick and their mothers also require additional ration to enable them to nurse their babies properly, he said.

What about pregnant women. How are they cared for in prisons? The expectant mothers are assisted to receive antenatal care from the nearest government hospital until they deliver.

Normally, the children are born in hospital but in very few cases they are born in the prison, and that is when the expectant mothers do not report or show any signs of labour. In such cases, the prison nurse is invited to assist but after delivery, the babies are taken to hospital to be registered and vaccinated. But registering the birth no reference is made to the prison in which the baby was born.

"[ ] under no circumstances can a prison provide safety and the proper emotional environment for children, especially, in our part of the world," Korney pointed out.