The Rights of Children of Women in Prison Custody

A GNA Feature by Becky Collins

Accra, July 19, GNA - The United Nations Convention on the rights of the child as well as relevant documents relating to child welfare and development contain elaborate provisions for promoting and protecting the rights of all children.

The 1992 Constitution of Ghana also has it enshrined in Chapter 5 the fundamental human rights and freedom to all persons which also includes children. It is also stated Article 25 (1) of the Constitution that all persons shall have the right to equal educational opportunities and facilities.

With the existence of all these provisions on the rights of children, one is tempted to ask: Do children of prisoners in prison have access to such opportunities and facilities? If the answer is no, then this constitutes a violation of their rights.

Children born before their mothers were admitted into prison custody are allowed to stay with their mothers in prison.

Clause Nine of Prison Regulations of 1958 provides that "the child of a female prisoner may be received into prison with its mother until it has, in the opinion of the Medical Officer, been weaned" which is between 18 months and 24 months.

Again children born while their mothers are serving their jail terms are delivered in health facilities outside the prison and are later taken back to the prisons if no relative is ready to take custody of the baby.

The Constitution of the country had it that the state shall direct its policy towards ensuring that every citizen has equality of rights, obligations and opportunities before the law.

The question again is whether children of females prisoners in prison can be said to have the same rights and opportunities as any other children, considering the peculiar conditions they are compelled to live in with their mothers in prison.

The laws of Ghana provide for situations where a person in prison custody must be covered by valid warrants but these children are not covered by any warrant.

Section 2 of the Children's Act, 1998, Act 560 provides that "the best interest of the child shall be paramount in any matter concerning the child.

The best interest of the child shall be the primary consideration by any court, person, institution or other body in any matter concerned with a child".

Considering the above Act, it may sometimes be in the best interest of the child to be kept with the mother in prison especially where there are no suitable options to ensure the protection of the child. If that is the situation then the Government has the responsibility of providing the children with the facilities like mother and baby units, cr=E8che and nurseries and creating an enabling environment whilst in prison custody with the mother.

Currently, the Government's budgetary allocation to the Prison Service does not cater for the children of women in prison. And that is a violation of the rights of the child who through no fault of his/her finds himself/herself in such a situation.

They constitute a challenge to the Prison Service; stress on limited prison resources as they are made to sleep in limited prison cells with other prisoners; eat the ration meant for older prisoners; unsuitable environment for child growth; additional responsibility for Prison Officers and also miss their pre-school education.

The children rely on the assistance and donations from religious and charitable organizations and sometimes the female Prison Officers have to make some sacrifices to make sure that they are fed. These children after the Prison Service had managed to take them out of the prisons to the Social Welfare Department or to relatives they are faced with stigmatisation by the public and difficulties of readjustment.

One would like to plead with her Lordship, Chief Justice Georgina Wood to take a critical look at using other existing options to custodial sentencing like the use of suspended sentences and temporary release when sentencing pregnant women.

The problem of children of women in prison should be seen, as one that affects society generally, since the prison is a unit of society. Solutions to the problem must be looked at holistically and dispassionately so as not to create a situation where childbirth and child caring would become avenues for escaping justice after having committed an offence.