South African babies are jail inmates

In one Johannesburg prison there are 27 toddlers locked behind bars. The only crime they're guilty of is being born to a mother who broke the law and was jailed.

They are South Africa's littlest inmates, doing time with mom. For them, home is the cold, dark corridors and cells of the Johannesburg Female Correctional Facility.

Prisons around the world struggle with the question of whether female inmates should raise their babies behind bars. In South Africa, women are allowed to serve time with their children.



In the Johannesburg Female Correctional Facility, newborns are housed with their mothers in a hospital wing in a separate section of the facility.

But experts have concerns about what effect growing up in jail -- where the high walls, razor wire and isolation are intimidating even for an adult -- has on the babies.

Locking children away behind bars is not good for them, says Sisakele Zwane, who runs the overcrowded women's prison.

"It's not a nice thing. The correctional facility is not conducive to the growth of a human being, so for the children that are growing inside the correctional facility it is not a good thing at all," she said.

Authorities in South Africa face a dilemma. They know the mothers need to bond with their babies so they try to make the prisons child friendly.

But they're also aware that raising a child behind prison walls isn't ideal and insist that mothers send their children away -- to stay with family or go into foster care -- when they turn two.

Many inmates, though, have no choice but to keep their child with them. Some are foreigners, others are alone in the world and many just can't bear to send their baby away.



One inmate, Moipane Nkwana, was pregnant with her fifth child, a much longed for baby boy, when she was jailed for fraud.

"He is the only boy, with two sets of twins, girls ... I am in prison with a boy baby -- why now?" she said. "At the end of the day you don't have answers, you just have to take the challenges and move on."

Nkwana and her child cannot move on just yet. They're confined to their tiny cell at night and she says her son's life, like her own, is defined by the strict routines of prison life.

Mother and son have to do things such as line up every morning for roll call and obey the commands of the officers.

Nkwana says it's a depriving experience for her son. "The child doesn't understand the outside world," she said.


WTF is up with South Africa?

 

Crime prevention at its best, nah in all honesty the probably dont have a sophisticated adoption system and who else is going to look after them ? Guess its better then leaving them on the streets to fend for themselves, poor bastards never got a good start.

 

The babies will grow up to become socially isolated.

This is a spin off, of 'Harry Harlow's social isolation experiment', only with humans, and a fraction more of social interaction.

 

Whats the source?

 

Where else would they be placed at??

With their mothers is the best but not the ideal solution. Either that or let them fend for themselves on the streets. At least in jail they get 3 square meals and a roof over their head. Something that many S. Africans out free don't have.

 

Well that's not a very good place for children to be raised, probably increases their chance of becoming criminals by a lot.

 

like others have said...though it seems like an ugly situation, would it be any better on the outside?

South africa isnt the greatest place. There is a very very very small chance that anyone else on the outside would volunteer to bear the burden of someone else's children when they probably cannot care for their own in the first place. In fact, they probably cannot even take care of themselves...hence the reason the mother broke the law I am sure. If the toddlers are not suffering in prison, they will be suffering outside. Except in prison, they have their mother.

 

Source to this? I mean it doesn't surprise me a place such as South Africa would do this, but i'd like some confirmation.

Also as others have said, it is essentially the lesser of 2 evils here. They either fend for themselves in the outside world, or stay on the inside. It's a grim choice either way.

 

The kids are too young to know any different and of course it is important for younger kids to be around their mother. The only negative things are that the kids will most likely be slow because they miss out on the first few years of their life where everything is a new experience to them.

 

The only thing this will do is raise the children to act like inmates.

You guys should research Zimbardo, He had a famous experiment just like this.

 

It's more important for the child to have a healthy upbringing, not being stuck in a prison cell for years of it's life. Regardless of whether they have their mother or not.