>>>
Their mothers - mostly Singaporean - were convicted of various offences which carried relatively long jail terms of at least a year. One is in for life. <<
To show Sporns deserve to be replaced by FTrash? To show that FTrash create jobs, not trouble? To please the the Old Fart and distort the truth? Btw, does the definition of Sporn in this report includes PeeR?
=============
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Jailbabes
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Prisons make arrangements for eight tiny tots born in jail during mums' sentence to lead as normal a life as possible </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Teh Joo Lin
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</B>
</TD><TD width=10>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></B>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->BEHIND bars are eight people who have been incarcerated through no fault of their own - and they are all below three years old.
These newborns, infants and toddlers are there because their mothers gave birth during their jail terms, but no one in the family can - or wants to - take care of the babies.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>NOT IDEAL
'The prison is not the place to nurture a child. It is the last resort, and only if all else fails.' - Ms Rafidah, superintendent of Changi Women?s Prison, on bringing up children behind bars
STOP-GAP MEASURE
'They lose a lot of things that other babies have gone through. Over time, it will affect them because they are not exposed to the community. That is why three years is the maximum. We're not a childcare centre.' - Ms Rafidah, on why female prisoners can keep their children born in prison with them up to the age of three
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>So they live with their mothers in their cells, eating and sleeping with them until these women have served their terms or when they hit the age of three - whichever is earlier. </B>
Three years is all the prison will tolerate having a child within its walls. These chilren are then fostered out to give them as normal a life as possible.
Ms Rafidah Suparman, superintendent of the Changi Women's Prison, told The Straits Times: 'The prison is not the place to nurture a child. It is the last resort, and only if all else fails.'
She gave one anecdote to make her point: One baby who spent time in jail was so conditioned by the regime that she tottered to her mother and quietly sat down to be counted when the warden came round to do a headcount.
Ms Rafidah said that, on average, the prisons take in 25 to 26 pregnant inmates every year who give birth while serving their time.
During their pregnancy, the expectant inmates go through antenatal check-ups, eat extra food - two slices of bread and milk twice a day - and take supplements such as folic acid and vitamins. They are also psychologically prepped for childbirth.
The care they get is 'equal' to that received by would-be mothers outside, said Ms Rafidah.
When an inmate is due to deliver, she is sent to the prison's medical ward. But she does not give birth there. Once she shows signs of going into labour, she is taken in an ambulance to the KK Women's & Children's Hospital, under escort, of course.
If the baby is born to a mother with family support, arrangements are made for relatives to pick up the baby from the hospital and care for the child.
These eight babies now in prison have not been so lucky.
Their mothers - mostly Singaporean - were convicted of various offences which carried relatively long jail terms of at least a year. One is in for life.
'These eight are those who have no one to take care of their babies after they gave birth,' Ms Rafidah said.
Common reasons are poverty and strained relationships.
The mothers are given a choice: have the babies fostered out or keep them in jail till they are three. These eight chose to keep their babies with them.
The oldest child in there now is about two years old, the youngest was born about a month ago.
In jail, mothers with babies in tow are segregated from the rest of the prison population in a row of cells, said Ms Rafidah. This is done 'for safety reasons', she added, and to prevent wailing babies from disrupting the lives of other inmates.
For the first six months to a year, each baby lives with his or her mother in a cell of their own. The women - some of them first-time mothers - are taught to care for their infants and breastfeed them.
They are encouraged to do so for at least six months. The babies are also fed milk formula, cereal and porridge, depending on their age.
As they grow older, mother and child may move into a slightly bigger cell - about the size of 21/2 table-tennis tables - that can accommodate three or four pairs of mothers and children.
Visitors would not be able to tell that this is a special part of the prison, until they see the playroom or when the babies start crying.
But the inside of the cell is furnished differently from the rest.
There is a mattress on the concrete floor for the baby to sleep on, along with a baby bolster, pillow and blankets.
There is also a shelf stocked with babycare items such as diapers, milk bottles and baby talcum powder.
Like their mothers, the babies bathe at the back of the cell, but in a baby- sized tub and with baby shampoo.
And yes, they wear baby clothes, said Ms Rafidah, when asked about attire. 'They are not in prison because they committed something,' she added wryly.
The mothers are subject to the same spartan regime that is the hallmark of the Singapore prison management philosophy. This means sleeping on straw mats and wearing uniforms, unless the doctors say otherwise, like for example, if her body is still aching from the birth.
'Their priority is to always look after the baby. We make our expectations known to the mothers: 'You have a commitment to your baby, be it to breastfeed it, read to it or play with it'.'
When mothers are unlocked from their cells for an hour daily, they can go to a 'playroom' where videos like Barney the purple dinosaur are screened. The room is also stocked with soft toys and children's books.
After they give birth, the mothers are monitored to see if they need extra medication. Counsellors also talk to them regularly to find out their needs and look out for signs of depression, which can put the baby's life in danger.
'If the mother somehow becomes very depressed, we may have to step in and make arrangements for the baby to be fostered out,' said Ms Rafidah, who added that the inmate mothers now under her charge are 'generally stable'.
The counsellors also continue - once every three months - to explore ways with the mothers to bring their babies out of prison.
'Maybe the family situation has improved,' she said, relating the case of an inmate whose sister returned to Singapore from overseas and took over the care of the baby after less than a year.
According to a 2005 report by the Quaker United Nations Office (Quno), Singapore is not the only country to allow children in prisons with their mothers.
The age limit though, varies considerably: from a year, in Sweden and Malta, to six years in Spain and Pakistan. In British prisons, babies up to 18 months old live with their mothers.
Very few countries ban babies from being brought up in prison. Just two weeks ago, a prison in Canada stopped allowing women who gave birth in jail to keep their babies in their cells. This was because the authorities felt that they could not guarantee the safety of the babies.
According to the report by Quno, which is a non-governmental organisation, a key concern of this practice was the adverse impact of prison conditions on the child's health and development.
Their mothers - mostly Singaporean - were convicted of various offences which carried relatively long jail terms of at least a year. One is in for life. <<
To show Sporns deserve to be replaced by FTrash? To show that FTrash create jobs, not trouble? To please the the Old Fart and distort the truth? Btw, does the definition of Sporn in this report includes PeeR?
=============
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Jailbabes
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Prisons make arrangements for eight tiny tots born in jail during mums' sentence to lead as normal a life as possible </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Teh Joo Lin
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->BEHIND bars are eight people who have been incarcerated through no fault of their own - and they are all below three years old.
These newborns, infants and toddlers are there because their mothers gave birth during their jail terms, but no one in the family can - or wants to - take care of the babies.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>NOT IDEAL
'The prison is not the place to nurture a child. It is the last resort, and only if all else fails.' - Ms Rafidah, superintendent of Changi Women?s Prison, on bringing up children behind bars
STOP-GAP MEASURE
'They lose a lot of things that other babies have gone through. Over time, it will affect them because they are not exposed to the community. That is why three years is the maximum. We're not a childcare centre.' - Ms Rafidah, on why female prisoners can keep their children born in prison with them up to the age of three
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>So they live with their mothers in their cells, eating and sleeping with them until these women have served their terms or when they hit the age of three - whichever is earlier. </B>
Three years is all the prison will tolerate having a child within its walls. These chilren are then fostered out to give them as normal a life as possible.
Ms Rafidah Suparman, superintendent of the Changi Women's Prison, told The Straits Times: 'The prison is not the place to nurture a child. It is the last resort, and only if all else fails.'
She gave one anecdote to make her point: One baby who spent time in jail was so conditioned by the regime that she tottered to her mother and quietly sat down to be counted when the warden came round to do a headcount.
Ms Rafidah said that, on average, the prisons take in 25 to 26 pregnant inmates every year who give birth while serving their time.
During their pregnancy, the expectant inmates go through antenatal check-ups, eat extra food - two slices of bread and milk twice a day - and take supplements such as folic acid and vitamins. They are also psychologically prepped for childbirth.
The care they get is 'equal' to that received by would-be mothers outside, said Ms Rafidah.
When an inmate is due to deliver, she is sent to the prison's medical ward. But she does not give birth there. Once she shows signs of going into labour, she is taken in an ambulance to the KK Women's & Children's Hospital, under escort, of course.
If the baby is born to a mother with family support, arrangements are made for relatives to pick up the baby from the hospital and care for the child.
These eight babies now in prison have not been so lucky.
Their mothers - mostly Singaporean - were convicted of various offences which carried relatively long jail terms of at least a year. One is in for life.
'These eight are those who have no one to take care of their babies after they gave birth,' Ms Rafidah said.
Common reasons are poverty and strained relationships.
The mothers are given a choice: have the babies fostered out or keep them in jail till they are three. These eight chose to keep their babies with them.
The oldest child in there now is about two years old, the youngest was born about a month ago.
In jail, mothers with babies in tow are segregated from the rest of the prison population in a row of cells, said Ms Rafidah. This is done 'for safety reasons', she added, and to prevent wailing babies from disrupting the lives of other inmates.
For the first six months to a year, each baby lives with his or her mother in a cell of their own. The women - some of them first-time mothers - are taught to care for their infants and breastfeed them.
They are encouraged to do so for at least six months. The babies are also fed milk formula, cereal and porridge, depending on their age.
As they grow older, mother and child may move into a slightly bigger cell - about the size of 21/2 table-tennis tables - that can accommodate three or four pairs of mothers and children.
Visitors would not be able to tell that this is a special part of the prison, until they see the playroom or when the babies start crying.
But the inside of the cell is furnished differently from the rest.
There is a mattress on the concrete floor for the baby to sleep on, along with a baby bolster, pillow and blankets.
There is also a shelf stocked with babycare items such as diapers, milk bottles and baby talcum powder.
Like their mothers, the babies bathe at the back of the cell, but in a baby- sized tub and with baby shampoo.
And yes, they wear baby clothes, said Ms Rafidah, when asked about attire. 'They are not in prison because they committed something,' she added wryly.
The mothers are subject to the same spartan regime that is the hallmark of the Singapore prison management philosophy. This means sleeping on straw mats and wearing uniforms, unless the doctors say otherwise, like for example, if her body is still aching from the birth.
'Their priority is to always look after the baby. We make our expectations known to the mothers: 'You have a commitment to your baby, be it to breastfeed it, read to it or play with it'.'
When mothers are unlocked from their cells for an hour daily, they can go to a 'playroom' where videos like Barney the purple dinosaur are screened. The room is also stocked with soft toys and children's books.
After they give birth, the mothers are monitored to see if they need extra medication. Counsellors also talk to them regularly to find out their needs and look out for signs of depression, which can put the baby's life in danger.
'If the mother somehow becomes very depressed, we may have to step in and make arrangements for the baby to be fostered out,' said Ms Rafidah, who added that the inmate mothers now under her charge are 'generally stable'.
The counsellors also continue - once every three months - to explore ways with the mothers to bring their babies out of prison.
'Maybe the family situation has improved,' she said, relating the case of an inmate whose sister returned to Singapore from overseas and took over the care of the baby after less than a year.
According to a 2005 report by the Quaker United Nations Office (Quno), Singapore is not the only country to allow children in prisons with their mothers.
The age limit though, varies considerably: from a year, in Sweden and Malta, to six years in Spain and Pakistan. In British prisons, babies up to 18 months old live with their mothers.
Very few countries ban babies from being brought up in prison. Just two weeks ago, a prison in Canada stopped allowing women who gave birth in jail to keep their babies in their cells. This was because the authorities felt that they could not guarantee the safety of the babies.
According to the report by Quno, which is a non-governmental organisation, a key concern of this practice was the adverse impact of prison conditions on the child's health and development.
