Sunday, February 11, 2007

Family Prisons?

What do you all think about this? I ran across the article while looking at Yahoo News.

The general idea is that there are now Spanish prisons that provide 'family cells', allowing mother, father and child to live together. In most cases, it says that the child is only there because there is no other family to watch after them, thus they do not enter a foster care world. But in one instance, the mother and father of one of the children in said 'family cell' met in prison, married, and had the child. All while in prison!

My understanding of reasons for prison are that freedoms are taken away, not given. Seems in this instance that these families are allowed to work (in the prison setting), eat, and live together. Basically, they're doing what they would do outside of prison without having to pay rent.

The child is provided the best milk, the opportunity to go to school, and access to the playground. I believe the child should not be punished, but this allows the parents extra time outside as well.

These particular parents are not in prison for theft. The mother is in prison for murder and the father for drug trafficking!

I guess it is good that the families are getting to be together; I just don't know if biological parents would be the best role model in this case. The article mentioned not knowing the mental effects this would have on them in the long run. I don't think I'd want to gamble with a child's life.

What do you think?

7 comments:

Kenny Simpson said...

That is a joke. Prison will not work if it is a place people want to go to.
Nice article...

Ashley @ pure and lovely said...

I think that children should never be put in a situation like that! ugh. Just think of all the perverts in prison. They dont stay in the cell protected from the outside all the time do they? it doesnt seem fair to the child at all. Talk about no childhood! sad.

Lerra said...

Ok besides the child issue, which I think is obviously the worst thing you could do to a kid, what about the parents? Like you said, prison is supposed to be punishment. What kind of punishment is it if husband & wife are sleeping together, eating together, etc., for free? Good grief.

Jamey said...

I totally agree with you guys. Rent free living in Spain!

Roxy Wishum said...

How sad. The fact that prisoners love it and hardly realize they are in prison says enough. It is not much punishment for the guilty parents and way too much for an innocent child. Probably coming to a prison near you if the "It Takes a Village" candidate becomes president.

JSM said...

If only I knew about this when we were looking how to save money on rent in two different states.... And no need to hire a babysitter!

willemien ruys said...

Th prison you are talking about is the San Pedro Prison in La Paz Bolivia. 80% of the inmates are there awaiting trial for drug trafficking, so not even found guilty yet. And since Bolivia is one of the biggest cocaine producing countries and the US antiDrug Progam forces Bolivian Government to take very strict measures the prison is pretty full. Also Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in South America and the world, so even though I oppose to to children living in prison, I think it wouldn't hurt to study the case before judging, cause you might find that in some cases it is probably better that the child stays with mummy and daddy in prison where at least it is protected against pedofiles (since they are tortured and murdered in most horrible ways) and has the parental love it needs.
So yes I agree it is not an ideal situation, but though not or far from ideal, sometimes the best possible...