The state legislature of Wyoming is reviewing a proposal to turn an unused prison building into a nursery that will house inmates and their infant children, and will offer overnight stays for children up to six years old.
Between 2007 and 2010, 17 women were already pregnant when admitted to the prison in Wyoming Women’s Center. The proposed facility will provide these inmate mothers with the opportunity to spend more time with their children up until the age of 18 months.
“The reality is that the women here will get out of prison, and they will be back in the communities,” says Phil Myer, warden of the Wyoming Women’s Center. “And we want them to be successful at raising those children so those children don’t repeat the sins of the parents.”
Both houses of the state legislature have approved over $1,000,000 in funding for the new project, with hopes that the program will help improve parenting skills, ease the separation anxiety many of these children face, and ultimately reduce recidivism when these women are released into society.
Eleven other states currently operate such nurseries, and initial reviews have been positive. A study of a similar program in Nebraska shows that in the three years before implementation, 50 percent of all female inmates who had been forced to surrender custody of their newborn babies returned to prison within 10 years. In that same 10 year span, recidivism of inmates participating in the nursery program was reduced to 16.8 percent.
While there has been some resistance to the program, it wold make sense that any program that encourages responsibility and teaches good parenting skills – something many of these inmates were not fortunate enough to see when they were children – could do nothing but help reduce incarceration rates.
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