Child Rights of Incarcerated Mothers A Critical Analogy of Model Prison Manuals and State Prison Manuals

Abstract

When the justice system and the courts put a parent in prison, it generates problems for the children, family members, schools and children services. All in all in such situations, it is the children who get mostly affected whether they live outside away from their parents in someone else s custody or if they stay alongside with their mothers inside the prison premises being punished for the crimes which their parents mostly mothers have committed. They are nowhere at fault but still they are made to stay along with their mothers, inside the prison premises. Family members of incarcerated individuals are often referred to as quothidden victimsquot victims of the criminal justice system who are neither acknowledged nor given a platform to be heard. This research aims to explore an interdisciplinary research on the existing Prison Policies in existence at the centre and State level and the lacunae in them, and how they can be strictly implemented for the betterment and benefit of the progenies of incarcerated mothers. Children are indeed the future of any nation, and safeguarding their rights is paramount for the development and prosperity of a country. The major gap in this research is going to be finding of relevant data and interpretation of various laws which can be worked upon for the vulnerable group of children who are living with their mothers in prison. A child s vulnerability is the result of the interaction of a range of individual and environmental factors that compound dynamically overtime. With the evolving age and the child s development, the type and degree of a child also gets evolved. If we speak about infants then they require complete attention and are completely dependent on and require responsive and predictable caregiving. They are sensitive to parents health and material deprivation. As far as younger children are concerned that is, up to three years old are especially affected by family stress and material deprivation because of the rapid pace of early brain development. Young children can reap