Is it in the best interest of society to jail and deport mothers?
First, improvements should be made to deal with this problem of imprisonment where various organizations should come up to assist children whose parents are imprisoned as a way of helping those children grow and develop well (Reitmayer, 2009). In some cases the society is not ready to take care of the children and they end up being raised behind bars by their imprisoned parents which is a discouraging thing in the societies. There are many other groups and organizations that help children who witnessed their parents commit crimes and saw them being imprisoned. This is a trauma to the children and the organizations help such children to do away with that stigma and trauma.
Secondly, a policy should be put in place to make sure that children regularly visit their parents who are behind bars. Imprisonment of the parents is seen to cause more traumas than other types of separation. Many children who often visit their children are seen to have reduced traumas as compared to those who are totally separated. This is a policy that imprisoned parents should be visited by their children.
Thirdly, the prison rules should be made less restrictive and communication between children and the parents made easier. It is true that from research done mothers in prison keep in touch with their children than the fathers imprisoned. African American imprisoned parents of both genders keep in touch with their children more than other ethnicities in the United States (Kanstroom, 2012). Communication between children and their parents is hindered by prison rules and restrictions, distance involved and trauma experienced by children after the visit. Imprisonment of ladies and girls only expose them to drug abuse cases, mental illnesses and physical and sexual abuse (Kanstroom, 2012).
The fourth recommendation is that better services should be provided in the jails unlike traditionally by both the government and non governmental organizations. Very few numbers of women and girls get the services they need and thus end up being abused physically instead of being molded. This makes the prisons unnecessary places to expose the women to since they are not only separated to their children but also faces traumas and abuses thus causing mental illnesses in them (Kanstroom, 2012).
The fifth recommendation is that other forms of punishments should be used instead of jail terms for example community cleaning projects rather than serving jail terms .Other forms of punishments can replace being jailed which will enable parents perform their roles responsibly(Reitmayer, 2009). Children whose parents are unauthorized are not medically insured and suffer illnesses causing problems to them therefore they should be properly medicated.
Conclusion
Policies supporting mothers’ jail terms should be abolished since the children are left to suffer which should not be the case. Parents should always remain responsible to their children and the society should not support bad policies such as parents’ deportation and imprisonments and instead should come up with better policies rather than imprisonments. Most mothers deported are deported for several reasons including racial discrimination cases and the mothers who are financially unstable thus leading them suffer thus leading to suffering of the whole society at large. The mothers are mostly concerned with taking care of their children and thus when they end up in prisons many children are left suffering mentally, physically, spiritually and psychologically which is causing a lot of suffering in the society. It is actually true that children whose mothers are imprisoned are likely to suffer serious problems and end up being imprisoned too. Majority of children who suffer are those who have their mothers in jail unlike those with their fathers in jail. This is a negative trend in the society which brings separation not only to the parents but to the minors who are the children and which should be abolished.
References
Kanstroom, D. (2012, July 15). Deportation Laws Destroy Lives. Retrieved December 10, 2013, from SALON: http://www.salon.com/2012/07/15/how_can_they_do_this_to_us/
Reitmayer, E. E. (2009, n.d n.d). When Parents Get Deported Citizen Children Fight to Survive. Accessed on December 10, 2013, Retrieved from; News21:http://asu.news21.com/2010/08/children-of-deported-parents/
