May 19, 2013
-
Report # 1003
As I was on the computer earlier today I remembered that I had to type up my blog…. I actually didn’t even think about it earlier. This was the first day in a long time that I actually kind of forgot to get it typed up earlier in the day like I usually do. Seeing as I’ll be starting work on Tuesday though, I’m not exactly sure when I’ll be posting my blogs. I suppose I could either get them posted right after midnight before I go to bed, or after I come home from work, which I won’t really want to do. Tomorrow will be my final day off until Saturday, so I better enjoy it as it will be four straight days of working…. something I haven’t done since the first week of August.
After all of this time off though I’m definitely ready to get going so it will be exciting, even though I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be doing at the job yet. As long as it’s something that will keep me busy throughout the day and where I get to learn a few different things then I’ll be happy. Either way I’ll definitely do the very best I can do, no matter how long I’ll be working there. I just got back with running with Parker and Molly, and while I’ll run them tomorrow, they won’t be able to get out almost every single day like before. Seeing as I’ll be working until 5:00 pm, and I’m not exactly sure at what time I’ll be able to get home yet, I think my days will be pretty jam packed.
I’ll have to devote my 45 minutes to watching one episode of a telenovela each day, and I would like to do an hour of French study and I’ll have to run as well seeing as I need to keep up with my exercise since I’ll be in an office all day. And then again every three days I’ll have Xanga to do which also can feel like homework sometimes ! So it will be interesting to see how I fit all of this into my schedule, but I will do my best. After having so many boring days, it will be nice to be super busy for a change instead of having really not much to do. And I certainly won’t miss spending so much time applying for jobs everyday.
On Friday morning I thought I would mow the lawn as it was cloudy and I knew it was going to rain soon. It was actually drizzling when I was starting, and seeing as the grass was wet, it was not a very fun day. I ran out of gas as well, but luckily my grandmother was able to come and drive me up to the gas station to get some. In total I was outside for three hours, so it took way too long. I’m hoping this coming week I get some cheques in the mail, one for a BC medical refund, and another one for the 6.5 hours I worked at that stupid corn job. If I don’t get it this week I will definitely be calling the coming week as I won’t let them get away with not paying me for 6.5 hours worked.
The sun is out now and it’s actually a nice evening, not too warm and not too cool, 17 C (65 F). The weather certainly hasn’t been as sunny and hot as that first part of May, but it’s been nice enough. I was reading the newspaper this morning and there was an article about mothers in jail. Some of them had been arrested while they were pregnant, and others already had kids. One of the inmates was talking about how she’ll never get the three months she lost with the child back while they were apart when she was in jail. While obviously no mother would want to be apart from their child for that long, these women are in jail for a reason, and they can’t expect that they can raise their kids while they are incarcerated.
Apparently in BC there was a program in jails before where women serving less than two years of prison were permitted to stay with their babies while they were in jail. The program ended about five years ago, and some women are very upset about this. There is even a case that will go on in court to decide what rights mother’s have in terms of being with their young children when they are in jail. Now I’m not going to judge anyone here. I realize that no one is perfect and that people do make mistakes. I can imagine a lot of those young women had very tough lives growing up and for whatever reasons they went down the wrong path and that has led them to where they are today. It’s very sad that in some of these cases these women are pregnant and they have kids, but at the end of the day, people who break the law need to be punished accordingly, and given a chance to learn and rehabilitate themselves.
The obvious truth here is that prison or any sort of correctional facility is no place for any baby or child. So while mothers in prison certainly should have a chance to see their children, I could not see any positives out of having children raised in a correctional facility. These mothers have to take responsibility for what they have done, serve their time, and then get out and rebound and be the best mothers that they can be. Any men who commit crimes don’t have the luxury of raising any children they may have in prison, so there really should be no differences for mothers. A crime is a crime, and there should not be any special privileges. It is my hope that any mother’s who find themselves in jail, would miss their children so much, that they’d want to change their lives around for them, and I would assume, that would be enough for most of those women to really improve themselves.
So there is no need for a court challenge here, though it will go ahead… it will be interesting what the outcome will be. At the end of the day, I would hope the judge realizes what I think most reasonable people would… that a prison is not the type of environment for children. These mothers just need to serve their time, learn what needs to be learned, and then be allowed to get on with their lives. And as heartbreaking as I’m sure many of those stories would be about extremely sad mothers being apart from their children, it’s a part of life. They are in jail and they should look at it as they got a chance to behave well, make the positive changes they need to make, and get out and be the type of mother, and more importantly, the type of person they really want to be.
So as sad as many of these cases would be, I am thinking the mother’s love for their children will bring out the best in these women. It will push them hard to do what they need to do to rehabilitate and after serving their time, heading back to the real world with a new opportunity to be exemplary citizens and amazing mothers. And I think once they have gone through the tough road, they will feel so good about themselves, and be able to do so much more for their children. Short term pain will really help these women long term, and I strongly believe that most of the incarcerated mothers will be able to positively turn their lives around and be the type of people and the great mothers they always wanted to be. For the next question:
Should women, serving sentences two years or less, be able to raise their babies while they are serving time in jail, why or why not ? What sort of access should these women have to their babies while they are incarcerated ?
I hope that everyone has a great start to the week. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Wednesday, bye for now.
Sources: The Province. B.C.’s prison moms battle to keep their babies. By: Glenda Luymes. May 19, 2013.
Comments (7)
the right law that should be given to mothers who r in prison shouldnt affect on their children’s personalities! the child has right to live as any other child in the world. it is not right to put the child in a prison with her mother because her mother thinks she needs him. a child needs normal life more than her mother existence. well they can give them the right of a short visit or maybe they can spend some hours per week with her. and the pregnant woman in jail should deliver her baby only in a hospital outside the prison. she can spend time with him in the hospital. but the baby should never visit the prison. he should be taken from her later. the baby should not open his eyes inside a prison, scientifically it’s bad for his psychological life!
You love asking questions at the end to put people on the spot. Raising a baby in jail. Well……. first off the mother did something wrong so she’s paying for her mistakes in jail. Meaning she shouldnt have any way to the outside world and that means having her kid in jail with her. How would that look? I mean, even now a days in jail they already have tv, better food than what we eat at home, basketball, cellphones, the internet. They shouldnt have any of this. Bread and water, a hard bed, no way to the outside world, and in a room where all they see is walls.
First, I am so happy that you will be working. I know that you have been looking for a job and have been very careful in which job you picked. I am certain that you will be happy with your choice and this will help you make ends meet for some time. I hope you enjoy your new schedule. I do agree with you, Xanga can sometimes feel like homework. That is why I do two different kinds of post. One about my characters and the other about my life.
As far as women, jail and the their children…. I fully believe that if we accommodate these offenders then some of the sting to the punishment will be lost. As the saying goes, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”
Make sure you get paid for those hours worked. It seems like they are slacking in that department. You should have been paid for your day of work. It takes nothing to print a check in their department…a simple clicks on a screen and addition and hitting the print button. I would go ahead and give them a call to make sure you haven’t slipped through.
You appear to disciplined and organized. I’m not that self-disciplined. It’s typically in the 80′s here already (F)… and 90′s. 65 sounds cold to me.
I’m thinking 2 things about women raising their children in jail:
1) Men don’t get to. Dad’s are at least as important as moms are.
2) How can anyone think jail is a good place for a child/baby? Look at the people that kid would be surrounded by!!! Are you kidding me?!? Not to mention, if the mom is spending time in jail, she obviously wasn’t demonstrating good moral standards. Children need a shot at a better influence.
The sound of that just angers me. I have been a teacher for 7 years. I know students whose parents have been in jail. Some are definitely better off without their parents to be negative influences on them. Others have had terrible, awful foster family experiences. Some were raised by grandparents that did a bad job with their parents. At any rate or direction, I definitely believe that children should not be raised by parents who are in jail/prison. If nothing else, think about all the other negative influences in jail with that parent!! At any age, it’s wrong. Even for infants.
I got my bachelor’s degree with professors teaching based on the following phrase (and I believe it):
“You can take the child out of the environment, but you can never take the environment out of the child.”
That’s cool you decided to post on a regular basis. No wonder you’re up to 1000 posts! I only post when I have something that I think is interesting or worth it (for myself)
It’s Tuesday… I hope you’re doing well and enjoying your work right now.
Because you haven’t worked for so long, you had a lot of free time to do whatever you wanted. Now that you have a job, your days will be packed and you’ll probably be too tired to do everything you want to do, or just not have enough time.
Ha, sometimes I feel reading posts and commenting is like homework as well. I have actually said that to a friend on here before.
Although it wasn’t many hours, they better pay you for your work!
That’s crazy a woman would be in prison when she is pregnant. Crazy to think of what they did to get in there.
I believe mothers with young children should be able to see their kids, but I agree with you. Seeing and spending time with your mother in a prison isn’t great for the child…
I kind of think it depends on the mom and the crime and the mother’s mental state.
it’s a tough topic. but yeah, i do think mothers do have the right to spend time with the one they give birth to. no matter what the circumstances are, they are still the mothers. UNLESS, they want nothing to do with their baby.