Maternity in prison: Situation of children sharing prison sentences with their mothers

Abstract

Maternity in prison: Situation of children sharing prison sentences with their mothers This article analyses the situation of children living with their mothers in Spanish prisons within the framework of the sociology of childhood. This branch of sociology implements a rights-based approach that allows examining in depth the active role of children according to the different realities they experience. The situation of children under three in Spanish prisons is an unknown reality that is made invisible by institutions through the absence of official data on these children in prison and the lack of follow-up to analyse the possible consequences of their confinement. The article summarizes some of the results of a study conducted in the Community of Madrid from 2009 to 2012 by applying discourse analysis and a relational approach that emphasizes the importance of concepts such as generation, minority group, and gender and human relations as fundamental tools for analysing the reality of children and youth. Among the main conclusions, it is found that the worse conditions of imprisoned women compared to men result in both direct and indirect consequences for their children. Moreover, the treatment of these women based on the concept of incapacitation are directly related to the notion of children as passive subjects oblivious to the reality in which they are embedded, in this case being inmates without a prison sentence.