“Children in the prison nursery”: Global progress in adopting the Convention on the Rights of the Child in alignment with United Nations minimum standards of care in prisons

Are custodial-based mothers and children's units evaluated, effective and aligned with a human rights-based approach? – a systematic review of the evidence

“…Of concern was the lack of policy, trauma informed design and or program logic/framing of M&Cs. The limited published research of M&Cs showed they have been setup in approximately 100 different jurisdictions 10 with substantial variability across units. In the absence of international standards and or evidence-based guidelines for M&Cs, there should always be a human rights-based framing whereby the best interests of the child are preeminent and access to healthcare and education is prioritised.…”

“…Similar approaches are reported in the literature and offer potential in minimising risk and harm to children of sentenced mothers. 10 , 68 …”

“…These initiatives are often delivered within Mothers' and Children's units (M&Cs) or Prison Nurseries or Mother and Baby units. Van Hout and colleagues, report that ninety-seven jurisdictions globally permit children to reside with their incarcerated mothers 10 and current estimates suggest that approximately 19,000 children are living in such circumstances. 10 , 11 The commonly stated aims of these initiatives are to reduce recidivism, improve mother-child attachment, and to break cycles of disadvantage associated with offending behaviours.…”

A rapid review of the evidence on models of service delivery for correctional centre-based mothers and children’s units: does our approach need to change?

“…The provision of M&Cs is common globally and is reported in 97 jurisdictions internationally where a child is allowed to reside with their mothers for a variable amount of time during their sentence. 11 M&Cs have been operational for many decades and offer a way for mother and child to remain connected, furthermore, this may limit the impact on the family unit and the known substantial health and social issues for incarcerated mothers. 12 There has been an alarming growth in the number of incarcerated women worldwide since 2010, many of which are mothers.…”