Safeguarding the best interests of children of incarcerated mothers
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Safeguarding the best interests of children of incarcerated mothers Jörg M. Fegert1 · Liliane Kistler Fegert2 Received: 15 May 2020 / Accepted: 14 October 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
This letter is a response to Ref. [1]. We agree with the authors that mother–child attachment and negative consequences of incarceration for the mother–child-relationship merit more attention of child and adolescent psychiatrists and society. We agree that a separation at a very early age might cause developmental and attachment problems. Children of incarcerated parents are at risk for short-term and long-term mental health problems. Ref. [2] estimates that 50% of US prisoners have children under the age of 18 years. Only a minority of incarcerated parents are female. In 2013, we conducted a survey in the German State of Baden-Württemberg [3]. In a representative sample of 1.551 prisoners, we identified 487 incarcerated persons (31.4%) with children under the age of 18 years. A quarter, corresponding to 147 children, was in the age range 0–3, another 30% in the age range 4–8 years. In this sample, we only identified 32 incarcerated mothers (6.6%). In contrast to the practice of rigid separation at the child’s age of 18 months for example in France and many other countries, in Germany or Switzerland children of incarcerated mothers generally stay with their mothers in special conditions of imprisonment until pre-school or school age. Legally feasible non-custodial settings like the use of electronic monitoring are preferred over imprisonment in the best interests of the child. In an attachment-based parent–child project called “CHANCE”, we supported [4] a subgroup of mothers. Usually, children went to daycare at the prison, while their mothers went to work. The rest of the time, mothers and children spent their time together in a setting comparable to youth welfare mother–child institutions. In line with some earlier texts from a feminist and human rights perspective, the authors blame society for the
* Jörg M. Fegert joerg.fegert@uniklinik‑ulm.de 1
Head of Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
Head of Penal and Law Enforcement Authority Kanton Schwyz, Schwyz, Switzerland
2
individual consequences of detention [5, 6]. Golden (Page 56) even speaks of a “public assault on children”. In line with this argument, Ref. [1] stated that societies choose to separate children from their mothers, only because they consider a mother dangerous to society. Incarcerated mothers can be dangerous to their children and society. Therefore, an individual forensic risk assessment is necessary in the best interests of the child and the interests of society. Mothers with a personality disorder might maltreat their children even in prison. There are female sex offenders that might sexually abuse their children or radicalized Jihadist mothers might think about sacrificing their children in Jihad. From a developmental perspective, the basic needs of young children can be m
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