| WPA Report on Prison Nurseries |
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| Wednesday, 13 May 2009 15:11 |
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As families across the U.S. celebrated Mother’s Day, the Women’s Prison Association (WPA) released the first-ever national report on prison nursery programs. While the number of prison-based nursery programs is growing, they are still relatively rare. Only nine states have prison nursery programs in operation or under development. “Prison nursery programs keep mothers and infants together during the critical first months of infant development, and the research shows that these programs produce lower rates of recidivism among participating mothers,” said Chandra Villanueva, Policy Associate at WPA and author of the report. “As we recognize the benefits of prison nursery programs, we must also increase our investment in community-based alternatives, which allow for maternal/child bonding and enable women to address the issues that brought them into the criminal justice system in the first place” The report, Mothers, Infants and Imprisonment: A National Look at Prison Nurseries and Community–Based Alternatives, is available online at www.wpaonline.org.
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