Europe: "but think of your children!"

Ariane Amado. This gendered view tends to disadvantage women, especially when it comes to women’s wards within men’s prisons, where female prisoners have less access to visiting rooms and family visiting units. The prison administration links this discrepancy to the disproportionate number of male prisoners, which requires a greater number of dedicated facilities.
On the other hand, men cannot be imprisoned with their children. In Belgium, for example, no man has ever been incarcerated with a child, despite the neutrality of the law, which states that “children under the age of three may stay with their detained parent in a section specifically designed for this purpose”.

The discrepancy goes even further in France, where this practice is both a legislative and structural impossibility; the penitentiary code explicitly states that “children may be kept in prison with their mother until the age of eighteen months”. The language used is “mother”, not “parent”.

The French system has established nursery wards with dedicated mother-child cells¹ that don’t exist in men’s wards, making it impossible for men to have a child with them. In England as well, the law refers only to women, but the other parent is ungendered; no mention is made of the child’s father, but rather of the birthing partner. This is not the case in France, where nursery staff - perhaps even more than prison staff - attribute explicit significance to the father. Paternity is always referenced - even in the case of lesbian or single women, where the father is non-existent. The hetero-parental family continues to be the model; any other framework is still very difficult to imagine.

This gendered vision results in diverging concepts of reintegration. For men, it involves work. For women, it means maintaining family ties, in particular, ties with children. In England, as in France, probation officers, supervisors and psychologists focus on this aspect of women’s reintegration, well ahead of the quest for employment or training. In England, the view of motherhood as a lever for reintegration is fully reflected in government policy.

AM. There is a reason unique to gender dynamics which, in my opinion, stems from a range of social constructs. Women are taught from an early age that motherhood is extremely important, that their fulfilment is tied to their role as mothers, and those in prison are no exception. In fact, the evolution of women’s prisons in England and France is intrinsically linked to the development of convents. The Christian religion, whose influence was very strong until recently, depicts motherhood as a salvation.

In numerous 19th-century writings, motherhood is depicted as a way for women to straighten up, re-educate themselves and escape delinquency. Times may have changed, but this message is still very prevalent among early childhood professionals and probation officers alike. We often hear them say to imprisoned mothers, “but think of your children” - a message delivered more rarely to men.

This focus also stems from the fact that women are much more often the sole caregivers for their children. A mother’s incarceration often leads to her child being placed with a foster family or home. It is more common for incarcerated men to have a female caregiver for their children on the outside. For women, getting their children back upon release from prison is a real issue, which is why it is such a prevalent theme in professional discourse. It’s like a snake biting its own tail, with myth and reality colliding.

AM. Women imprisoned with their children in the nursery facility have very little access to activities, training or work. There are few nursery units in France, and only the Fleury-Mérogis prison has a daycare centre enabling women to go to work. Without daycare, these women must manage on their own. There are sometimes arrangements with outside daycare centres, giving women one day or half-day per week without their child. But this is far from sufficient, as prison activities are very fast-paced and only scheduled on certain days. As a result, the options available for activities and training are especially limited for imprisoned mothers, preventing them from preparing properly for their release.

Maternity leave does not exist in prison. When a pregnant woman is assigned to the nursery section, she loses her job and is given no priority for re-employment in the 6-8 weeks after giving birth; she must follow the same procedure as newly incarcerated prisoners and is placed on a waiting list. Things are slightly different in England, where pregnant prisoners are entitled to six weeks’ maternity leave, after which they must return to work. Because work is compulsory in England, all nurseries have daycare.