Access to childcare services among children living with imprisoned mothers in Masaka Women Prison

Abstract

In different parts of the globe, the number of children incarcerated with their mothers in prisons has greatly increased. Growing up in a prison environment is identified with several implications for the growth of children. Like children in home and community settings, children incarcerated with their mothers in prison are entitled to childcare services. However, information on the access of childcare services by children incarcerated with their mothers is scanty. Upon this background therefore, the study sought to examine access to childcare services among children living with their imprisoned mothers in Masaka Women Prison. A cross sectional case study design was adopted utilizing qualitative approaches. 15 in-depth interviews were conducted with mothers living with their children in Masaka Women Prison. Four Key informant interviews with Prison officials were also conducted. Non-probability sampling techniques were used to identify mothers imprisoned with their children. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data where key concepts, ideas and themes were identified, coded and patterns in the data categorized. Study findings reveal although the Prison Act stipulates the circumstances under which a child can be incarcerated with the mother, the act is not much followed when deciding whether the child should be incarcerated with the mother or not. Most of the mothers who were incarcerated with their children argued that they wouldn’t have wished to be imprisoned with their children if there was an alternative. While study results indicate that the need for childcare services for children incarcerated with their mothers, most of these services are not partially accessed. In situations where childcare services are provided to the children, they are either inadequate or occasionally provided. In addition, most of the childcare services are provided through donations either from religious institutions or other well-wishers. However, these have to provide the services within the existing prison policies and laws. Nonetheless, the study identifies open partnership policy, availability of human resources and the good relationship with the donor/well wishers as opportunities to strengthen access to childcare services. In conclusion, Children incarcerated with their mothers in prison require a serious childcare service intervention if a holistic growth and development of these children is something to think about. While there is access to some childcare services for these children, it is still early for the prison authority to jubilate success in the provision of childcare services. This is because a number of inhibiting factors were reported by the study findings ranging from poor quality of the services, inadequacy of the services provided and the procedural tendencies associated with access to the services. It is therefore recommended that more resources be committed to the childcare services for children living with their imprisoned mothers or else the poor care environments in prisons these children are exposed to, mean that they face even a harsher sentence than their parents do.