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Rita Richa
Professor Francis
ENC1102
9 February 2014
Between Barred Lines
Rough Draft

The pain of losing a parent to a prison sentence matches, in many respects, the trauma
of losing a parent to death or divorce. Children on the outside with a parent in prison suffer a
special stigma. Too often they grow up and grieve under a cloud of low expectations and amidst
a swirling set of assumptions that they will fail. (Greene and Allard). In A World Apart by
Christina Rathbone, we live through the memoirs of other womens, and their childrens, lives.
Constantly we are shown the horrible effects of prison on women and learn the unsettling fate of
their children outside bars. Overall, the incarceration of women has a negative physiological and
physical impact on their families and themselves. This course of impending personal turmoil, is
in dire need of prevention by different means of activities and rehabilitation, in order to make
sure family members outside of the bars do not fall into a path of crime as well.
Although these women have been imprisoned, they and their children are human, therefore still have many rights. Unfortunately these basic rights have been overlooked. The prisoners already know the gravity of their incarceration, we cage them as though they do not and the
guards attitude towards them does not insinuate an environment of growth and rehabilitation,

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rather it provokes a hostile environment and the unwillingness of the prisoner to change. Emotions involved in corporal punishment are, fear, shame, anxiety, and helplessness. These feelings are usually followed by anger and rage. The emotions of sadness, depression, and desire for
revenge often take center stage later and thus the vicious cycle of criminal behavior ensues. A
child's relationship with his or her mother is among the strongest protective factors in the life of a
child (Blinn, 1998; Katz, 1998; Marsicano, 1999). The parent-child relationship is crucial to incarcerated mothers and their children. Despite the strain that the separation, incarceration, and
events preceding the incarceration may have had on the relationship, attachment remains a protective factor for the child. Mothers do not stop being mothers because they have been convicted
of acts that society finds heinous; very few incarcerated mothers are in prison for crimes of child
abuse or neglect. It is crucial to the children, and other family members, that more contact is established through supervised and controlled means. While these women are being punished for
a crime, it must not be forgotten that many of them will one day released. After not seeing family for long periods of time or being treated like an animal, many of these incarcerated women
experience the emotional cycle, as stated earlier, and therefore find it impossible to reintegrate
into society. While prison time is being served, guards and the detention centers facility, should
create a more rehabilitative environment, rather than a degrading and hurtful atmosphere, that
forever traumatizes the incarcerated, leaving no chance of the inmates behavioral change.
Once a mother is locked away, the child feels they no longer receive a relationship with
their parent. Various programs should be enacted to prevent this psychological disrupt to occur

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to the child. Shakopee, the state's only women's prison, adopted innovative visitation programs
in adherence with this ethic to promote meaningful, sustained relationships between incarcerated
mothers and their children. Shakopee has two major programs providing extended visits for
inmate's children: the Children's Program, for inmates with children up to 11, and the Parenting
Teens program, for inmates with children ages 12 through 17. According to Shakopee's parenting coordinator, the visitation programs have three main objectives: to give mothers and children
an opportunity for extended visitation to promoting cohesiveness in their relationship; to increase
inmates' parenting skills in a safe, controlled environment; and to give inmates a chance to realistically evaluate their abilities and desire to parent their children. Girl Scouts Beyond Bars Program- As the only program that guarantees regular biweekly vista between Framingham mothers and their daughters, GSBB provides a small but convincing escape route from the estrangement that eats away at most mothers in prison. Every two weeks, no matter the weather, a volunteer makes the long trek around Bostons four inner most neighborhoodscollecting the girls so
that they might spend a couple of hours with their mothers at Framingham. Shakopee is even
more welcoming for children in the Roosevelt living unit, Shakopee's parenting unit. It is generously decorated with cartoon and Sesame Street characters. Its lounges are full of toys, games,
books, and cribs.
In a barred and cruel environment, many incarcerated women lose their minds, patience,
and willingness to live. One Example in the story is the young woman named Chris. In the story Chris becomes suicidal, going insane, and writing notes in barely legible, and hysteric, scrib-

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bles. Her mental illness was left untreated because it was deemed unnecessary to be treated, thus
leading to her suicidal death. Upon arrival to the prison, after various tests and dehumanization,
the prisoners are asked by a nurse, who could care less, if they are depressed. This is absolutely
bizarre, illogical, and unacceptable because the answer should be quite obvious. This person has
been condemned for a crime and isolated away from society, the wrath of the punishment that
lies ahead has already set in, yet they are asked if they are depressed? The color has been

stripped from the prisoners every day lives and the focus remains on punishment, not reformation and rehabilitation. Another unfortunate outlet of cruel and unusual punishment

used on prisoners is the hole. This is a dark basement-like environment where women
are banished to, sitting with nothing but their thoughts and the damp, pitch dark abyss
that surrounds them. It is inevitable, in these circumstances, that anyone can remain composure and a willingness to change.
The incarcerated womans time at prison is focused on punishment rather than rehabilitation. Those with mental illnesses are ignored and passed along with no worth or attention. Women with children do not have enough programs to help them still remain contact
with their child and preventing their offspring from committing crimes out of frustration. In
an environment that punishes rather than rehabilitates, women prisoners and their families
experience extreme negative physiological effects

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A World Apart
Between Barred Lines:
An Annotated Bibliography
Greene, Judith, and Patricia Allard. "Motherhood." Womenandprison.org. Beyondmedia Education, 2013. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
This is a nonprofit website promoting the mission to reform women prisons. The
website posts articles on assistance and discusses the negative effects of life in prison for
women today.
Dorpat, Theodore L. Crimes of Punishment: America's Culture of Violence. New York: Algora
Pub., 2007. Print.
This book was written by a psychiatrist who has been in the field for 50 years. He
discusses why punishment does not help solve or cause the prisoner to repent. Throughout
the book he provides statistics and studies on the negative impacts of this corporal punishment on women and children, suggesting a more ethical and peaceful way of rehabilitation
for the incarcerated.
Luke, Katherine P. "Mitigating the Ill Effects of Maternal Incarceration on Women in Prison and
Their Children." LINCC. FSCJ LLC, 2002. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.
This article was a research study exploring the ill effect ions of mothers, and their
children, involved the prison system. The author suggests many solutions and states that the
prison system for women needs immense reformation.