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Baby Prisons



I know this is supposed to be all humanitarian or something but it just sounds fucking creepy to me:

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden’s prison service may allow babies to live in prison with their fathers, putting men on an equal footing with women in prison parenting, a prison service official said Thursday.

“It would be a possibility for men, but only in rare cases where social services find it is in the child’s best interests,” prison official Elisabeth Lager told Reuters. “It would not become their right, just a possibility.”

Only nine or 10 women prisoners a year are given custody of their babies inside Swedish jails, said Lager, and making this possible for men was not a question of gender equality but of minimalizing the effects on babies of their parents’ imprisonment.

Once over a year old, children are not permitted to live behind bars.

Wow! What a human rights coup! Now we can have babies grow up in prison! Let’s celebrate!

Okay, okay. I recognize that there is an important issue here about parent-child bonding in formative years and all that stuff. But letting a baby grow up in prison just sounds so horrific, I don’t know. And yes, I know they won’t let them do it over a year old - but what if that’s all it takes to somehow crush the spirit of a newborn child for good? I’m speaking metaphyical speculation here, of course. Nor do I pretend to have the solution to the underlying social problems highlighted by this news item. It’s just fucking weird - that’s all. Makes me also think about how many of us grew up in prisons, thinking all along we were free?

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5 Reader Responses

  1. james Says:
    October 27th, 2005 at 9:13 pm

    I don’t know if the babies will be affected. Most humans are placed in cribs, playpens and “baby cages” as infants, and for the most part we turn out OK.

    In a way, it could serve as either the ultimate crime deterrant (”don’t be bad or we’ll send you to daddy!”) or the ultimate crime recruiter (”the pigs did my dad wrong– I remember seeing it as a kid!”)

  2. Tim Boucher Says:
    October 27th, 2005 at 9:29 pm

    maybe youre right. i guess the symbolism is what gets me

  3. Avalon Says:
    October 27th, 2005 at 11:43 pm

    I’d assume having infants with mothers would be not just for bonding but for the benefits of breastfeeding (which Scandinavia is pretty good about). But as a parent, my opinion is that wrenching the mother/baby dyad apart at a year is worse than growing up in a prison.

  4. Tim Mason Says:
    October 28th, 2005 at 2:25 am

    Swedish prisons are not like American prisons; see the report here. Sentences are short, conditions are humane. One may surmise that an infant will not have the life crushed out of her by spending a few months in such an institution if lovingly cared for by her father.

  5. Tim Boucher Says:
    October 28th, 2005 at 10:51 am

    thanks for the link and info. i meant to delve further into the subject.



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