What’s it like to give birth or raise an infant, inside the walls of a prison?  Or even worse, have to give up your child the day it’s born?  On this edition, a look at pregnancy, and motherhood, inside Americas jails and prisons.  What does the huge number of incarcerated women in prison foretell for the next generation of America’s kids?

Special Thanks to segment producers: intern Shaunnah Ray, and freelancer Shannon Heffernan. Heffernan’s  Time on the Outside project is produced with support from the Soros Justice Media Fellowships Program of the Open Society Institute.

Featuring:  Michelle Alexander, Author of “The New Jim Crow.  Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness’; Hukee, Prison Doula Project Birth Attendant Program Coordinator; Simon Conrad, Marin Fahey, Sarelle Caicedo, Doulas; Teresa Correll & Genisis, Women who gave Birth at the Washington Correctional Center For Women; Casey & AJ, Mothers at Decatur Prison; Susan Creek, Decatur Prison Warden

For More Information:

The Rebecca Project for Human Rights

http://www.rebeccaproject.org/

Women and Prison: A Site for Resistance
http://www.womenandprison.org/

The Birth Attendants Prison Doula Project

http://www.birthattendants.com/

Illinois Department of Corrections:

http://www.idoc.state.il.us/

Bureau of Justice Statistics: Parents in Prison and Their Minor Children:

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=823

Washington Corrections Center for Women

http://www.doc.wa.gov/facilities/prison/wccw/default.asp

Legal Services for Prisoners With Children

The Center For Young Women’s Development

National Advocates For Pregnant Women

Articles, Blogs, Reports and Videos:

For more photos of the nursery at Decatur prison:

http://www.timeontheoutside.com/prison-nursery

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2007/08/02/pregnant-behind-bars-the-prison-doula-project

The post Making Contact – The Light Inside: Giving Birth Behind Bars (encore) appeared first on KPFA.