The US is one of four countries to allow the separation of newborn babies from their incarcerated mothers, usually within 24 or 48 hours of birth. The others are the Bahamas, Liberia, and Suriname.
In the past few decades, issues involving motherhood behind bars have become increasingly urgent: The number of women in prison rose 646 percent between 1980 and 2010, and seven out of ten of those women are mothers. According to a 2010 Pew survey, there were 120,000 mothers behind bars nationwide, and 2.7 million children with an incarcerated parent.
Please work with the corrections departments in each state to bring prison nursery programs to as many facilities as possible so these children can escape the serious mental and emotional tolls of the of "system."