Canada's Mother-Child Program and Incarcerated Aboriginal Mothers: How and Why the Program is Inaccessible to Aboriginal Female Offenders

This article discusses the disproportionate representation of Indigenous women in prisons, how it effects both mothers and children, and how the Mother-Child Program was inaccessible to incarcerated mothers.

Author's Introduction, Page 1-2:

"Mother-child units and programs that allow incarcerated women to keep their new-born babies in prison with them are ‘‘considered normal practice in most countries in the world”, including Australia, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, England, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, some U.S. states, and Wales. By developing mother-child programs, at both the federal and some provincial levels, Canadian corrections joined ‘‘the majority of nations in the world” by allowing incarcerated women and their children to stay together as a family.

The purpose of this article is to explore CSC’s Mother Child Program in order to demonstrate that the program has the potential to positively impact Aboriginal families in ways that accord with the bests interests of the child but that the program is particularly difficult for Aboriginal women to access. I will first outline the effects of separation on children and mothers. Next, the history and development of the MCP will be discussed, followed by an examination of the criteria and goals of the program. Then, current barriers to accessing the MCP will be explored. I will then discuss the MCP and its relation to Aboriginal women and the best interests of the child. Next, I will consider the tools that could be used to help reshape the program and ensure that Aboriginal mothers have greater access to it." (1-2).