What Life Is Like For Children Who Are Raised In Prison

Their Formative Years Are Extremely Important

In Queensland, Australia, several children live with their mothers in prison. They are allowed to stay with their moms until they reach the age of five when they are ready to go to school. Authorities encourage this type of setting for both parents and children. “Those first five years, they’re very formative,” Jon Francis-Jones, head of Townsville Correctional Complex in north Queensland, told ABC News Australia in 2016. “The whole thrust of this is about maintaining family contact, that important mother-child bond. As for the negative impact on children, I think that’s completely outweighed by being separated from their mother.”