The use of imprisonment for certain categories of offenders, such as pregnant women or mothers with infants or small children, should be restricted and a special effort made to avoid the extended use of imprisonment as a sanction for these categories. Recommendation of the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders. As stated above, there are estimated to be more than 80,000 mothers among the women in prison and jail. They have approximately 200,000 children aged under 18. 30 Surveysindicate that the great majority of imprisoned women with children under 18 lived with their children before they were imprisoned.
All states have laws permitting the termination of parental rights of parents who are incarcerated.
32 Women's prisons are often located in rural areas far from the cities in which the majority of inmates lived, making it difficult to maintain contact with their children and jeopardising the prospects of successful reunification. A national study found that more than half of the children of women prisoners did not visit their mothers while they were in prison. 34 In 1950, thirteen states had laws allowing mothers in prison to keep their infants with them. Fewer than half of the states offer community based facilities that allow mothers to live with their children while serving all or a portion of their sentence orpart of their parole immediately after release. 36 Many women enter jail and prison pregnant.