ROundtable MISSIONto advance equity centered approaches to protect the health and bond of mothers with lived prison experience and their children
Principal InvestigatorsRuth Elwood Martin,
Clinical Professor and Director, Collaborating Centre for Prison Health and Education SIFP, UBC Tara Zupancic, Associate Director, Centre for Environmental Health Equity Samantha Sarra, Project Coordinator, Centre for Environmental Health Equity Kirsten Hargreaves, Social Development Manager, District of Mission, BC Jane Buxton, Associate Professor, School of Population & Public Health, UBC Bonding through Bars was visioned through:
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"Healing now for future generations"
The relationship between mother and child is fundamental to life. When that relationship is injured, far reaching consequences result for future generations and for society as a whole. According to the Elizabeth Fry Society, two thirds of women in Canadian correctional institutions are mothers, and of those, two thirds are single mothers. Every year there are approximately 25,000 children in Canada, living with their mother behind bars. These children are more likely to encounter extreme poverty, trauma, grief and to be victims of violence.
Research indicates that socio-economic factors play a big role in the criminalization of women. An estimated sixty percent of incarcerated women were unemployed at the time of arrest. Similarly, an astonishing eighty two percent of federally sentenced women and ninety percent of federally sentenced Aboriginal women have experienced physical and or sexual abuse. The vast majority of women in the correctional system have experienced neglect, violence and a legacy of child abuse. Survival strategies that many women feel forced into include: drug use, work in the sex trade, stealing food to feed their children or welfare fraud. This has serious generational consequences. In Canada, forty percent of women in jail were separated from their own parents because of incarceration; now, they are mothers raising the next generation and fifty percent of their teenage children have already been in youth custody. A study by Dr. Julie Poehlmann has shown that children of incarcerated mothers were subject to multiple biological and environmental risks. Sixty per cent had been exposed to chemical substances before birth, forty five per cent had complications at birth and over twenty per cent were born preterm. Poehlmann's research team also assessed the quality of children's attachment relationship with mother and caregiver, an important index of many aspects of children's well-being. Only about one-third (37%) of the children had secure attachments with their mothers and caregivers, compared to about sixty to seventy percent among other children. |
How can an equity-focused approach protect the Health and bond of incarcerated mothers and their children?
The Bonding through Bars Roundtable is an unprecedented opportunity to bring a diverse group of experts and women with lived prison experience together to explore a research agenda and then take action.
Despite its critical importance to the health of our families and societies, there is a serious dearth of research on this topic. We propose a pioneering inquiry into how a cross-disciplinary, equity focused approach can have a lasting impact and provoke a systemic shift to address the needs of incarcerated mothers and their children. Watch Replanting: Produced by Samantha SarraFunding for this roundtable is provided by:
In collaboration with:
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