# ..and Don't Think For a second That There Isn't 100's of Stories Like This



## Bruce Monkhouse (6 Apr 2006)

http://www.winnipegsun.com/News/Columnists/Brodbeck_Tom/2006/04/06/1522023.html

Tom BrodbeckThu, April 6, 2006

    Babies behind bars 
By TOM BRODBECK
The story of Edmonton killer Jessica Bigstone should be a wake-up call for anyone who thinks that allowing mothers to raise their kids in jail is a good idea. 

The Doer government announced this week that it's going to allow women inmates to raise their babies behind bars at a new, planned women's jail in Headingley. 
It's not a new concept. The federal government has been doing this for years under something called the mother-child program. 
It allows female inmates to raise their kids in prison until they're four years old. 

It's heralded as a cutting-edge program and praised by all the usual pointy-headed social experts who tell us things like raising kids in prison is a good idea. 
Enter Jessica Bigstone who was allowed to care for her newborn at the Edmonton Institution for Women in 2000, three years after she slit another woman's neck from ear-to-ear. 

Bigstone was sentenced to just over three years for slashing the throat of a woman at a downtown Edmonton party in 1996. 
She was freed on statutory release in 1999 after serving two-thirds of her sentence. 
A month later, police found her on a reserve north of Edmonton, drunk and pregnant with her fourth child. She was in violation of her conditions of release and sent back to jail to finish her sentence. 

Despite the fact she slit a woman's throat, violated her conditions of release from prison, was drinking while pregnant -- and even lost custody of her first three children prior to her offence -- prison officials decided she was a good candidate for the mother-child program. 
And in February, 2000, when her fourth child Jaycee was born in hospital, they let Bigstone take him back to prison with her to start their new life. 
It was good "bonding" for the baby and the mother, the experts gushed. And it was an important step forward for mothers in prison. 

Right. 

Jaycee spent his first month behind bars with his mom. And they left together when she was released in the spring of 2000. 
"He's going to help me maintain my life, to be able to look after him properly and build a better life for both of us," Bigstone said at the time during an Edmonton Sun interview. 

But that's where the fairy tale ends. 
Shortly after her release, Bigstone relapsed into her alcohol addiction, tried to commit suicide and lost custody of Jaycee. 
And in August 2001, little Jaycee -- at the tender age of a year and a half -- became the permanent ward of Alberta Social Services. 

What a great start to this young life. 
Things got worse for Bigstone, who incidentally had a fifth child after being released from prison. She was charged with second-degree murder for the killing of her common-law husband in 2002. She also injured her 17-month-old son with a knife. 
She pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing bodily harm. She got five more years. 

What a train wreck. 
Obviously, this is an extreme case. Most women inmates who want to raise their kids behind bars are not violent offenders. But we know these kinds of horror stories can happen. 

I don't like the idea at all of moms raising their babies in prison. A jail is no place for little kids, period. 
But I'm even more appalled at the fact prison officials would let somebody like Jessica Bigstone care for her infant behind bars with the kind of dysfunctional past and criminal record she had. 
It shows where these kind of feel-good programs can end up. 

And it scares the hell out of me.


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## COBRA-6 (6 Apr 2006)

Bruce Monkhouse said:
			
		

> Bigstone was sentenced to just over three years for slashing the throat of a woman at a downtown Edmonton party in 1996.
> She was freed on statutory release in 1999 after serving two-thirds of her sentence.
> 
> Things got worse for Bigstone, who incidentally had a fifth child after being released from prison. She was charged with second-degree murder for the killing of her common-law husband in 2002. She also injured her 17-month-old son with a knife.
> She pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing bodily harm. She got five more years.



So I guess she'll be out again after serving 2/3rds of the 5 year sentence    So when are those US-style megapens I keep hearing about opening up again??

Children should not be raised in prison, that's just insane... what is wrong with Corrections Canada? Tattoos, unsupervised day-passes, spa visits... BARF!!


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## monika (6 Apr 2006)

Stuff like this infuriates me. You can't even look after yourself yet you think you can look after yourself plus a baby? :rage:

If an adult loves prison life, so be it; absolutely no excuse or justification to raise a child there, let alone have the action government sanctioned. It breaks my heart that these kids really won't have a chance. I bet after 4 years, most of them end up crown wards, unadoptable and going from foster home to foster home.

You want a kid? Get out of jail, smarten up, support yourself, then, and only then should you even entertain the thought of responsibility for a human life.


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## Kal (6 Apr 2006)

Yeah, some things in this country are getting right f***ed up, no new news there.  What I find almost equally disgusting is that she was only sentenced to a little over 8 years for two murders, again, no new news there.  There aren't even words to explain how much of a tragedy it is for these children to have to either grow up with parents such as this, go from family to family or now face growing up in prison.  It's sad because these children don't have a choice and are forced into a situation they were not deserving of.  Again, one can't explain how bad this situation is for the child.

As a side note, if the mother raises her child in prison, once it reaches the age of 4 years, what happens to the child?  Is it given to a foster family then?  I'm not a child psychologist or sociologist, but it would seem better that these children be taken away and given to a foster family from birth so they can have some chance of a healthy childhood and life.


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## Screw (8 Apr 2006)

Mike_R23A said:
			
		

> what is wrong with Corrections Canada? Tattoos, unsupervised day-passes, spa visits... BARF!!



Spa visits? Please elaborate. This program is another pilot program. like the tattooing, I actually dont disagree with the tattoo system. The inmates earn a wage working and they pay and hourly wage for a tattoo service. Id love to never have to write another "tattooing" charge.

I DO disagree with this program, the theory is by cultivating their maternal instincts we'll create a more nuturing individual. A less criminally prone individual.However federal corrections treats female offenders as victims.Not offenders.Even during staff training we are taught that 1 in 6 women is sexually assaulted.(as in all women not just offenders). Further investigation into that statistic shows its a fallacy.(thank god- when they told me about that I was very depressed.Although even 1 in a million is too many) But it shows the attitude of the management- everyone's fault but "hers"........more on the "spa's" please.


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## Steel Badger (8 Apr 2006)

Ah yes, children...


The other OTHER way to smuggle in contraband

SB


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## Screw (8 Apr 2006)

I dont like using kids to smuggle.....the kid gets all the credit. Reminds me of being trained on the xray machine and having to sit through alecture on what is acceptable to pass through the machine. Children are not....one correctional officer in the federal system found that out- when he passed a baby through it because he couldnt remove the blankets because they were so tight  :


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## GO!!! (8 Apr 2006)

I'm a big fan of the chain gangs I saw maintaining dirt roads with hand tools in Georgia and Tennesee a few years back. 

Guards on Horseback with ASPs (6 foot type) and shotguns.

A marked difference from the free education, cable TV watching, bring your family to jail system we have here. I always thought that jail was supposed to be punishment.


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## Bruce Monkhouse (8 Apr 2006)

Not for a veeeerrrrry long time.......


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## Screw (9 Apr 2006)

GO!!! said:
			
		

> I'm a big fan of the chain gangs I saw maintaining dirt roads with hand tools in Georgia and Tennesee a few years back.
> 
> Guards on Horseback with ASPs (6 foot type) and shotguns.
> 
> A marked difference from the free education, cable TV watching, bring your family to jail system we have here. I always thought that jail was supposed to be punishment.



If its any consolation federal inmates are only given free education upto grade 10(since thats whats required for trades), and cable is supposedly paid for by the in the form of a minor deduction. However Ive never seen this deduction but the programs people assure me it exists.....as for the bring your family to jail thing...I wish I could say its untrue.

As for punishment. Thats a day long gone as Bruce pointed out. To bad there wasnt some nice half way...where rehabilitate the willing and sort out the unwilling......


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## larry Strong (9 Apr 2006)

We still have work crews that go out in Orange coveralls and clean up the ditch's on the Highways.....no chains though. We went thru the usual wailing and moaning by all the do gooders that it was going to be the end of the world etc. No smoking and only B&W TVs and sangies for lunch only. That's with the provincial corrections system.

In the fed pen in Bowden on the other hand, (I have some friends who work there) we ship Whale meat down for the Innu, Buy bra's and panties out of your dollar's, so the poor dear can feel like the true woman he really is......and the list goes on.

As to Tattooing in my opinion the parlors are a result of Pierre's legacy, to much work trying to keep it under control, what with all the Charter fights they would have with inmates. I was under the impression that there is/was a statute/regulation/law that states as an inmate it's *ILLEGAL* to alter your appearance while in custody?

I guess all the CSC biggies have forgotten why they are in there....society made them what they are....yeah right :


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## COBRA-6 (9 Apr 2006)

Screw said:
			
		

> Spa visits? Please elaborate.



It was a while ago, this is all I could dig up...


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## Screw (10 Apr 2006)

Mike_R23A said:
			
		

> It was a while ago, this is all I could dig up...



Ahh. I thought you were refering to the incidnt at the RPC facility in saskatoon. When it comes to female offenders its outside of my lane so I wont comment. Thanks for the link


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