Germany: Man wants to serve time in women's jail to care for his daughter

Women, at least here in the US, and I am guessing in Germany too, are allowed to keep their babies (provided the offense is not severe enough) when they are in jail. However men, to the best of my knowledge, are NEVER allowed the same right to be parents. This is because men are not really parents by society's de facto standards. They are at best walking ATMs.

I want to start off by saying that I have a lot of sympathy for those incarcerated. Perhaps too much sympathy.

Both my biological mom and my ex's father (this would be my children's paternal grandfather) spent time in jail for non violent street crimes. Most of it was done as a means to survive and they both had underlying problems such as little or no-education and alcohol addiction.

In the past I have said that I don't believe jail is a place to raise children and I think newborn babies would be better off in foster care, However older kids should have a way to stay connected to their parents through visitation. I saw a show on a jail that had overnight family housing, where once a month the family could stay in a house within the jail for quality family time with the incarcerated father. The families had dinner together, baked cookies, watched movies, etc. I liked that idea.

However, in giving it some more thought, I have changed my position a bit on babies. Here is what I now think:

Perhaps newborn babies should be allowed in the jail. Here is why. The babies will have no recollection of their surroundings and it will not have any emotional influence on them later in life (I am speaking of newborns up to 18 months old). Considering the lifestyle of these people, the babies are probably safer within the jail vs staying in the environment that the incarcerated parent came from.

Studies have shown that "pet programs" within the jail have been very successful. The responsibility of having to care for another life and have something depend on you seems to have a positive effect on inmates. Inmates seem to be less "hardened" and more nurturing when they come out. Imagine if they were given the opportunity to care for their own babies.

Also, what is the one thing that has always motivated people to clean up their lifestyle??? Usually it is for the sake of their children. I think close ties with family will inhibit re-offenders.

So I have changed my stance on having babies in the jail (assuming the babies are safe and around non-violent criminals). Whatever the mothers get fathers should get as well. I am even more sympathetic to fathers because there are more men in prison, they serve longer sentences, and usually the mother of their children moves on to another man while they are incarcerated. They usually have nothing when they come out.

As far as older children (age 2 and up) I do think foster care is best with regular visitation with the incarcerated parent. I would never suggest children live within the jail, but I would like to see an effort to keep inmates involved with their families for the same reasons I stated above.

I also can't help but notice that the man in the article is in jail for driving w/o a licence (multiple offenses). I understand it is a crime, as it should be, but the ability to drive is a necessity to work and care for children. I wonder if this man and taxpayers would be better served if he were under house arrest and his car impounded

My specific reaction to this article may have been lost in my rambling above.

I do hope this guy wins his case.

If child care is available to women it should be available to men as well.

....the chance to be parents to their young children while incarcerated, it is discriminatory for men not to have equal opportunities to be fathers to their children while in prison.

There are of course a multitude of problems with actually making something like that possible. Male prisons keep violent and non-violent inmates housed in the same facilities and are given access the same areas of the prison. Male prisons are designed to encourage violent inmates to prey upon the non-violent inmates creating an extremely dangerous environment to introduce children into.

Female prisons are not built this way and house violent inmates in separate areas within the facility.

We would need a great deal of prison reform - something that is definitely an MRA issue - in order to allow this tobe a real possibility.

Though this particular case raises another issue that is certainly worthy of debate. Should non-violent inmates be allowed to housed in mixed gender prisons? I see no reason given the conviction of driving without a license that this particular man poses any threat to any other inmate regardless of gender.