Program lets female inmates bond with their babies
ABBOTSFORD, B.C. • At first glance, the sprawling Fraser Valley Institution for Women has typical features of a prison: barbed-wire fence, drab colours, and middle-of-nowhere vibe.
But look carefully as you drive down the public-access road and you will notice something different: there in the distance, surrounded by grass, is a children’s playground with a slide and an elevated platform whose roof is adorned with the shapes of moons and stars.
This facility, one hour east of Vancouver, is one of five federal institutions that allow infants and children up to the age of seven to reside with their inmate-mothers. The Mother-Child Program was thrust into the headlines recently with the revelation that one of Fraser Valley Institution’s inmates, notorious killer Kelly Ellard, had given birth two months ago — to a boy, sources told Postmedia’s Kim Bolan — and that her son was living with her.
Ellard, who is serving a life sentence for the 1997 beating and drowning death of teenager Reena Virk, is one of 10 federal inmates across the country currently enrolled in the program, which is available to mothers classified as minimum or medium security.
Seventy-five women have gone through the program since it launched two decades ago.
While some critics say prisons are no place to raise a child, proponents say nurturing the mother-child bond in those early stages will benefit the child in the long-run and can help with the mother’s rehabilitation.
“I think people’s fear is that somehow this child is not safe. Of course a lot of attention and care is given to making sure the child is well and cared for,” says Shawn Bayes, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver.
“There’s a lot of goodwill and a lot of people working to make sure nothing goes astray.”
Erase any image you might have of a baby being raised in a dank cellblock, proponents say. At the Fraser Valley Institution, which is surrounded by farmland and mountains, children are raised either in one of the bungalows clustered inside the perimeter fence or in a two-storey, minimum-security building — or annex — located just outside the perimeter. Similar accommodations exist at other prisons.
Units typically consist of a shared kitchen, lounge and bathroom, as well as multiple bedrooms. Other inmates may live with the mother and child — they can even apply to serve as babysitters or “aunties” — but they have to be screened beforehand to make sure they don’t pose a risk to the child.
Canada’s prison watchdog, the Office of the Correctional Investigator, provided the Post with photos from inside one of the Fraser Valley Institution’s mother-child units. They show a typical nursery: a crib filled with toys and stuffed animals and a nursing chair adorned with a soft blanket and breastfeeding pillow.
Though the barbed-wire fence is never far from sight lines, mothers have access to playgrounds and tree-lined walking paths. On a recent visit, inmates could be seen walking dogs along the perimeter.
Before a child is allowed to reside on prison grounds, the family must undergo an assessment by a child-welfare agency. Mothers must also complete first aid and parenting courses.
If approved, children can reside full-time with their mothers up to their fifth birthday and part-time up to their seventh birthday.
“(The program) provides a supportive environment that promotes stability and continuity for the important mother-child relationship, and to assist in the rehabilitation and successful reintegration of women offenders,” the Correctional Service of Canada said in a statement.
Mothers can order supplies, like diapers and baby formula, and are entitled to exceed their annual $750 spending limit if purchases relate to the care of the child. The child’s personal effects cannot, however, exceed $750 in value.
Children have access to only emergency health care in the prison. It’s up to the mother to arrange medical appointments in the community.
Whether a mother can accompany her child depends on the parole board.
At a hearing last week, Ellard, who became pregnant after an approved conjugal visit with her boyfriend, said motherhood had been “very therapeutic” and “motivating.” However, she failed to persuade a two-person panel to let her take her baby into the community on escorted temporary absences.
In the event a mother can’t accompany her child, a community caregiver — like a grandparent — or a volunteer can step in.
“The system is set up to allow babies to enter into the community,” Bayes said.
Participation in the program has been low; on some days there wasn’t a single mother enrolled.
Part of the reason was severe overcrowding. Female offenders, particularly indigenous women, are the fastest-growing inmate population and overcrowding in women’s institutions meant spaces were unavailable for children, said Jennifer Oades, retired deputy commissioner for women at the Correctional Service of Canada.
“There was a huge need for expansion,” she said.
The construction of new minimum-security annexes at four institutions in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia a few years ago has helped ease the crowding and represents a “vast improvement,” said the correctional investigator’s latest annual report.
Some critics insist that children of incarcerated mothers would be better off with adoptive families. But preliminary findings of a long-term U.S. study of children who lived with their incarcerated mothers during their first 18 months suggest otherwise.
The study by Columbia University found that when they reached preschool age, children who had spent time with their mother in a prison nursery had “significantly lower” anxious, depressed or withdrawn behaviours than children who had been separated from incarcerated mothers in infancy or toddlerhood.
“I’m a huge supporter of it,” Oades said. “We’re setting up problems if (mothers are) not connected to their child.”