![]() ![]() In Mexico, however, children grow up within the main correctional facility, following their mothers’ regular routine. There, mothers and children are usually given separate units to live. In the United States, nine states operate prison nursery programs: California, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Washington and West Virginia. “This place has taught me a lot about life, even if it’s in a hard way.” “I am in here because I was naive,” she says. She also hopes that growing up with her in prison will serve as a cautionary tale. Sánchez said she is grateful for the support she receives raising Melissa in prison, but she still worries her daughter will be taken away from her. “She will know that I am her mother,” she says. Though Melissa will leave the prison before Sánchez serves her full sentence, she is happy that they have a relationship. The authorities allowed Sánchez to keep her baby daughter because there were no health complications. He doesn’t know that Sánchez is his mother.īut things were different with Melissa, who has a different father. Her son now lives with her ex-husband’s family in Ciudad Juárez, some 230 miles away. Her baby boy was born premature, and the prison authorities took him from her, arguing that he could not receive proper care within the prison. When she was arrested, she was six months pregnant. Melissa is Sánchez’s fourth child, and the second born in prison. Some women were pregnant when they were arrested, but others got pregnant while in custody most of Mexico’s prisons allow conjugal visits. Children are allowed to stay with their mothers until they are three or four years old, depending on when the mother was arrested. Twelve children, including Melissa, are housed with 167 women inmates in the Aquiles Serdán Social Rehabilitation Center. While some women are willing collaborators with their partners, others are forced to take part in the crimes. A recent study from the Mexican feminist organization Equis found a 103.3 percent increase in women imprisoned for drug-related crimes between 20. Mexico’s violence, which has been fuelled in part by the intensifying war on drugs in the last decade, is increasingly affecting women. Her former husband is serving a 20-year sentence. Sánchez says she was unaware of his real occupation and played no part in the crime, but she was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Sánchez, 27, was charged with being an accomplice to kidnapping six years ago after police arrested her former husband on abduction-related charges. “When I found out I was pregnant, it made me very happy.” “It’s the strength that God sent me to keep going while in prison,” said Sánchez. ![]() In the afternoon, after her nap, she watches Spongebob on a small television in the cell her mother shares with two other women. ![]() When her mother, inmate Barbara Sánchez, attends her Zumba class in the morning, Melissa observes as the women dance. The chubby toddler hides behind her mother’s legs when strangers address her, but she is at ease surrounded by the inmates. Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists AwardĬHIHUAHUA CITY, Mexico ― Melissa is 18 months old, and she lives in the Aquiles Serdán female state prison in Chihuahua City, Mexico.Fellowship Program for Afghan Women Journalists in Exile.Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice in the Americas.Kari Howard Fund for Narrative Journalism.Fund for Indigenous Journalists: Reporting on MMIWG2T.¡Exprésate! LGBTQI+ Reporting Initiative. ![]()
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