Missouri's first prison nursery would keep moms and babies together

[Sherman A1]

In late June 1976, Barbara Baker gave birth to her son.

“We were able to stay together five days, you know, bonding with him. I got to feed him and have him in my room and stuff,” Baker said. “But at the end of those five days, he went out one door and I went out another door.”

Baker was incarcerated at the time and serving a sentence for shoplifting. She was addicted to heroin and shoplifted to sustain her dependence. The next time she saw her son, he was 9 months old.

“(He) didn’t know who I was and didn’t even want me to touch him,” Baker said. “That was heartbreaking.”

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/government-politics-issues/2022-04-08/missouris-first-prison-nursery-would-keep-moms-and-babies-together

[luvs2sing]

1. We've been doing this in Ohio for a couple years.

I used to volunteer at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, and it was not unusual to have happy toddlers bouncing around during some of our charity projects. One Christmas, we were assembling bikes for children in foster care, and one little guy was riding around the room on a toddler-sized bike. You don’t think of prisons as joyful, but that’s exactly what it was.