babies alowed to stay in prison longer

the NZ parliment has voted to send Sue Bradford's Corrections (Mothers with Babies) Amendment Bill to the select committee. this bill allows babies to stay with mothers in prison longer.

The problem is that by necessity the "baby friendly cell block" will be of a different nature to the "general cell block". this would cloud any rational individual decision regarding whether they keep their child with them or not (i.e. a child with a perfect home (with loving father and family let's say) on the outside might be rationally offered to the woman in prison in order to make her situation better at a minor cost to the child. It also restricts the options for how the prison could be managed and increaces costs.

Having said that, I was convinced by the guy on Newstalk who talked about the additional opportunity to teach these potentially high risk parents good parenting skills in a controlled environment. The remaining issue becomes how well controlled is the environment...