CHP() parliament member Gamze Ilgezdi, has done some interesting research about children, between the ages of 0-6 who are living in jail with their mothers.
According to the official data of the Ministry of Justice, the number of “prison children” are 560.
From the moment the children are born, they become partners in the punishment of their mothers and step into adulthood without experiencing their childhood.
The following conclusions are reached:
– The Number of mothers who are staying with more than one child in prison is 44.
– Mothers with children are excluded because many prisoners do not want to stay with a mother with children because they cannot tolerate the child’s noise. Children are constantly told to stay quiet and are scared. Therefore, some of these children are unable to learn to speak.
– Prisons do not supply separate food for children, They have to settle for the food given to their mothers. Limited products such as fruit, dessert etc. aren’t given to children at all. In addition,
proper cutlery are not provided for children.
– The children grow up without toys. It is forbidden to bring toys into the wards. Especially children aged 0-3 years who cannot go to nurseries have no toys at all. Only 4 to 6 year old children can go to nurseries.
– Children are forced to cross an x-ray machine even when they go to nursery.
– Ward searches are done in front of children’s eyes. Children are also searched.
– The children are taken to the doctor without their mothers, on their own.
– Poor hygiene, ventilation and heat conditions causes children to become ill very often.
– Women are forbidden to be taken to the doctor outside of checkup days and hours, even if they are sick. This also applies to children outside of emergency situations. Even if the medication is prescribed, it is provided two days later.- There aren’t doctors constantly in prison. Children who are referred to the hospital after some procedures are not allowed to go with their mothers.
– Another incident that children are ignored is the bedding in the ward. The children are counted as one person with their mothers and they are not given a separate bed. They have to share the same narrow bed with their mother.
– There are children who can not even learn to crawl. Some children who haven’t com
pleted their physical development are struggling to walk by the age of 3.
-Washing your children’s laundry is a serious problem in it’s own right.
This stunning report by Gamze Ilgezdi ends with the following suggestions:
“Such situations are causing children to have a hard time getting acquainted with the outside world.
If the state says that It will imprison women with small children, it should create an environment in which infants and young children can maintain their physiological and mental development in good health.
Most importantly, the child should be allowed to go to a nursery, but these nurseries must be out of prison.
The toy restriction must be removed in the wards.
The child should spend time with their fathers, but in the environment where the mother will also exist, there should be open-mindedness, and this situation must be created outside the prison.
Another suggestion is the new prisons that can be designed according to the children’s interests. Instead of growing up among the hundreds of women who have been punished with different crimes and whose mental status is impaired in the wards, they should be among other mothers with children in conditions that are reminiscent to a home.
