The Invisible Victims
This contribution was written by guest authors Michal Gilad and Tal Gat. Michal Gilad is an AAUW International Fellow. Tal Gat is a graduate of the IDC Radzyner School of Law. This post is based on their article, U.S. v. My Mommy: Evaluation of Prison Nurseries as a Solution for Children of Incarcerated Women, which will appear in NYU Review of Law & Social Change (forthcoming 2012). Since the mid-1980’s the U.S. women prison population has increased by more than 430%.[i] More than 66% of incarcerated women are mothers.[ii] It was estimated that in the U.S. alone more than 250,000 minor children suffer from maternal separation due to incarceration.[iii] Similar trends of a growing number of children affected by maternal incarceration are also identified in Europe and other regions.[iv] We argue that,…