{"id":27438,"date":"2020-02-13T09:08:10","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T15:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=27438"},"modified":"2020-02-13T09:08:10","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T15:08:10","slug":"bill-would-ensure-rights-of-incarcerated-mothers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=27438","title":{"rendered":"Bill would ensure rights of incarcerated mothers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Judiciary Committee heard testimony Feb. 12 on a bill that seeks to keep infants with their incarcerated mothers whenever possible.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB1171, sponsored by Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, would require that a lactating mother be given the opportunity to nurse or express milk for her infant. A breast pump, breast milk storage containers and safe storage of milk also would be guaranteed under the bill.<\/p>\n

Cavanaugh said that between 5 and 10 percent of women entering jail do so while pregnant.<\/p>\n

\u201cBreast milk has numerous health benefits to both the mother and child, including low rates of diabetes, improved antibodies and strengthening the bond between mother and child,\u201d she said. \u201cIt should be encouraged whenever possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill also would prevent physical separation of a child younger than 24 months from his or her mother, unless a facility administrator determines that doing so presents a clear and imminent danger to the child.<\/p>\n

Each facility operator would be required to develop a parent separation policy, which would include a process for placing an infant with their mother, a plan to provide for lactation and information regarding the mother\u2019s parental rights while in custody.<\/p>\n

Juliet Summers, representing Voices for Children in Nebraska, spoke in support of the bill. As Nebraska undergoes the planning process to modernize the state\u2019s troubled Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center system, she said, lawmakers have a moment of opportunity to radically rethink all aspects of correctional programming.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeveloping clear policies regarding family separation, investing in an appropriate living space for children to safely reside postpartum with their mother whenever possible and incorporating hands-on parenting into a mother\u2019s individualized treatment plan would truly reflect Nebraska\u2019s family values,\u201d Summers said.<\/p>\n

Opposing the bill was Scott Frakes, director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services. He said LB1171 does not account for the trauma that would result for both mother and child when a toddler ages out of the bill\u2019s provisions at 24 months and the mother must remain to serve out a substantial sentence.<\/p>\n

As introduced, the bill would apply not only to women who are pregnant when they become incarcerated, Frakes said, but all incarcerated mothers with children younger than 24 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile studies indicate lower recidivism among mothers who participate in nursery programs, there\u2019s no research to support the effectiveness of letting women bring their children with them to prison,\u201d he said. \u201cNor is there information about the long-term effects on children who are brought from the community and exposed to a prison environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Judiciary Committee heard testimony Feb. 12 on a bill that seeks to keep infants with their incarcerated mothers whenever possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[248],"class_list":["post-27438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judiciary","tag-sen-machaela-cavanaugh"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27439,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27438\/revisions\/27439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}