British Bishop: Let mothers stay with their children rather than be imprisoned

(Vatican Radio) Why should innocent children suffer as a result of a crime committed by a family member? That's the question being asked by the liaison Bishop for Prisons in England and Wales who has urged the authorities to find new ways of letting mothers stay with their children rather than face imprisonment. In a public lecture this week, Bishop Richard Moth said more needs to be done to ensure that a mother, convicted of a crime, can remain with her children and pay her debt to society without the need for a custodial sentence. He spoke to Susy Hodges about this issue.

Listen to the full interview with Bishop Richard Moth:

Bishop Moth points out that custodial sentences are very common in Britain and so it means that a "significant number of mothers will be disconnected from their children and their family as a result of a prison sentence."

Asked what alternatives he would like to see, Bishop Moth suggests that in the case of mothers with young children, where appropriate, the custodial part of the custodial sentence could be shortened and the rest of it could be carried out using different approaches such as through the use of "electronic tagging, curfewing, reporting to probation regularly." He suggests that in some cases involving the mothers of young children the whole sentence could be carried out using these different non-custodial approaches.

Bishop Moth goes on to describe the enormous and hugely negative impact on children when their mother receives a prison sentence. He says the children are not just frightened and traumatised by the sudden disappearance of their mother from their lives but can also become victims of "bullying at school once the news gets out." As he explains, a mother's imprisonment amounts to a punishment for her own innocent children: "In a sense they too become the victims of the crime because of the fallout of the mother being away from her children."