The National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls condemns the Tasmanian Government and the Tasmanian Prison Service for their continued failure to uphold the rights of mothers and children.
The reported underuse of the Mother and Baby Unit at Mary Hutchinson Women’s Prison, which has been operational since 2018 and designed to keep mothers and their infants together, is a glaring example of a punitive system that prioritises punishment over care, and bureaucracy over basic humanity. Since its opening, only a third of applications for the unit have been approved, with many denied despite clear evidence that separation causes long-term harm to both mothers and children.
Almost 90% of women in prison are mothers, and two in five people entering prison have dependent children – the majority of these people being women. These mothers are far more likely to be single parents, experiencing poverty and systemic disadvantage. Almost one in 50 women entering prison report being pregnant.
‘To have a facility capable of housing mothers with their babies, and to deny women access to it, is an indictment on the Tasmanian Government’s approach to incarceration,’ said Debbie Kilroy. ‘It reveals a system that has little interest in preserving the bond between mothers and their children, a bond that is fundamental to both maternal and child wellbeing, and protected under international human rights standards,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘We know intimately the trauma of separation. We know the lifelong impacts on children who are taken from their mothers, many of whom end up cycling between the family policing system and the criminal legal system themselves,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘The pipeline from out-of-home care to prison is well-documented and devastating,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
The refusal to support mothers and babies to remain together while in prison disproportionately impacts Aboriginal women and children, for whom these removals echo the violence of the Stolen Generations.
‘Prisons are operating as frontiers of colonisation, where Aboriginal babies are literally ripped from their mothers’ arms under the guise of “assessment panels” and “population pressures,”’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘It is beyond shameful that Tasmania’s own custodial inspector and legal advocates have raised alarm over the state’s restrictive policies, yet the government continues to allow this cruelty to persist,’ said Tabitha Lean.
The Tasmanian Women’s Legal Service has noted poor antenatal care and the devastating reality that babies are being funnelled directly into state care when mothers are denied support.
The National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls stands firm: mothers should be with their children. We condemn this government’s continued assault on the human rights of women and children, and we call for immediate changes to ensure that:
- All mothers have genuine, supported access to the mother and baby unit.
- Culturally safe, trauma-informed antenatal and postnatal care is guaranteed.
- No child is removed simply because their mother is criminalised.
- The systemic targeting of Aboriginal women and children is recognised and stopped.
Families belong together. Anything less is state-sanctioned violence.
For further comment, please contact Debbie Kilroy on 0419 762 474 or Tabitha Lean on 0499 780 226
