It's barbaric.Giving birth is terrifying, even with professional support.
Choo
It's anecdotal but I used to supervise female young offenders, in the community and in custody. The ones who ended up in custody, without any exceptions, had experienced some form of childhood trauma (physical abuse, domestic violence, CSA, severe neglect etc) and poverty.
Reading the chronology of significant events (usually been involvement from social services from a young age) when I took the case on was sometimes horrific. Some had grown up in local authority care and foster homes (a whole other thread required for that).
Wasn't hard to see why they had ended up offending. Abuse, neglect and deprivation usually characterised their childhood.
Most had been excluded from school with no alternative provision set up and the local authority had neglected their duty. They were left vulnerable to older men in the community who often initially supply free drugs in return for 'favours'.
Before long they were under the control of these predators, isolated with no way out, and had serious addiction issues. The cycle of abuse (social, physical, sexual, economic) and control continued. Groups of men will always prey upon young vulnerable girls.
If you live in an economically deprived area with high crime rates and grow up without a supportive family, whatever form that takes, it's unlikely you have the resources to bring about a positive change in your life without huge intervention from outside. And the earlier the better.
Poverty's a trap that's almost impossible to escape from without adequate support in all areas of your life. They weren't getting adequate support though. They were barely on the radar owing to the poor communication between different LA depts.
It was only when they were picked up by police for offending and their case came to the penal system that proper assessments were carried out.
How sad that it gets to that stage, that for all our sprawling services and well meaning staff, we can't use what we know to monitor, collect stats, identify, protect and support the vulnerable before they end up in the worst part of the system.
Services have been cut to the bone so alternatives have to be sought from the overburdened voluntary and charitable sector. There simply aren't enough services to cope with the demand so there are thousands of women and children falling into this scenario every year.
Choo, you seem to think this is all about poor individual choices but the idea of having any 'choice' in these situations is often an illusion.
Our underfunded and fractured systems are failing people constantly. Patchy service provision, at best, isn't going to change the circumstances of daily life for anyone in real need.
If you're a 14 year old girl who's been completely overlooked by education, welfare, been emotionally neglected all your life, physically and sexually abused then you are vulnerable. You'll do what you can to survive your environment, but you're hardly profiting or thriving by any measure.
If you end up, as a woman, in a prison system that neglects your safety, basic physical needs and those of your unborn child then doesn't that just confirm the worst lessons you've already learnt in life, that often people with power, authority and in positions of care, don't seem to behave properly?
Sorry, it's long but I feel quite strongly that a large portion of our female prison population shouldn't be there. It achieves nothing and often exacerbates existing problems. I know I was part of it for years as a social worker, but we need to fix the whole ineffective, shitty system.