Research has shown that there are alternative situations for incarcerated pregnant women, mothers, and their children. According to Ann Harrison, Salinas program director,.
These alternatives are both promising and effective in serving justice with the long time goal of truly rehabilitating-not simply punishing. When these women come back into the community they could make a future for themselves and serve as positive role models for their children. (Sacks, 1997) .
In order for these alternative programs to work effectively we must first understand that pregnancy during incarceration is a high-risk situation both medically and psychologically for both inmate mothers and their children. Some of these risks are attributed to the inmate's general background of poverty, substance abuse, lack of education, and sexually transmitted diseases. However, other pregnancy related risks come directly from the correctional policies and environmental setting. Primarily correctional institutions were designed and run by male professionals to meet the needs of male inmates. "With the increasingly growing population of incarcerated women, especially pregnant women there is a greater risk of more complex medical problems a fact that the male-oriented correctional systems fail to recognize" (Acoca, 1998).
According to the 1996 National Counsel on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) study pregnant incarcerated women also noted that there was,.
A lack of adequate prenatal and postnatal medical care (obstetrics), lack of prenatal nutrition, lack of adequate levels of methadone maintenance for opiate-dependent pregnant inmates, inadequate education regarding child birth and parenting and inadequate preparation for mother's separation from the infant soon after delivery. .
(Acoca &Austin, 1996).
In addition, some women interviewed for the 1996 NCCD study reported being shackled in full restraints at some point during their pregnancies.