Dipuo Maleka (32) and her 10-month-old son, Junior, have been living in section A2 of the Female Correctional Centre in Johannesburg for nine months. The mother and son are among 24 mothers and babies living at the prison — but this number changes constantly.
View the slideshow, “Jail is no place for a baby”
“Some mothers are arrested committing crimes while with their young children, but most are pregnant when they are arrested,” says Sizakhele Zwane, head of the Female Correctional Centre.
Pregnant inmates either give birth at Baragwaneth or in the prison hospital. After birth, the newborn is observed by medics for six months while a single cell is prepared in the baby care unit for mother and baby. This section of the prison is separated from the cells of other inmates.
The mother and baby cells are kept open to allow children space to walk and play. There are two classrooms with books and an open-air playground with donated swings, slides and a sand pit.
Until last year in South Africa imprisoned mothers were allowed to keep their children with them until they turn five, but the age limit has now been reduced to two since the effects of growing up in prison on small children have been more closely observed.
Their progress is hindered “because the correctional environment is limited to female offenders, babies and correctional officials”, says Zwane.
“You must imagine that a child on the outside can play with a cellphone and switch on a TV, but our children here are not exposed to that.”
Imprisoned babies are usually nervous and struggle to be responsive says, Deputy Minister of Correctional Services Hlengiwe Mkhize. She was speaking at a Christmas party arranged for mothers and their babies at a recreational hall in Pretoria last week.
“This is a cause of concern for us and we encourage the mothers to play with their children and stimulate them,” she said. But the best case scenario for such children is to be placed with their families on the outside – an ideal the department of correctional services encourages inmates to consider. But most of the inmates living with their babies say there is no one on the outside to take care of the infants.
Sizakhele Skhosana (24), who is awaiting trial for allegedly shoplifting cheese at a large chain store. Her three-year-old son, Lindelani, was with her at the time. Her son is over the age limit and if she is sentenced she may be separated from him.
Relocating children to relatives, a guardian or foster parents through child welfare is a mammoth task, says Masonono Tshililo, a social worker at the prison.
“Most of the inmates are from Zimbabwe or far away places like the Eastern Cape or rural villages. When they come here to Johannesburg they stay with their boyfriends and sometimes when we have to locate their families using an address that they gave us, we find that they are not there.” Earlier this year she relocated a five-year-old girl to Brazil.
Dineo Maphosa (24) from Zimbabwe, is in a section for mothers who recently gave birth. Her son, Donovan, is two months old. “I came here when I was one month [pregnant],” says Maphosa who is serving three years for fraud. She wishes her circumstances were different.
Maphosa is not sure whether she will live with her son in A2.
“Sometimes I think of taking him to my aunty, but she works as a domestic worker in Sandton, so she can’t stay with a baby.”
Thembi Mulaudzi, a former A2 resident, is serving 15 months for fraud. Mulaudzi says she can’t stop thinking about her “small baby”, who is now with her father. The father of the baby doesn’t come to visit much. “He has only been to see me three times since they took the baby out in August.”