A jailed mother is fighting to raise her toddler behind bars while she serves a manslaughter sentence for killing the boy’s father.
The woman wants to bring up her 22-month-old boy within the walls of Dame Phyllis Frost Centre at Deer Park, Victoria so that she can establish a bond with him.
But the child’s paternal grandparents, who have fostered the boy for most of his life, are fighting to keep him within their care, Herald Sun reports.
A jailed mother is fighting to raise her toddler behind bars while she serves a manslaughter sentence for killing the boy’s father (stock image)
The woman wants to bring up her 22-month-old boy within the walls of Dame Phyllis Frost Centre at Deer Park, Victoria (pictured) so that she can establish a bond with him
‘I don’t know what kind of a life it would be for him in prison,’ said the grandfather.
‘What sort of life is it for a 22-month-old?’
A limited number of special units are provided for mothers and their children at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre and the Tarrengower jail, in northern Victoria, as part of a program that aims to encourage mother-child relationships.
But the grandparents, both in their 60s, claim the boy would miss out on socialising with children his own age if he were raised within a prison environment.
The child’s paternal grandparents, who have fostered the boy for most of his life, are fighting to keep him within their care (stock image)
A limited number of special units are provided for mothers and their children at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre (pictured) and the Tarrengower jail, in northern Victoria, as part of a program that aims to encourage mother-child relationships
Further to that, they argue the boy was not in his mother’s care prior to her being locked up – a compulsory program guideline.
As it stands, the boy visits his mother once a fortnight.
She has been serving her sentence for more than 12 months, and hopes to regain custody of all her children when she’s released from jail as early as next year.