Female inmates to benefit from Tunisian prison reform legislation

29/07/2008

Under a new law in Tunisia, prisons are required to provide separate facilities for pregnant or nursing inmates. The new law also reduces the length of time a child can stay with their incarcerated mother from three years to one.

By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 29/07/08

[Jamel Arfaoui] Social worker and prison affairs expert Sami Nasr said a new law on pregnant and nursing women in Tunisian prisons is the continuation of prison reform begun in 1989.

In a unanimous decision, the Tunisian Parliament approved a new law on July 23rd requiring that separate detention facilities be created to hold pregnant or nursing prisoners. It also reduces the length of time children are allowed to stay with their incarcerated mothers from three years to one.

Justice and Human Rights Minister Bechir Tekkari told the deputies that the bill comes as part of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's plan to protect the family.

This new legislation is also part of the reorganisation of prisons to bring them into conformity with child welfare provisions in the Personal Status Code, the minister said.

While they are pregnant and/or nursing, prisoners will be placed in special detention facilities "where the necessary health, psychological and social care is available for the mother and child," the new law stated. The new facilities will be more like housing units attached to prisons, with female guards "wearing civilian uniforms". Nine units for pregnant and lactating mothers are ready now and several more are planned.

The new legislation also reduces the amount of time children may remain with their incarcerated mothers to just one year. Under existing law, children are allowed to stay with their mothers up to the age of three.

Deputies asked why separating children from their mothers at an even younger age could be considered a positive move.

Minister Tekkari explained that it is in the best interest of the child to be removed from the prison to the care of relatives or a court-appointed guardian before the child is old enough to be physically and psychologically affected by the abnormal conditions of prisons.

Social worker and prison affairs' expert Sami Nasr notes that the new law continues prison system reforms begun in May 1989 with the abolition of the hard labour sentence. He would have preferred another solution.

"I was hoping that all the laws related to the imprisoned mother would be replaced by giving her priority in the alternative penalties system," he said, referring to a penal system the Tunisian government created to give the convicted a chance to spend their terms outside prison if they enrol in jobs serving the public.

The new law raised painful memories for some former prisoners, who recalled having to spend time away from their children. Ilhem, a divorced mother, was sentenced to six months in prison after a fight. She did not see her six-year-old daughter when she was incarcerated.

"I didn't want her to see me in that condition. To her, I am like her role model," Ilhem told Magharebia.

"Those were tough days," she added. "It is true that I was surrounded by friends who alleviated my pains, and the female guards inside the prison understood my condition. However, nothing compensated me for missing my daughter during that time."

Nemaa has not forgotten the years she spent in prison and the day she gave birth to her baby daughter inside her cell. "I can forget my date of birth and my own name, but I can never forget the extremely difficult hours when I had the labour," she said. "The problem is that after all the pain I went through, the relatives of my husband came to the hospital and unrightfully took my daughter away from me."

Others are also sceptical about the new legislation. The law could encourage those women who can't afford the cost of medical treatment in the hospitals to commit crimes before the time of their delivery, Tunis resident Hind told Magharebia.

"This way, they will rest assured that the government will take care of them and their children when they go to prison," she said.

Her friend Meryam added, "I think that the law will make delivery in prisons better than public hospitals, and even private hospitals, now that it was the President who demanded it!"