Kids Join Parents in Spanish Prison

This story will shock you, the Sunday addition of The Atlanta Journal writes. Victor Manuel Lozano spends his days like most 2-year-olds. he goes to nursery school, draws, rides a tricycle. The difference is, he does it all in prison- living with mom, a convicted murderer, and dad, a drug trafficker. Aranjuez Prison, Spanish officials say, is the only one in the world with cells for families. The spacious units, dubbed "five-star cells," comes with cribs, Disney characters on the walls and access to a prison playground.

The idea is for children to bond with their jailed parents while young enough not to fully grasp the reality of prison, and to teach parenting skills to inmates seeking rehabilitation. Some parents have two toddlers in the prison, and the total currently stands at 32. Neither the prison psychologist nor the parents themselves think it is an ideal situation. But they say it beats the pain of separation. "They take good care of us, and having my child and husband with me makes me very happy," said Carmen Garcia, 28, Victor Manuel's mother. "But this is not the best place to bring up a child. In some ways they are imprisoned as well."

Garcia was jailed in 1998 for 10 years for murdering her boyfriend. Victor Lozano entered the jail the following year for an 11-year term. They met in 2003, were married behind bars and had Victor Manuel. For now, prison is the only world the toddler knows. But in four months, when he turns 3, he will have to leave the prison and be looked after by relatives unless his parents can win a reduction of sentence for good behavior. At dawn a guard wakes the family up for roll call. At 9 p. m. they are locked up again. Victor Manuel, who has spent the day playing with the other children of inmates, sometimes stands outside the cell crying because he does not want to go back behind bars.

"For him it's the saddest part of the day," Garcia said. The prison in this town 25 miles south of Madrid began operating family cells in 1998 and now has 36, although only 16 are currently occupied, most with Latin American immigrants who have no one to look after their children. "It's tough t be in jail, but in this section you completely forget you are in a prison," said Ramona Montoya, 33, serving 11 years for drug trafficking. Montoya and her husband, Manuel, also convicted of drug trafficking, asked a judge to put them in Aranjuez. They had read about the family and wanted to raise their four month old child together. Their other three children are living with Montoya's grandmother

Montoya takes here 1-year-old daughter, Marina, to the prison's nursery school every morning while her husband works at the prison supermarket. She attends sewing classes. "This is heaven compared with other cells where I have been." Montoya says while she shows off cell 113, the place she calls home. It is 150 square feet, with a double bed, a crib full of toys, a small bathroom and windows facing outside the prison. "It's all child oriented. It's clean, they give you the best milk for your child, the doctor comes twice a week and rooms are beautiful." The only thing that reminds her that she is in jail is the role call three times a day. The comfort, says prison psychologist Maria Yale, encourages some women with a child about to turn 3, is to try to get pregnant and stay in a family cell.

All candidates have to pass a two-month observation period to prove they are prepared to live together as couples and raise a child. however, sex offenders are ruled out. Many prisons around the world have nurseries and cells for children and mothers, but experts say they know of none with two-parent family cells. In the United States, "family cells would be very challenging," and some believe prisons are no place for children.

Me personally, I can't see how on earth this is possible, all this is is a legal way of saying breaking the law is just peachy. Who has ever heard of a prison for families, this is ridiculous! It's like, hey lets go kill somebody and live the rest of our lives together off the tax-payers and live in luxury without ever paying a dime. One states that it makes her happy to have her child and husband with her, who wouldn't it make happy knowing your in prison for 10 years, and you don't have to worry about your spouse with another woman!!!!!!!!! And if this is not enough, a Doctor encourages them to have even more children while there. What is your opinion on this??