They’ve done nothing to earn a prison sentence but the poverty and violence of jail are the first impressions scores of Argentinian children who are born in custody have of life.
Sandra Valdez, with her eight-month-old daughter Nicole, looks through bars at the Unidad (Unit) 33 prison in Los Hornos, near La Plata October 13, 2007. For many of the women, their children are their only ‘possessions’
A heart-wrenching collection of photographs has captured the South American women raising their children behind bars.
The number of women doing time in Argentina has skyrocketed in the past 20 years, and around a third of all female inmates, who are crammed into small complexes with poor facilities, arrive either pregnant or with young children, whom they are allowed to raise there until the age of four.
The majority of the prisoners are doing time for drug trafficking, robbery or homicide, but their babies are innocent.
However, for many of them, the prison ends up being on their birth certificate, acting as a reminder of the life they were born into which, in most cases, follows them throughout their lives.
Valeria Cigara, pictured when she was pregnant with her first child Milagros in 2007, gave birth to and raised her daughter in the prison until she was two
Photographer Carolina Camps shot a selection of women and the children they raised in prison for an eye-opening look at this difficult way of life.
She captured Sandra Valdez with her eight-month-old daughter Nicole at the Unidad prison in Los Hornos, near La Plata in 2007, and revisited the family late last year, in the slum on the outskirts of Buenos Aires where they live now.
Valdez has nine children from three different relationships, and now lives with a fourth partner, receiving subsidies to help feed three of her youngest kids.
Julia Romero, who is currently under house arrest to serve the last 11 years of an 18-year sentence for homicide, poses with her then one-year-old son Lautaro inside a jail in Buenos Aires October 13, 2007
Valdez was pregnant with Nicole in 2006 when she was sentenced to two years in prison for selling drugs. She raised Nicole in prison until she was two when they left together.
Another mother, Silvia Rodas, was photographed in 2007 with her four-year-old daughter Anahi inside her cell at the same prison. Rodas was convicted of robbery and attempted homicide at the age of 19 and has since done stints in all the prisons in Buenos Aires province after being moved around due to bad conduct. She ended up in Bahia Blanca, the last prison that would accept her.
Her daughter Anahi was three years old when she was convicted and lived in prison with her until she was five, a year longer than is usually allowed.
Silvia Rodas, left, dances with her daughter Anahi, 9, during a visit by Anahi to the prison where Rodas is serving a 15-year sentence for robbery and attempted homicide
The forgotten children, as they have been called, are the only ‘possession’ permitted to these woman, who in many cases depend on the companionship of their little ones to help them forget where they are.
But the sad start to life the children receive is often the way it continues, as the experience of living in the lock up for years is something many of them find hard to shake.
No comments:
Post a Comment