“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
Frederick Douglas
Mandi and Gabriel (3 days old), 2008 © Cheryl Hanna-Truscott
Cheryl Hanna-Truscott is a registered nurse and midwife who attests to the importance of healthy, timely infant-mother attachment. Equally she recognises that the women in her portraits are the beneficiaries of an unfortunately rare approach to motherhood in US sites of incarceration.
Protective Custody: Within a Prison Nursery is a portrait series about pregnant inmates who qualify for The Residential Parenting Program, at Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW). The program began in 1999 allowing selected pregnant inmates with sentences less than thirty months to maintain custody of their babies after giving birth.
I was reminded of Hanna-Truscott’s work today with its inclusion in 100Eyes newest issue Dependence.
Prison Photography 
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
April 12, 2010 at 8:01 am
Dan
Thanks for this. I’ll share this with students tomorrow are preparing to discuss precisely this topic.
June 17, 2011 at 12:18 am
Babies Behind Bars: Gunnar Knechtel in the Family Unit of a Spanish Prison « Prison Photography
[…] been documented by three conscientious female photographers – Cheryl Hanna Truscott at the Residential Parenting Program, at Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW); Angela Shoemaker at Prison Nursery at Ohio Reformatory for Women, Marysville, Ohio; and Neelakshi […]
July 31, 2011 at 12:07 pm
Summer Reading: ‘Beyond Prisons’ YES! Magazine « Prison Photography
[…] – Raising Babies in Prison, with photos by Cheryl Hanna-Truscott (on PP here) […]
September 27, 2015 at 5:13 pm
Two Female Photographers Focusing on the Impact of Incarceration on Mothers and Children | Prison Photography
[…] the past, I have flagged Hanna-Truscott’s work, curated it into a pop-up show about Washington State prisons, and […]