Specialist baby unit urged for prisons

NEW research on babies living behind prison bars with their mothers has recommended a special unit be set up in Irish jails.

The study, the first of its kind, found 14 babies have lived in prisons since 2003. Five were born to women pregnant on admission. The other women brought their babies in with them.

The research looked at women incarcerated in the Dochas centre attached to Mountjoy Prison, which holds 81 women prisoners.