Mum’s bid to raise toddler in Dame Phyllis Frost Centre sparks bitter family war
A LITTLE boy whose mother killed his father now faces being brought up behind bars in a Melbourne prison while she serves a jail term for manslaughter.
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A BITTER family dispute has erupted over whether a little boy should be raised behind prison walls.
The toddler’s mother, who is in jail for killing his father, wants to bring him up while she serves the rest of her sentence for manslaughter inside the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.
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But the child’s paternal grandparents say prison is no place for him, and that he should remain in their care.
His grandfather told the Herald Sun that the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, belongs in a family home.
“I don’t know what kind of a life it would be for him in prison,” he said.
“What sort of life is it for a 22-month-old?”
The grandfather told 3AW today he could provide a better home for the child.
“It would be taking him away from his other sibling ... why would you do that?”
“I’ve had him before she was incarcerated, she couldn’t provide for him then.”
“I think I can provide a better home life for the little boy”
The toddler, along with an older sibling, has been living under the roof of the grandparents, who have cared for him for most of his life.
The grandparents, who are both aged in their 60s, say the boy would miss out on socialising with children of his own age group if he were to live with his mother in the prison.
The boy is healthy and well adjusted, and visits his mother, who has now been in custody for more than a year, every fortnight.
The mother, who hopes to regain custody of all her children after she is released from jail, which could be as early as next year, is arguing that her son should be with her in the meantime, so that she can bond with him.
Relations between the mother and the paternal grandparents are poor.
Corrections Victoria provides a limited number of special units for mothers and their children at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Deer Park, and at the Tarrengower jail in northern Victoria.
The program tries to encourage a mother-child relationship.
Program guidelines state the mother must have been the pre-school child’s primary carer before being imprisoned.
The grandparents claim the boy was not in her care in the period before she was locked up on remand.
Applications under the program are considered by a mothers-and-children steering committee, which then makes a recommendation to the jail’s general manager.
Mothers confined to cells are not eligible because such living arrangements are not suitable.
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