Residential Parenting Program

In 1999, the Washington Corrections Center for Women created a unique prison nursery program combining a residential parenting program with Early Head Start. This program, known as the Residential Parenting Program, allows pregnant, minimum security inmates with sentences of less than 30 months the opportunity to keep their babies with them after giving birth. The inmate mothers and babies/toddlers live together in a designated unit and receive support and education in alliance with skilled early childhood educators. An unexpected side-effect is the humanizing of the prison atmosphere for other inmates and for the staff.