A woman prisoner at a jail near York is going to the High Court in a bid to avoid being separated from her toddler daughter when the baby reaches 18 months of age. The inmate, who cannot be named, is serving a five-year sentence at Askham Grange after being convicted in March last year of conspiracy to supply cannabis.
Her daughter was born in July last year and will be three when the prisoner first becomes eligible for parole in July 2002.
She is one of two prisoners who have applied for judicial review of the enforced separation of mothers from their babies when they reach 18 months old.
Their QC claimed that fundamental human rights were at stake and the rule was contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights because it unlawfully interfered with a prisoner's right to family life and did not take into account the needs and welfare of each individual toddler.
The case continues.
Updated: 11:02 Tuesday, May 01, 2001
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