THIS HOUSE BELIEVES THAT SINGLE PARENTS IN PRISON SHOULD BE PROVIDED SPECIAL TREATMENT

TO ALLOW THEM TO RAISE THEIR CHILDREN FROM BEHIND BARS

GOVERNMENT

Problem

- Single parents have no other option left but to send their children to orphanages because there is no
one to raise their child except for themselves

- Children raised without their parent is hampers the childrens’ own social-emotional development, the
way children express their social skills and emotional competencies.

Solution

- Hence, we would like to propose that THIS HOUSE BELIEVES THAT SINGLE PARENTS IN PRISON
SHOULD BE PROVIDED SPECIAL TREATMENT TO ALLOW THEM TO RAISE THEIR CHILDREN FROM
BEHIND BARS for the betterment of the childrens’ own social-emotional development

Objective

- With this proposal, the objectives that can be achieved are the improvements of childrens’ social skills
and emotional competencies with the guide of their parent, eventhough they are behind bars. Next, is
to give the parents a second chance to redeem themselves worthy by giving them the opportunity to
raise their children properly. Finally, to decrease the stigmatization of single parents being unsuitable for
raising their children.

Mechanism

- How would the gov identify the case ? : By recruiting officers to keep track and analyse the records of
the prison inmates. The officers will scan the database for any inmates that are single parents with
children.

- What would the gov do ? : Once the particular inmates that match the required criteria are identified,
these inmates will be interviewed by the officers regarding their consent of raising their children behind
bars and also questions regarding their children. If the inmate agrees to comply, several steps will be
taken into ensuring the child’s consent as well, if they are above the age of 8. Or if the children are
younger than that, the consent of the orphanage director.

- What if nobody complies ? : Consent and mutual agreement between the inmate and their children or
the orphanage director is given the utmost priority. If the inmate does not agree to do so, no further
action will be taken. However, if the inmate agrees to raise their children behind bars, but the children
or the orphanage director doesn’t comply, with validated reasons, the inmate can appeal for a meet-up
session to discuss with the children and/or orphanage director. If a mutual agreement is still not
achieved, no further action will be taken and the case is closed.

- How are the single parents actually raising their children ? : There will be a special place, built about 3
to 5 kilometres from the prison vicinity for these single parents to raise their children. All the related
facilities that a home should have, are provided there and are being constantly monitored by officers
guarding the place. The consent and mutual agreement achieved from the discussion of prisoner and/or
orphanage director/children also includes the number of days in a month that the children should stay
with their single parent. But as a start-off, the children are only allowed to stay with their parent every
weekend and during the school holidays. Changes can be made as time progresses. And by children in
this case, I meant children of the ages of 1 to 17.

How are single parents prepared to see their children ? : We, the government would send them for
counselling sessions (special treatment) which guides carefully on how to raise their children during
their stay, and also the objectives that should be achieved in terms of the child’s social-emotional
development at the end of every stay. The progress is closely monitored by counsellors.

Argument (Definition + elaboration, harms of status quo, benefits of proposal) > Practical

1. Social-emotional development of children

- Social-emotional development, in this case children, is the way children express their social skills and
emotional competencies. There are a number of factors that can hamper the social-emotional
development of children. And the most prevalent one is family. Family is the instituition that brings the
individuals involved in their specific instituitions, a sense of belonging, care, warmth, love and affection.
Who else is going to care about you if it is not your family ? And when that family instituition is broken
due to death, divorce which also results in the aftermath of other cases such as crime, the children are
the ones adversely affected by this. A majority of these children are traumatized by seeing their single
parent, the only person they turn back to every single time, being robbed away from them due to the
wrong choices the single parent has made. It takes time for the children to wake up from this emotional
trauma and the only way to do this, is by letting the single parent raise their children from behind bars.
At least, the children get to see and interact with their only member of the family, and slowly awake
from the trauma which in turns helps the social-emotional development of the children.

HOSQ : The special treatment given to the single parents in jail, may be perceived differently in the eyes
of the society. But as far as the government is aware of, counselling will be given to the inmates who
have reached mutual agreement with the children and/or orphanage director.

BOP : The government has decided to play a role in uniting these broken families to ensure the
preservation of the childrens’ minds as they are the assets of the country, they cannot be traumatized
for too long with such a big issue.

2. People deserve a second chance, including inmates who are single parents (principle+practical)

- A second chance meaning another opportunity for the single parents to redeem themselves as worthy
of raising their children even when behind bars. Everyone makes mistakes, this is a usual thing, no one is
truly flawless and most importantly, no one has ever succeeded without failing first. So, as the
government, we are giving the chance to these inmates to prove themselves of being able to contribute
to society by raising their kids properly behind bars with hopes that the inmates themselves can turn a
new leaf in the process as well. This is a way better option instead of just consuming one’s self with
constant feelings of regret with no outlet to express it besides their own children, whereby the children
would be separated from their single parent.

HOSQ : The only clear harm here is the adaptability of the children towards the new environment they
will be living in with their single parent. The children must be ready to accept the changes and thus,
continue to adapt to the environment to be a much stronger person in the future. The children and
orphanage director will be informed of this beforehand.

BOP : Children are stronger mentally and emotionally, in dealing with the trauma that their single parent
is in jail.

3. Society mindset

- The society should be ready to be more open-minded as time progresses. We can’t be living in the box
anymore and stick to old traditional thoughts. We as the society should give more thought into whether
these previous thoughts are even practical in real life. When only a society is ready to accept change for
the betterment of the society and the country as a whole, then only together we will make a true
difference not in the lives of ourselves, but also the lives of others. In this case, stigmatizing that all jail
inmates are evil and don’t deserve a place to contribute to society.

HOSQ : There are maybe some individuals who are reluctant to change their thoughts, but sooner or
later, eventually they will have to. They might even try to influence others as to not follow the agendas
of the government, when only the agendas are proposed for the wellbeing of the society.

BOP : Jail inmates who are raising their child behind bars will form a sense of retribution as they are no
longer stigmatized and stereotyped as the so-called ‘worthless people’ of society, when they too can
contribute by raising the future generation, with the guide of counsellors.
OPPOSITION

Problem

- Is the problem severe and urgent enough to warrant such a drastic proposal? : No, because the
children and/or the orphanage director wouldn’t comply in the first place. They believe that single
parents are not in the right state of mentality to raise their children because they have committed a
crime that has sent them to jail in the first place, even after receiving special treatment.

- Could the negative implications of the problem be handled adequately under the status quo ? : Yes, by
sending these children to counselling and therapy sessions if necessary because the whole idea of their
single parent in jail would take a toll on them at a certain point. Through these sessions, these children
are taught to become more confident, wise and most importantly, teaching them the good ways to
contribute to society, and to not end up like their single parent.

- Children raised with their parent who is in jail only disrupts the childrens’ own social-emotional
development, the way children express their social skills and emotional competencies.

- Why are only singles parents given this special treatment ? How about other parents who have
children as well ? Is it just because only one parent is in jail and the other is not in jail, the one in jail
doesn’t deserve a chance ? It also opens a door to jealousy among the inmates. How about inmates who
have elderly parents ? Elderly parents also need to be taken care of too just like children.

Solution

- Does the solution match the problem ? : No, because being in jail clearly shows that the single parent is
not capable of raising their own child. We shouldn’t give more leeway to the idea of children being
raised by single parents who have committed crimes in the first place.

- Does the proposal solve the problem? If no, why ? : No, because interacting with people of a bad
mindset or the mind of a criminal, will eventually influence the harmless people around them. The effect
is even adverse when it comes to children.

- Does the proposal do more harm then good ? What are the harms evident in the proposal ? : The
proposal does more harm than good, because at the end of the day the children are the ones adversely
affected by being in close proximity and also interacting with their single parent who has done criminal
activity.

Hence, we would like to disagree with the proposal that THIS HOUSE BELIEVES THAT SINGLE PARENTS
IN PRISON SHOULD BE PROVIDED SPECIAL TREATMENT TO ALLOW THEM TO RAISE THEIR CHILDREN
FROM BEHIND BARS, because the childrens’ own social-emotional development will be hampered.

Objective

- By rejecting the proposal, we are trying to protect the minds of the children whose single parents are
involved in criminal activity. With this proposal, the objectives that can be achieved are the
improvements of childrens’ social skills and emotional competencies with the guide of certified
professionals, instead of the parent who is behind bars. Next, is to give the parents a deep realization of
what they have done wrong, giving them time to rethink their previous actions and possibly to turn a
new leaf.

Mechanism

- Feasibility : Not feasible, mutual agreement is tough to be attained, only a very small percentage will
actually agree to the idea of children being raised by single parents who are raised behind bars. In other
words, this whole idea or mechanism that has been set up by the government is too futuristic and
unrealistic for the society to accept it. Legalising this might take away the trust of the society towards
the government who are now seen as people that support criminal minds.

Argument (practical)

1. Does not benefit social-emotional development of children

- Social-emotional development, in this case children, is the way children express their social skills and
emotional competencies. There are a number of ways that can hamper the social-emotional
development of children and one way is by agreeing to the proposal of the government. People are
locked up in jail because they have brought harm to the society. So how can this be an approval for a
single-parent to raise their child behind bars if the single parents has a criminal record ? There are
different categories of crimes, arranged according to their severity. Don’t tell me the government is
going to let a murderer raise his/her child. Does that even make any sense in the first place ? When
children are raised by inmates with such crippling, filthy criminal minds, how can the children, and next
the society even grow towards a better future ?

HOSQ : Children raised by single-parents who are behind bars tend to follow their footsteps, if the
parents are not even close to the regret of doing the crime. Some might not even care about their
children, after all why would they even commit a crime, if they thought about their children in the first
place ? These inmates are just selfish.

BOP : The government has decided to play a role in making the situation even worse by uniting these
broken families to ensure the degradation of the childrens’ minds. Without the correct young minds of
today, how is the country going to move forward to a better future tomorrow ?

2. Other family members raising the child

- The child definitely has relations in their family, like their aunties, uncles, grandparents and older
cousins who are capable of raising the child instead of the single parent who is in jail for committing
crime. The people I have mentioned are better options in raising the child because they are family
members and are not strangers to the child. But the most important thing to be looked upon when
selecting a guardian for the child, is to ensure that the other family member who wants to take care of
the child is mature enough and does not have a history of criminal activity. This is important because the
child wouldn’t feel so impacted and traumatized by their single parent being locked up in jail. It also
ensures the child is in the right hands to be raised. So, as the opposition, we are not giving the chance to
these inmates to raise their kids, because we believe the jail sentence itself is severe enough for the
inmates themselves to turn a new leaf in the process, instead of prematurely letting them raise their
children. This is a way better option instead of letting the mindset of children being corrupted.
HOSQ : The only clear harm here is the children’s adaptability towards the new environment without
their single parent. The children, must be ready to accept the changes and thus, continue to adapt to the
environment to be a much stronger person in the future.

BOP : Children are stronger mentally and emotionally, in dealing with the trauma that their single parent
is in jail.

3. Change proposed not thoroughly researched and approved

- The special treatment the government is proposing seems very immature to me. There is no one
treatment that fits all in terms of counselling. The inmate’s state of mind has to be considered, there
needs to be proper benchmarks of assessment to ensure that the inmate has come to a state of full
retribution, instead of them faking it. Every inmate has a different kind of treatment depending on the
severity of the crime done.

HOSQ : The inmates possibly are not fit at all to raise their children behind bars in the first place, if the
special treatment is not properly administered with a specific set of guidelines.

BOP : Childrens’ minds are not infiltrated with bad intentions and disturbing thoughts because of the
carelessness of the government, overlooking the special treatment for the single parents behind bars.