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 childs 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 doesnt 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 childs 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)
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. Without the
young minds of today, how is the country going to move forward to a better future
tomorrow ?
2. People deserve a second chance, including inmates who are single
parents
- 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 ones 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 cant
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 dont 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 wouldnt 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 doesnt 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 shouldnt 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
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. Dont 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 wouldnt 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 childrens 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 inmates 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.