The Stop Infant Mortality And Recidivism Reduction Act Of...

The bill selected for the purpose of this legislative analysis is titled the Stop Infant Mortality and Recidivism Reduction Act of 2016, and is also recognized by the abbreviation SIMARRA Act. The bill number is 5,130 in the House of Representatives, and has no related bills in the Senate. The SIMARRA Act is a federal bill that was last referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations for further review and analysis. Scope of Problem The problems at hand that the SIMARRA Act bill is proposing to address, involves child welfare issues, women’s health concerns, and a lack of protection and healthcare needs for these women and their unborn children within the criminal justice system. According to the bill, it has been propositioned to enhance the welfare and public health for incarcerated pregnant women and mothers by improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the Federal prison system, by establishing a pilot program of critical-stage, developmental nurseries in Federal prisons for children born to inmates, with risk needs assessments, and risk and recidivism reduction (H.R.5130, 2016). The bill is intended to focus and alleviate the lack thereof adequate care, stress, and hazardous health practices that incarcerated mothers are experiencing with their infant babies, while also monitoring the health of these women. Both the mothers and infants are affected in these situations because th e health of the mother has substantial