Reference no: EM131647512

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Jail Hosts Father-daughter Dance for Incarcerated Inmates (Associated Press, 2017)

Many little girls dream of dancing with their dads, and a Virginia jail's mission is to reunite inmates with their daughters in an evening of glitz and glamour.

Incarcerated Dads at the Richmond City Justice Center dressed up in suits and ties to dance with their little girls who were dressed in fancy dresses in the jail's sixth annual father-daughter dance. "It started out as simply a dance in the jail, which was great, but our goal is to return folks to the community different than they were when they came in," said the facility's internal programs director Sarah Higgins Scarborough.

"The No. 1 way to break the cycle and to break recidivism is to reunite the families." Scarborough said the goal is to help inmates have better lives outside prison by encouraging them to bond with their families.

Most incarcerated fathers are eligible to attend the dance if they show progress in programs offered inside the jail. If chosen, the fathers must then attend a 30-hour parenting course. "[It's] a very effective curriculum," Scarborough said. "The cherry on top is being able to participate in the [dance]."

In addition to the father-daughter dance, Scarborough said the jail also offers a basketball event, where inmates can play basketball with their sons, and a back-to-school cookout for the entire family. "Everyone knows locking them up and throwing away the key isn't the solution - you can't arrest away the problem," she said. "We want better citizens so we do everything we can to prepare them to do something different when they get out."

[The above information is from a news story - it is not a relevant resource. It is provided for you to explain the circumstances leading to the question for this argumentative paper].

The question for this paper........although Scarborough said the goal is to help inmates have better lives outside prison by encouraging them to bond with their families, do you believe the practice of bringing children to the prison for activities such as this "is harmful and contributes to normalizing prison life in the eyes and mind of the child?