A statistical overview notes that most female inmates are single mothers with children and that 90 percent are incarcerated for nonviolent crimes. Interviews with inmates, their children, corrections personnel, and volunteers illustrate the dilemma created by the need to carry out justice and the need to care for innocent children who are often abandoned while their parents are doing time. Issues covered include the policy of noncontact visits, foster care, and inmates' loss of parental rights. One alternative described is the Children's Center in New York State's Bedford Hills facility. With the help of volunteers from the prison and the community, this program brings children to the prison for 1 week during the summer; children spend the day with their mothers and stay with a local family at night. Other programs described are a California halfway house where female inmates live with their young children and a private organization that helps mothers regain their children and adjust following release. Interviews highlight these programs' costs and benefits, the anguish and anger experienced by children and inmate mothers, and conflicts between mothers and adolescents. Conversations with adults whose parents were in prison offer another perspective on the issue.