Raised behind bars, cared for by criminals: what it's like for children living in prison.

At the age of 11, Meena has never seen a television or been to the movies. She’s never gone swimming or … with her friends. Meena has never seen the world outside of the prison into which she was born.

According to Rob Nordland of The New York Times, this little Afghani girl lives with her mother, a former sex worker who is serving a life sentence for her role in the robbery and murders of 27 clients.

Under the country’s corrections policy, mothers can keep their daughters with her until they turn 18 – and so Meena’s childhood is confined by wire and towering concrete walls.

“My whole life has passed in this prison,” she told the paper. “Yes, I wish I could go out. I want to leave here and live outside with my mother, but I won’t leave here without her.”

There are countless numbers of children in the same position around the world, including here in Australia where the number of female inmates has climbed by nearly 40 per cent in the last decade. As of June 2017, that number sat at an all-time high of 3,094 women.

All states and territories have measures in place to cater for inmates who have young children or are pregnant when they fall foul of the law. While they are required to adhere to the national ‘Standard Guidelines for Corrections’, the nature of each state’s approach varies. Some, like South Australia, only have facilities and provisions available, while others including Victoria and New South Wales have government-implemented parenting programs.

At NSW’s Jacaranda Cottages facility in western Sydney, for example women have access to early-childhood nurses, visits from a GP, parenting courses and mental health care.

This is one of the state’s two purpose-built correctional parenting facilities, and allows a child to reside full-time if he or she is aged under six years and not attending school. After that, primary-aged children can only be accommodated on weekends or during school holidays.

What it’s like behind bars, from someone who spent more than a year there. (Post continues below.)

A resident psychologist at Jacaranda told The Daily Telegraph in late 2016 that the program is based on the notion that a child’s early bond with their mother is a fundamental part of their development.

“The early relationship affects everything in terms of how children view the world, other people, themselves,” Rebecca Merz told the outlet.

“What we have here is an opportunity to help these mums develop a secure ­attachment with their kids. It’s quite remarkable — we have mums who could have had disastrous attachment with their kids, but who end up with really excellent ­attachments.”

Only a handful of incarcerated mothers are granted approval to reside with their children; this requires the approval of a committee that includes representatives from DHS Community Services, SHINE For Kids and Justice Health, who complete “a rigorous assessment process” based on the best interests of the child. Final approval is granted by the Corrections Services NSW Commissioner.

While the numbers of children in facilities in each Australian state reportedly sits in the teens, in other parts of the world a single prison will house dozens, even hundreds, of children.

In Bolivia, for example, there are were an estimated 1500 children living behind bars with their parents just three years ago, a figure that’s likely since increased. In Afghanistan there are several hundred. The prison where 11-year-old Meera was housed, it alone had 40 children calling it home.

The United Nations Handbook on Women and Imprisonment noted that in the vast majority of its member countries prisons are ill-equipped to accommodate babies and small children: “Most often, children in prison cannot mix and communicate with children outside prison. Mothers are usually not allowed to spend enough time with their children. The harsh, punitive environment of prisons can permanently damage the psychological and mental well-being of children.”

As Meera’s mother told Nordland when asked how her daughter felt about her home of concrete and wire, “It’s a prison, how should she feel?

“A prison is a prison, even if it’s heaven.”