B.C.'s own representative for children and youth says that taking newborns from their mothers while they serve provincial prison time will hurt the children more than sending them to prison.

Mary-Ellen Turpel-Lafond said that mothers and babies benefit enormously from contact -- the babies bond with the mothers, and the mothers have a reason to reform.

"I'm very disappointed. It's a shortsighted move," said Turpel-Lafond, adding that wrecking the family unit would encourage more criminal behaviour in the parents and the kids.

"What's the cost to society of those children going into care and severing that bond?" she asked.

The provincial government quietly cancelled a pilot program that allowed 12 mothers to either give birth to babies in custody or bring newborns to prison with them.

Though the government would not comment to CTV News on the move, the reasons that were given were about safety of the babies.

The children are kept in a special unit of Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in Maple Ridge, with other women who are chosen for the program.

But Turpel-Lafond said she had interviewed several of the women and reviewed the program and found that there was little risk.

"I've had a chance to meet some of the moms and to advocate for some of the babies. That type of brain development is happening. To sever that, to put them with a caregiver and a foster parent is far more harmful to the child than any harm that might be posed in an institution.

"In fact, I've never heard of any," she said.

The representative for children and youth is an independent body in B.C.'s government that looks out for children.

The province is risking the recovery of other pregnant moms in the correctional system, she said.

"There are pregnant moms who need that program now and I don't want to see the babies removed," she said.

Jennifer Smith, 24, gave birth while in custody at Alouette Correctional Centre for Women. She said the chance to keep her baby made her want to change her ways.

"I had a child," she told CTV News. "That's basically the only thing that changed my life."

There is still a federal program that allows babies in certain prisons.