By Farren Downing
In this section, you will find information regarding who provides support for a child in these circumstances, who takes care of children when their parent is imprisoned and how to support a child with an imprisoned parent.
Who is Their Support System?
The child’s support system consists of various people including their parents, carers/guardians, trusted adults, family, friends, schools, and social workers (Families Outside, Date Unknown). Children can also access support groups, youth and community workers, agencies, and organisations for further support (Hutton and Moran, 2019. Kinship, Date Unknown).
All these people play significant roles in supporting the child and need to actively listen to the children to understand their emotions and needs. For instance, to fully support the children under their care, social workers should give children opportunities to revisit their decisions regarding contact with their parents. Teachers have a role to play within the school environment to combat bullying and stigma regarding imprisonment and actively support contact between a child and their imprisoned parent (Beresford, 2018). Schools can also provide counseling, art or play therapy (Kinship, Date Unknown).
Who Becomes Their Guardian?
The child’s caregiving arrangements are heavily influenced by the factor of whether it is their mother or father in prison (Arditti, J A, and McGregor, C M, 2019). When mothers are imprisoned, it’s often members of the extended family that become carers for the child. When a father is imprisoned, mothers care for the children in most cases, otherwise, they are cared for by other relatives before a foster place is considered. (Arditti, J A, and McGregor, C M. 2019. Kinship, Date Unknown). Unfortunately, children whose mothers are in prison are more likely to be in foster care than if their father is in prison. (Arditti, J A, and McGregor, C M. 2019). Beresford states only 9% of children whose mothers are in prison are looked after by their fathers (Beresford, 2018).
“Scottish Government figures estimate that 20,000 children in Scotland have a parent in prison each year – more than are affected each year by divorce.”
(Families Outside, Date Unknown)
Grandparents are often the carers of children while their mothers are carrying out their sentences in prison (Beresford, 2018 and McCamley, 2019). However according to a survey carried out by the Home Office, half of women prisoners had not anticipated a prison sentence, resulting in a lack of childcare arrangements (Kinship, Date Unknown). In these circumstances, children may have been in several temporary care situations or been left alone to cope before grandparents find out (Beresford, 2018).
When a mother is imprisoned, children must move from the family home in 95% of cases, moving often means that children are separated from siblings and change schools (Beresford, 2018 and McCamley, 2019).
“About 17,000 children are separated from their mothers every year by the prison system in England and Wales, which has one of the highest rates of female incarceration in western Europe”
(McCamley, 2019)
Supporting the Child
Children provided with support can be resilient and develop the skills to thrive (Beresford, 2018). A huge factor that influences a child’s resilience, development and behaviour is the attachment they have with their caregivers and having stability in their care arrangements (infrequent moves between households and changing of caregivers) is essential for this (Arditti, J A, and McGregor, C M. 2019. Beresford, 2018).
There may be many challenges that arise due to a parent being in prison, these may include a child struggling with mental health as a natural result of the stressful situation (Kinship, Date Unknown. SCCJR, 2019). Experiencing stigmatisation, isolation, and discrimination. Missing out on sharing family events such as birthdays and Christmas or a significant event for a child (a sports game or performance). Having nightmares and PTSD from witnessing their parent’s arrest. Feeling confused, angry, upset, petrified, sad, lonely, and ashamed. Some children may feel relieved. These emotions may be hard for a child to understand and deal with and it may affect their education, behaviour, physical and mental health (Beresford, 2018. Families Outside, Date Unknown. SCCJR, 2019. Sweeney, 2020).
Throughout all these challenges it is important to provide a child with support, letting them know they are not alone, reassuring them that their feelings are normal, they have someone to talk to and trust (Beresford, 2018. Kinship, Date Unknown).
You can support a child to make their own choices about contacting their parent in prison, whether this is through post, telephone, video calls or visits. Listening to a child’s wishes and feelings about whether and how they want to keep in touch gives them respect and control in the situation (Kinship, Date Unknown).
Supporting a child to visit a parent in prison allow benefits including helping the child come to terms with the situation and cope better – knowing the parent is well, still around and still loves them. Encourage children to ask questions about the visit and inform them what is likely to happen on the visit, social workers and agencies can help carers answer these questions and prisons often have visitor’s centres run by voluntary organisations to offer information and support to families. Regular visits enable the child to maintain their relationship with their parent who is in prison. Social workers can take a child to visits if need be. On the other hand, it is also important to respect and support a child if they don’t want to see their parent but let them know they can change their mind (Beresford, 2018. Families Outside, Date Unknown. Kinship, Date Unknown).
It is important that caregivers seek support for themselves, so they can best support the child/young person (Kinship, Date Unknown). To find out about various services available for support for children and guardians read our ‘Services Available’ page written by Laura.
References
Arditti, J A, and McGregor, C M. (2019) ‘A Family Perspective: Caregiving and Family Contexts of Children with an Incarcerated Parent’, in Eddy, J M and J, Poehlmann-Tynan. (2nd ed.) Handbook on Children with Incarcerated Parents. Cham: Springer International Publishing, Page 117.
Beresford, S. (2018) What about me? The impact on children when mothers are involved in the criminal justice system. Available at: http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/portals/0/documents/what%20about%20me.pdf (Accessed: 23rd November 2021).
Families Outside (Date Unknown) Supporting Children and Young People. Available at: https://www.familiesoutside.org.uk/professionals/young-people/ (Accessed: 23rd November 2021).
Hutton, M and Moran, D. (2019) The Palgrave Handbook of Prison and the Family. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Kinship. (Date Unknown) Looking after a child whose parent is in prison. Available at: https://kinship.org.uk/for-kinship-carers/advice-and-support/looking-after-a-child-whose-parent-is-in-prison/ (Accessed: 22nd November 2021).
McCamley, F. (2019) Jailed mothers: The ‘terrible damage’ to children. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48663833 (Accessed: 22nd November 2021).
Sweeney, T. (2020) ‘I was labelled a bad kid when mum went to prison’. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-51563775 (Accessed: 22nd November 2021)
The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR) (2019) Impact of Punishment: Families of People in Prison. Available at: https://www.sccjr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/11-Impact-of-punishment-prisoners-families.pdf (Accessed: 23rd November 2021)