Action for Prisoners’ Families Working together – reducing the harm of imprisonment Sam Hart 1

Today  Context  Experience of families throughout the offender journey  What can be done 2

Action for Prisoners’ Families 3

 Every prisoner's and offender’s family should get the support they’d like and need  Provides advice, information and training to members (membership is free)  Provides members with opportunities to network, share experiences, concerns and successes  Listens to prisoners’ families  Promotes, develops and supports services and resources that families need or would like.  Lobbies for improved services that affect the well being of prisoners’ and offenders’ families Action for Prisoners’ Families

The Context  How many children have a parent sent to prison each year? a.80,000 b. 200,000 c.we don’t know  More children experience parental imprisonment each year than parental divorce. True or false?  What is the average distance prisoners are held away from home? a.10 miles b.30 miles c.60 miles? 5

More Context  How many offenders lose contact with their families during a sentence? a. 20% b. 45% C. 70%  Are you allowed to get married in prison? 6

The Context  How many children have a parent sent to prison each year?  200,000  More children experience parental imprisonment each year than parental divorce. True or false?  True  What is the average distance prisoners are held away from home?  60 miles  How many offenders lose contact with their families during a sentence?  45%  Are you allowed to get married in prison?  Yes 7

It wasn’t always like this 8

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Separate and Silent 11

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Pre arrestArrest First court appearance Remand: bail/custody Trial and Sentence Custodial/non-custodial Serving Sentence in custody Pre-release Release Resettlement The Offender Journey 13

Arrest “They kicked the door down at six in the morning. They raided the house. It was terrifying. We had no idea.” 14

Anxiety, Trauma, Uncertainty “My little boy is terrified they will come and take me away too.” “My little girl is clingy. She has night terrors now and has started wetting the bed again.” “I feel jumpy. It’s difficult to sleep.” 15

Denial -Denying commission -Denying the seriousness of the offence -Minimising aspects of the offence -Denying consequences/ impact 16

Court, trial and sentence  What support is available for families at court?  Do families get a chance to say goodbye to the prisoner and sort out practical issues (rent, finances, childcare?) 17

Lack of information  “You don’t know what’s happening. There’s no information for families. I didn’t know where he’d gone or when I could see him again.”  “I had no idea how to get to the prison. I’d never been to a prison before and I was really scared.” 18

Grief and loss Disenfranchised grief is experienced when someone incurs loss that cannot be openly acknowledged, physically mourned or socially supported. 19

Loss and Anger “He’s just gone. Playing up. Attitude problems and not doing as he is told. It’s on his mind all the time. Even in school he is crying and saying ‘I want my Dad, I miss my Dad.’” 20

Custody  “He’s got everything done for him in there. I think I am serving the bigger sentence.” 21

Maintaining Relationships 

Maintaining Relationships/ Visits “I haven’t seen my boys for three years. My oldest was 11 when I went in. He’s a young man now.” “It’s a five hour round trip to see him. We have to set off really early and the kids are shattered when we get there.” “We didn’t talk when we saw him. There were too many other people around. I couldn’t think of anything to say in case someone else was listening.” 23

Maintaining Relationships  60 mile journey  Phones/ letters  45 per cent of prisoners families lose contact  Yet those who maintain contact are significantly less likely to reoffend 24

Secrecy  “No, [I didn’t tell the teacher] because if I tell that my dad’s in prison then I’ll get told off by my mum.”  “I just tell him Daddy’s at work. It’s the easiest thing for everyone.”  Yet children want to be told the truth and consulted (The Coping Project) 25

Mental Health Simmons (2000) study found  Profound effect on child’s development  Possible multiple psychological problems including trauma, anxiety, guilt, shame, fear  include sadness, decline in school performance, lose of esteem  Children of a convicted parent are twice as likely to have mental health problems during their life.  Higher levels of depression among adults 26

Education  Higher risk of truancy  Poorer educational outcomes  Children of a convicted parent are 3x more at risk than their peers of committing antisocial behaviour  2/3 boys with dads in prison go on to be offenders themselves 27

Practicalities “He used to take the kids to football on Saturdays.”  Prisoners held around 60 miles away from home  Changes to childcare/ domestic arrangements  Just 5% of children stay in the family home when their mother is sent to prison 28

Money “My benefits stopped. I had to start from scratch.”  Plunged into sudden poverty  Loss of income  Money spent on visits  Sending money in to the prisoner  The personal cost to a family is thought to be £175 a month.  Loss of home?  Might be better off…. 29

Hostility from the community  Bullying  Physical violence  Socially ostracised  Vulnerability dependent on crime “I told one girl who told the whole school who then stopped talking to me.” “I don’t go to school any more. I get into fights because people have a go at me about my mum. It’s me who gets into trouble.” 30

Relief  “Our life is now stable we can have our mates over and not worry about fights and arguments.”  “I manage fine – I’m very good with money. I’m better off now to be honest, though he’d be raging if he heard me say that. We always had less when he was here.”  Feelings may be dependent on the type of crime 31

Release  A happy reunion?  “It never ends”  “I am so excited. We are going to have a massive party. I am never letting him out of my sight.”  “He’s going to think he’s the boss again.”  I am scared of coming out but I can’t tell my family that 32

Restrictions  to stay at home between certain hours (curfew)  to report to a police station  not to enter a certain area or go to a certain place ( ʻ an exclusion zone ʼ )  to give details of any car you use  restrictions on activities you can do  restrictions on using the internet  restrictions on using mobile phones and cameras  Having children in the house 33

Families Unprepared for a Reunion  Criminal Justice Joint Inspection Report found no cases where families have been involved in planning for release  Given very little information  How are children prepared to be reunited with mothers? 34

What about women? What is the biggest single reason that women are imprisoned? What percentage of prison population are women? Babies in prison? 35

Different Perspectives 

Hidden Problem  No official recording of figures  No one statutory agency with overview of their needs  Lack of joined up support  72% of partners not receiving support (Ormiston Trust)

Offender’s family in community Offender in Prison No single agency in charge No info sharing No picture of family needs Failing to Bridge the Gaps Children of Offenders’ Review

Hidden Sentence  Training for practitioners  Raises awareness of the needs of prisoners’ families  Qualification  Specialist training around families of sexual offenders 39

What’s needed  More information for children and their families  Prisoners to be held closer to home  Offers of early support  Better joint working  Families to be listened to and consulted 40

More Information 

References Families Shamed: The Consequences of Crime for Relatives of Serious Offenders (Crime Ethnography), Rachel Condry content/uploads/sites/2/2014/09/Resettlement-thematic-for- print-Sept-2014.pdf 42