Using the existing empirical literature and making reference to original research with Canadian children of prisoners, this Practice Note offers a caution to practitioners against making homogenizing or pathologizing assumptions about children who have a parent involved in the criminal justice system. Specifically, the notions that children of prisoners are highly likely to follow their parent to prison, are identical in their experiences of parental incarceration, or are necessarily in need of a specific counselling intervention are challenged. While children with a parent in prison are vulnerable to a variety of risk factors such as poverty, the relationship between parental incarceration, its covariates, and negative outcomes is complex. This paper concludes with four recommendations to practitioners working with families of prisoners and others involved in the justice system.

Article traduit de l'anglais au français par Florence Dubois RÉSUMÉ • Les enfants de détenus font face à divers problèmes, mais au Canada, on n'en sait que très peu sur cette population et l'on ne répond donc que piètrement à leurs besoins. Compte tenu du manque de données sur le sujet, de l'absence de services cohérents et généralisés offerts à cette population et de la non-reconnaissance de cette dernière par les politiques en justice criminelle, ces enfants sont essentiellement « invisibles ». À partir d'une étude qualitative récente sur l'incarcération de parents au Canada, j'explorerai la question pour montrer que l'expérience et les besoins de ces enfants sont en danger de rester invisibles. La persistance de leur invisibilité permettrait en fait au système carcéral de rester déresponsabilisé face aux familles des détenus, et servirait l'idéologie, au sein du système de justice criminelle, qui peint les détenus sous une lumière punitive et pathologisante.

This chapter argues that the children of prisoners are rendered invisible from the micro to the macro level, through a series of interconnected processes the chapter refers to as ‘systemic invisibility’. This study, moreover, is situated in the Canadian context, particularly in the experiences of Canadian children of prisoners. While these children make up a sizeable population, and the experience and outcomes of parental incarceration appear to be significant, they are often hidden from view, subject to layers of invisibility. Starting from children’s own families, to their relationship with their schools and communities, to the policies and practices of the prison systems in which they are so tightly intertwined, and finally to the broader social policy context, the chapter discusses the ways in which parental incarceration is kept secret, enigmatic, and poorly understood. Finally, the chapter considers the meanings and reasons behind these connected layers of invisibility.

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