Conceptualizing the effects of imprisonment on families: Collateral consequences, secondary punishment, or symbiotic harms?

Abstract

This article explores how we might best understand the effects of imprisonment on families and why this is important to a full understanding of prison as a form of punishment. The effects on families have broadly been understood within previous literature in one of two ways: either as ‘collateral consequences’, or as a form of secondary punishment extended to the family member. We suggest that the first of these descriptions is at best insufficient and at worst subordinating and marginalizing, while the second is inaccurate when family members have not committed an offence. We offer instead the concept of ‘symbiotic harms’ which we define as negative effects that flow both ways through the interdependencies of intimate associations such as kin relationships. The characteristics of these harms can be more fully described by a term which encompasses their relational, mutual, non-linear, agentic, and heterogeneous properties.

The mental health impact of parole on families of indeterminate‐sentenced prisoners in England and Wales

“…Participants in both studies described a reverberation process whereby a prisoner's trials and tribulations exerted an immediate effect on the well‐being of the family member. We came to understand these ‘referred pains’ (Condry & Minson, 2020) as ‘symbiotic harms’ (Condry & Minson, 2020), presenting as ongoing, ‘severe negative effects that flow both ways through the interdependencies of intimate associations’ (Condry & Minson, 2020, p. 11). One family member felt that:

The IPP is a sentence for both of us whether he is in prison or free, I am scared, angry, desperately unhappy and trapped … I will be a prisoner for the rest of my life also (Family member).

…”

“…The cumulative effects of negative stress, experienced by families of IPP‐prisoners in relation to the sentence and especially the parole process, can have long‐lasting, severe mental and physiological health effects. Due to their reciprocal and detrimental nature they can be understood as ‘symbiotic harms’ (Condry & Minson, 2020) of IPP imprisonment. While these harms are experienced in some form by a majority of prisoners' families, we have argued that they can take a particular—often exacerbated—form for those related to or supporting a loved one serving an IPP sentence.…”

“…The symbiotic harms of prison transcend the individual prisoner, rippling out to a wider circle beyond the prison walls. We have sought in this article, in the words of Condry and Minson, to provide ‘greater clarity in defining the symbiotic harms experienced by families’ (Condry & Minson, 2020, p. 17). Condry and Minson argue that ‘residual obligations’ flow from the recognition of symbiotic harms: organisations must take responsibility and those harms must be addressed (Condry & Minson, 2020, p. 17).…”

“…We have sought in this article, in the words of Condry and Minson, to provide ‘greater clarity in defining the symbiotic harms experienced by families’ (Condry & Minson, 2020, p. 17). Condry and Minson argue that ‘residual obligations’ flow from the recognition of symbiotic harms: organisations must take responsibility and those harms must be addressed (Condry & Minson, 2020, p. 17). One organisational response to address the ‘long tail’ of the IPP sentence could be prospective abolition of the sentence, for example, converting IPP sentences into determinate terms, or imposing a maximum possible overall term of imprisonment (Annison, 2018).…”

Ben Crewe, Susie Hulley and Serena Wright, Life Imprisonment from Young Adulthood: Adaptation, Identity and Time

“…Moreover, further integrating work on families with work on people in prison further shows the fact that the social lives of those outside are often inexorably connected to and affected by what happens within prisons, which is all too often unrecognised within studies on imprisonment and within policy discourse. As argued recently by Condry and Minson (2020), families experience symbiotic pains of imprisonment – this book could have elaborated further on this symbiosis of life sentences and the lives of those outside, and how this in turn shaped the experiences of the people the authors interviewed. Considering that the impact on families was briefly addressed, there was scope for this kind of discussion within this book.…”