Direct harms and social consequences: An analysis of the impact of maternal imprisonment on dependent children in England and Wales

Abstract

This article draws upon research with children whose mothers were imprisoned in England and Wales, to investigate the impacts of maternal imprisonment on dependent children. The research directly engaged with children, in accordance with Article 12 of the UNCRC 1989, and is set within an examination of the differentiated treatment in the family and criminal courts of England and Wales of children facing state initiated separation from a parent. The article explores children’s ‘confounding grief’ and contends that this grief originates from social processes, experienced as a consequence of maternal imprisonment. ‘Secondary prisonization’ is characterized by changes in home and caregiver and the regulation of the mother and child relationship. ‘Secondary stigmatization’ occurs when children are stigmatized by virtue of their relationship with their mother. These harms to children call into question the state’s fulfilment of its duty to protect children under Article 2 of the UNCRC 1989.

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

“…In the past decade there has been a widening and deepening of the research literature on prisoners’ families. The scholarship on the impact of family member imprisonment indicates that such imprisonment may cause a non-imprisoned family member to experience a range of negative effects, including exclusionary and stigmatizing practices, lost friendships, financial stress, direct abuse and attacks, disrupted attachments, reduced life chances, disrupted education and employment, and an increased risk of mental health and addiction problems (see, for example, Arditti, 2012; Besemer and Dennison, 2018; Comfort, 2007; Condry and Smith, 2018; Dallaire and Wilson, 2010; Halsey and Deegan, 2015; Minson, 2018; Minson and Condry, 2015; Murray and Farrington, 2008; Sampson, 2011; Smith, 2014; Travis and Waul, 2004; Wakefield and Wildeman, 2011, 2014). Family members are affected as individuals and as citizens, experiencing broader patterns of marginalization and discrimination that compound and connect to pre-existing forms such as racial, economic, and gender inequality.…”

Disconnected: Exploring provisions for mother–child telephone contact in female prisons serving England and Wales

“…Given the increased international interest in the collateral consequences of parental imprisonment (Chui, 2016; Minson, 2019) and the recent policy focus on prisoners’ family ties in England and Wales (Farmer, 2017), the new empirical findings from this study contribute important and timely insights into the accessibility and functionality of prison telephone facilities in English female prisons. Drawing on data produced from interviews with imprisoned mothers with first-hand experience of using telephones to contact their children, the findings draw attention to the limitations of prison telephones across the female estate with regard to: Reconnecting in the first weeks; Cost of calling; Telephoning privileges ; and Inconsistencies across prisons .…”

‘He is a New Man, a Proper Family Man’: The Impact of a Specialist ‘Family Wing’ on the Quality of Family Relationships and Paternal Identity among Imprisoned Fathers

“…This suggests that, in order to combat the risks of such damage, a major plank of policy in male prisons should be to help inmates who have children to maintain close contact and enhance their relationships with them (we do not here discuss female prisons, which raise additional complex issues and where quality contact is, arguably, even more important: see, for example, Minson (2019)). Our study indicates that, if it is to be effective, this requires some quite radical changes.…”