Family and Communication
I want to talk about family and communication within a prison context.
Firstly I want to discuss the effect that prison can have on families. In his paper The effects of imprisonment on
families and children of prisoners, Joseph Murray states:
“Prisoners’ families and children can experience profound social, psychological and economic losses as a result of their relative’s imprisonment.”
This is important to think about when thinking of imprisonment, it can be easy to see the sentence that is being imposed as one that affects only the individual as the sentence passed and the experience of that sentence is placed upon the individual. However, if that person is part of a family that can radically shift the dynamic of that family.
For example, if the prisoner has children. The childcare responsibilities must now be taken on by a single parent. Also, there may be a loss of income as that parent is no longer able to contribute to the income of the family and this can be difficult for families affected by prison.
This is an issue that affects a large number of families and children across Scotland.
An article written for Parenting Scotland states:
“About 16,500 children in Scotland have a parent in prison on any given day, with just under 2,000 separated from their mother through imprisonment. More children experience a parent’s imprisonment than a parent’s divorce.”
I was shocked by the number of children affected by this, especially with the data being compared to divorce which feels commonplace.
This clip from the BBC explores what the experience is for a young person to have a parent in prison.
One of the things that stood out to me was the reference to Government
“Research has proven that those who see their family members regularly are less likely to reoffend”
Upon further researchI found a 2014 ministry of justice report that states
“offenders who maintain family relationships and receive visits while in custody are 38% less likely to reoffend than those who do not receive visits”
This statistic shows how important it is to be able to maintain family communication. This idea of maintaining communication feels very present now as we are currently living through the restrictions that have been imposed as part of the pandemic.
While reading Young Adults in prison during the Covid-19 pandemic, A briefing from the Howard League for Penal Reform I came across this quote referring to the use of mobile phones:
“With face-to-face visits currently forbidden, sufficient access to phone time and credit is essential to maintain family links, relieve boredom and help bolster mental health. It is also vital to enable young adults to seek access to external sources of support and plan for release”
Taking this information about the importance of family contact and the fact that the pandemic has reduced the capacity for such contact I feel as though I am now considering ways in which my creative resource would be able to create pathways for communication between families and loved ones. Further to this, the report also references the cost of these existing mobile phone communication strategies:
“The amount of phone credit and time on the phone young adults are getting varies considerably by institution. Some prisons
are limiting phone calls to 20 minutes and only allowing a certain number of calls a day. While some prisons are providing extra
credit, in others young adults have to pay for it themselves.”
When thinking about my own resource, I will take this into consideration and ensure that the communication service that I would be providing would come at no cost to the prisoner or their family as this feels like an unfair and limiting factor.
I want to reference a specific example of an organisation that uses writing and performance based practices to create pathways of communication between families with a parent in prison.
I feel that the project Crickmore is talking about, Storybook Dads, is a great example of how performance and writing can open up pathways for family contact.
I want to take into consideration both the prison population of young people as well as adults in terms of thinking how my resource can be used by prisoners. While the experience is different between young people in prison and adults within prison, the way that can affect a family dynamic is different. Research has shown that in both cases, it is important to maintain family contact. I want to think of a way that I can make my resource open and accessible to as many people as possible to be able to provide as much opportunities for contact as I can
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Ministry of Justice and Department for Business Innovation and Skills (2014), Parenting and relationship
support programmes for offenders and their families
https://howardleague.org/publications/young-adults-in-prison-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
