Children not being able to hear, never mind touch, a father during a prison visit is one of many issues highlighted in a new report on prisoners’ families. Family-friendly visiting arrangements should be available in all the Republic’s prisons to help children maintain their relationship with an imprisoned father or mother, says the report, compiled by the Irish Penal Reform Trust and launched by the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, in Dublin yesterday.
At the very least, imprisoned parents should be able to sit at a round table and play with their visiting children, it stresses. Currently all standard visits in closed prisons are non-contact – whether or not the two sides are separated by a screen. Special family visits can be requested but they are limited and at the discretion of the governor.
The report, Picking up the Pieces: the Rights and Needs of Children and Families Affected by Imprisonment, calls for an end to the standard practice of screened visits for all prisoners in Cloverhill Prison and St Patrick’s Institution.
It points out the stark contrast between the way the mother-child relationship is facilitated in the Dóchas Centre in Dublin, where there are 12 round tables and a small play area, and the lack of provision made for the father-child relationship in most male prisons. However, it notes an increasing number of women, who are more likely to be primary carers of children, are being sent to prison – 13.6 per cent of the 13,952 people imprisoned in 2011 were female.
Best interests of the child
The children of prisoners have been described as the “invisible victims” of crime and the penal system. An estimated 4,300 children in the Republic are separated from an imprisoned father and 142 from an imprisoned mother.
The Irish Penal Reform Trust calls on the Government to establish a charter of rights for children of imprisoned parents that incorporates the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
It also wants the best interests of the child to be a key consideration in court proceedings where a parent may be remanded or sentenced to custody.
The recent constitutional amendment on children’s rights may help to enable legislation for this, it suggests.
Targeting the Government, the Prison Service, An Garda Síochána, the Courts Service, the Department of Education and the media, the report makes almost 50 recommendations for changes in the treatment of, and attitudes towards, prisoners’ families. There is no national organisation with sole responsibility for providing information or support to families affected by imprisonment, it points out.
Families not only have concerns over issues at prisons, such as inflexible visiting times, lack of privacy and search procedures involving sniffer dogs, which are frightening for children, but they may also face stigmatisation, bullying and media intrusion in their own community.
Children with a parent in prison are twice as likely as their peers to have mental health problems during their lifetime.
Research shows that helping prisoners to maintain contact with their families reduces re-offending and the incidence of inter-generational crime. A study of the Integrated Family Support Programme in the UK found that for every £1 invested in facilitating the family relationship when a person goes to prison, the taxpayer can save £11.41 in the long term.
Prisoners children: What they say:
I didn't like that people kept chatting so we couldn't really hear what Da was saying. I
just kept saying 'yeah' – girl (8)
The one thing I hate about it is that you don't really get to hug them. You have to like lean
over but they tell ya 'GET on your chair' – girl (7)
I’d like that thing where Dad comes home for a day – boy (7)
