In March 2017, researchers, advocates and NGOs from twelve countries came together in Rotorua, New Zealand, for the first conference of the International Coalition for the children of incarcerated parents. The Coalition had been formed the previous year to recognise that similar issues faced the children of prisoners all over the world. From the first arrest until release from prison, the system is stacked against the child. Justice systems are all about punishing individuals, and are, as one conference speaker noted, ‘child blind’. The papers in this collection cover many of the themes in the wider literature on the children of prisoners. Advocacy themes include moving towards child-friendly prison systems, using mass incarceration to influence wider social change, the effects of pre-trial detention on families, the particular issues in Hawaii, and how arrest and detention procedures harm children. A set of papers reflect contemporary research and analysis on the children of prisoners. One paper sets out ‘12 guiding principles’ for working with children and families of the incarcerated. Others look at how babies and young children react to parental imprisonment, as well as children who are resilient in the face of it. Two papers consider women: one on mothers involuntarily committed to psychiatric hospital and the other examining the difficulties in maintaining family ties when a mother is sent to prison. Another contribution looks at an initiative between university and community set up to ‘expand knowledge and inspire change’ for the children of prisoners. One paper examines the difficult issue of supporting families where a parent has been convicted of a sexual offence. Also discussed in this volume are the Tyro programme that works to break the cycles of self-destruction for the children of prisoners and case studies of prison staff ‘making a difference’ in child and family visiting.

The second edition of this handbook examines family life, health, and educational issues that often arise for the millions of children in the United States whose parents are in prison or jail. It details how these youth are more likely to exhibit behavior problems such as aggression, substance abuse, learning difficulties, mental health concerns, and physical health issues. It also examines resilience and how children and families thrive even in the face of multiple challenges related to parental incarceration. Chapters integrate diverse; interdisciplinary; and rapidly expanding literature and synthesizes rigorous scholarship to address the needs of children from multiple perspectives, including child welfare; education; health care; mental health; law enforcement; corrections; and law. The handbook concludes with a chapter that explores new directions in research, policy, and practice to improve the life chances of children with incarcerated parents. Topics featured in this handbook include: Findings from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. How parental incarceration contributes to racial and ethnic disparities and inequality. Parent-child visits when parents are incarcerated in prison or jail. Approaches to empowering incarcerated parents of color and their families. International advances for incarcerated parents and their children. The second edition of the Handbook on Children with Incarcerated Parents is an essential reference for researchers, professors, clinicians/practitioners, and graduate students across developmental psychology, criminology, sociology, law, psychiatry, social work, public health, human development, and family studies. “This important new volume provides a cutting-edge update of research on the impact of incarceration on family life. The book will be an essential reference for researchers and practitioners working at the intersections of criminal justice, poverty, and child development.” Bruce Western, Ph.D., Columbia University “The comprehensive, interdisciplinary focus of this handbook brilliantly showcases the latest research, interventions, programs, and policies relevant to the well-being of children with incarcerated parents. This edition is a ‘must-read’ for students, researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers alike who are dedicated to promoting the health and resilience of children affected by parental incarceration.” Leslie Leve, Ph.D., University of Oregon

The book takes a holistic approach to highlight and explore the range of issues specifically associated with mothering and imprisonment, from sentencing, through custody to resettlement and focusing on the perspective of mothers and their children.

This book brings together internationally renowned academics and professionals from a variety of disciplines who, in a variety of ways, seek to understand the legal, conceptual and practical consequences of parental imprisonment through a children’s rights lens. Children whose parents have been incarcerated are often referred to as "invisible victims of crime and the penal system." It is well accepted that the imprisonment of a parent, even for a short period of time, not only negatively affects the lives of children but it can also result in a gross violation of their fundamental human rights, such as the right of access to their parent and the right to have an input into decision-making processes affecting them, the outcomes of which will without doubt affect the life of the child concerned. This collection foregrounds the voice of these children as it explores transdisciplinary boundaries and examines the practice and development of the rights of both children and their families within the wider dynamic of criminal justice and penology practice. The text is divided into three parts which are dedicated to 1) hearing the voices of children with parents in prison, 2) understanding to what extent children’s rights informs prison policy, and 3) demonstrating how law in the form of children’s rights can help frame both court sentencing and prison practice in a way that minimises the harm that contact with the prison system can cause. The research drawn upon in this book has been conducted in a number of European countries and demonstrates both good and bad practice as far as the implementation of children’s rights is concerned in the context of parental incarceration. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of law, children’s rights, criminology, sociology, social work, psychology, penology and all those interested in, and working towards, protecting the rights of children who have a parent in prison.

Mothering from the Field offers both a mosaic of perspectives from real women scientists' experiences of conducting field research while raising children, and an analytical framework to understand how we can redefine methodological and theoretical contributions based on mothers' experiences in order to revolutionize how we conceptualize research.

This handbook brings together the international research focussing on prisoners’ families and the impact of imprisonment on them. Under-researched and under-theorised in the realm of scholarship on imprisonment, this handbook encompasses a broad range of original, interdisciplinary and cross-national research. This volume includes the experiences of those from countries often unrepresented in the prisoner’s families’ literature such as Russia, Australia, Israel and Canada. This broad coverage allows readers to consider how prisoners’ families are affected by imprisonment in countries embracing very different penal philosophies; ranging from the hyper-incarceration being experienced in the USA to the less punitive, more welfare-orientated practices under Scandinavian ‘exceptionalism’. Chapters are contributed by scholars from numerous and diverse disciplines ranging from law, nursing, criminology, psychology, human geography, and education studies. Furthermore, contributions span various methodological and epistemological approaches with important contributions from NGOs working in this area at a national and supranational level. The Palgrave Handbook of Prison and the Family makes a significant contribution to knowledge about who prisoners’ families are and what this status means in practice. It also recognises the autonomy and value of prisoners’ families as a research subject in their own right.

This book centers directly impacted Black children who have lived through parental incarceration. Their stories are told from holistic perspectives incorporating the full range of collateral consequences. Shifting from the Eurocentric and capitalistic viewpoint, they move us beyond negative outcomes to a positive prism by providing insider perspective, strategy, advice, and compelling experiences. We center Black children of incarcerated parents’ (BCOIP’s) rich narratives to show how they are conscious thinkers with perspectives that can help reimagine all Black children’s lives and futures. These stories help readers better understand the importance of exploring the revolutionary ways BCOIP continue to survive, thrive, and transform amid the dynamic challenges surrounding mass incarceration. The book shifts the social dialogue from fear of intergenerational crime and incarceration to resilience, success, Black joy, and self-love, and moves from sympathetic into an empathetic agenda. The book brings to the forefront counter-storytelling through oral narratives that fill a gap in literature that leaves out the voices of children of incarcerated parents who are doctors, lawyers, professional athletes, musicians, community leaders, activists, professors, teachers, bestselling authors, and much more. These are vital experiences to share because not all BCOIP will end up in prison, jail, or a detention center. Black Children of Incarcerated Parents Speak Truth to Power will be of great interest to scholars from the humanistic social sciences and humanities. It is also a timely resource for students (high school, undergraduate, and graduate) in sociology, criminology, corrections, humanities, social work, counseling, education, social justice, and related courses, as well as agency administrators, community organizations servicing families of the incarcerated, specifically incarcerated parents and the children of incarcerated parents, themselves.

Incarcerating Motherhood explores how initial short period in prisons can negatively impact mothers and their children. We have much yet to understand about the enduring harms caused by first time incarceration, especially for minimal time periods and for mothers with dependent children. With large numbers of female prisoners currently incarcerated for short periods in England and Wales (either on short sentences or remand), many of whom are primary caregivers, this book asks: what kind of impact does this imprisonment has on both parent and child in the long term? Based on original research, the experiences of sixteen mothers are presented to voice the material, physical and emotional consequences of short-term imprisonment. The book explores to what extent these mothers lose their sense of identity in a short space of time, whether this continues to affect them post-custody, and what level of support they are provided during and post-custody. This book also explores what bearing the initial separation and the care provided during the mother’s absence will have on their children’s lives, as well as whether the affects of imprisonment on the mother also increase the vulnerability of her children. Incarcerating Motherhood provides a platform for readers to hear how a ‘short sharp shock’ can cause enduring harms to an already vulnerable group in society and how even short-term imprisonment have long-lasting and multi-dimensional consequences.

Motherhood In and After Prison focuses on how imprisonment impacts incarcerated mothers’ maternal identity, emotions and role. It explores both the short and longer-term consequences of sending mothers to prison. It reveals the devastating and often underestimated impact of maternal imprisonment on mothers themselves, on their children, and on their families and their place in society. Based on special access to mothers and grandmothers, who were either still in prison or contributing post-release, this new book will be of considerable interest to policymakers, educators, practitioners, researchers, feminists and women’s support groups. It follows the author’s acclaimed Mothering Justice. It contains imprisoned mothers’ thoughts gained via first-hand interviews and letters. The book concludes with recommendations for positive change and improved, informed responses to criminalised and imprisoned mothers, relating to their lives before prison, in prison, and after prison — including when ‘renegotiating’ motherhood in the ‘doubly/triply/quadruply deviant’ context of a convicted mother. Packed with information, data, analysis and the women’s own words the book will be of great interest to both a national and international audience. Based on first-hand accounts by imprisoned mothers/grandmothers of their incarceration. Deeply probes their multi-layered challenges. A feminist, matricentric tour de force. With extensive new findings and recommendations. Reviews ‘This timely book beautifully educates without judgement and is a must read for policymakers and practitioners alike, driving home a most critical message about the colossal and devastating impact of imprisoning mothers ’– Lady Edwina Grosvenor — From the Foreword.

Holding On reveals the results of an unprecedented ten-year study of justice-involved families, rendering visible the lives of a group of American families whose experiences are too often lost in large-scale demographic research. Using new data from the Multi-site Family Study on Incarceration, Parenting, and Partnering—a groundbreaking study of almost two thousand families, incorporating a series of couples-based surveys and qualitative interviews over the course of three years—Holding On sheds rich new light on the parenting and intimate relationships of justice-involved men, challenging long-standing boundaries between research on incarceration and on the well-being of low-income families. Boldly proposing that the failure to recognize the centrality of incarcerated men’s roles as fathers and partners has helped to justify a system that removes them from their families and hides that system’s costs to parents, partners, and children, Holding On considers how research that breaks the false dichotomy between offender and parent, inmate and partner, and victim and perpetrator might help to inform a next generation of public policies that truly support vulnerable families.