The impact of a family member’s imprisonment on children and young people has been increasingly well-researched and understood in recent years. In almost all of this research, as well as in policy and practice, the family members are outside of the prison. There is little recognition of where someone can be in custody themselves and have other family members serving a sentence at the same time, either in the same or different prisons. This is despite the fact that prison populations tend to be drawn disproportionately from more deprived and therefore concentrated geographic areas, and that intergenerational offending and offending within families is a recognised issue.
The lack of research on these simultaneous familial imprisonment experiences means that there is little understanding of what it may feel like to serve a prison sentence at the same time as a family member, and how the prisons and organisations working with children and young people in custody can understand and support these relationships.
This Information Sheet, written by Kirsty Deacon (SCRA), is drawn from a PhD and related Briefing Report, and further research Briefing Report. For more information about this research please contact Kirsty.Deacon@scra.gov.uk.