Parents In Prison

Abstract

At the heart of our penal system is a clash. The welfare principle, which ought to protect children, is crushed by the justice discourse of crime and punishment. The overlooked victims are the children who are punished by the damage to family life when parents or family members are sent to prison, as the research project Parenting Under Pressure: Prison shows. This was the result of eighteen months of collecting information and interviewing parents in prison and families of prisoners. The report illuminates the necessity of a re-think about punishment and families, and shows that welfare and justice need not be in opposition. They might even be harnessed to the same end – crime reduction.