Developing a Child’s Right to Effective Contact with a Father in Prison—An Irish Perspective

ABSTRACT

Recent years have witnessed a gradual increase in international research on the effects of parental incarceration on families and prisoners both in the short, medium and long term. However, the rights of children with a parent in prison is a subject which, in the Irish context at least, has been ill considered to date by policy and law makers. Research has shown that the consequences of failing to support this group of children can be adverse, not only for children concerned, but also for families and society more generally. Policy and practice development in supporting the child/parent relationship has primarily focused on mothers, with the consequential underplaying of the importance of the father/child relationship from the father’s point of view as well as that of the child. Between 2015 and 2016, a national qualitative study, the first of its kind conducted in the Republic of Ireland, aimed to explore professional perspectives of those working in the Irish prison system on the extent to which the rights of children with a parent in prison are recognised and protected during prison visits. A small number of family members were interviewed to give some insight into the experiences of children and families. Thus, the findings of this study as they relate to the child’s right to contact specifically will be presented and considered. This article adopts a children’s rights framework to consider the challenges involved in realising the rights of a child when their father is in prison. Furthermore, by benchmarking current Irish practices against international and regional standards as far as child/father visits are concerned, it seeks to provide a snapshot of the extent to which the rights of children with a parent in prison are protected in the Republic of Ireland.

KEYWORDS:

• Children’s rights
• incarcerated parents
• fatherhood
• right to contact
• parenting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Aisling Parkes is a lecturer in law at the Law School, UCC since 2008. She has conducted research of an interdisciplinary nature in a range of different areas connected to international children's rights including the rights of children affected by parental imprisonment (together with Dr Fiona Donson), the rights of children in care, the right of the child to be heard and children's rights in sport. Her book, Children and Human Rights Law: The Right of the Child to be Heard, was published by Routledge-Cavendish in 2013. Aisling's work has been published in a range of international peer-reviewed journals and she has shared her work at national and international events. Aisling is co-director of a newly established sports law clinic for undergraduate law students—the only one of its kind in Europe.

Dr Fiona Donson is a law lecturer at University College Cork. She researches and teaches in the areas of criminal justice, human rights and administrative law. She is currently the Director of the Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights. Fiona has a long track record of working on interdisciplinary qualitative research projects, including research on prison visiting regimes, traveller accommodation provision and environmental protest. Her current research is primarily in the areas of children of offenders carried out in collaboration with Dr Aisling Parkes. Fiona also has a human rights practice background; between 2002 and 2007, she was a human rights project manager in Cambodia.

Notes

1. While much research exists concerning maternal imprisonment and its impact on children and young people, the focus of this article is on fathers only.

2. While three sites formed the focus, four prisons formed the focus of this study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences: [Grant Number New Foundations Award 2014–15].