European Research Meeting the rights of children with

European Research: Meeting the rights of children with imprisoned parents

“The reports furnished to the court in relation to the boys emphasised that separation from their mother by her imprisonment would compound the distress the boys suffer from having already lost their father. There is no doubt that these are compelling circumstances especially when set against the overall context. ” (R v Doyle [2010] NICC 26)

“Every effort should be taken to keep women out of prison. . Imagine putting a mother in prison for a fine. . They use prisons as a dumping ground. . . some of those people in authority should hang their heads in shame. . It just impacts across the whole family. ” (Professional)

“My [boy] says ‘Daddy, how long will you be in prison? ’ and I says ‘Look, it’s really, really hard to know … but you’re talking over ten years’ … And he was sort of saying ‘that’s a really long time – I’ll be sort of nineteen’ … They can’t fathom ten years. ” (Father in prison)

“My older son, my fourteen year old, he was able to Google me, he was able to read the news reports”. (Father in prison) “The more information they got, they were definitely able to cope with it. ” (Father in prison)

“The first visit was bad because they both started crying and didn’t want to leave. The second one [visit] was bad and the third one’s better. ” (Father in prison)

“You know children coming in, they have to get the dog sniffed at them and my wee girl’s two. . . she was even searched at two years of age, you know patted down. And that’s why I don’t believe in my six year old coming up. Because he’s going to get patted down, and if you’re. . . trying to smoke-screen it that you’re in prison so it’s not affecting them in later life. The shame my daddy was in prison. ” (Father in prison)

“I was like ‘Why are you taking child centred visits off me for? ’ and he said ‘It’s clear … that cellular confinement has no affect on you, this is the third time you’ve been down’. ” (Father in prison)