Mums in prison helped by family visits scheme
REBECCA had been on bail for two years before she was sent to prison. After being handed a long sentence, her four children were forced to go and live with relatives while she was behind bars.
She had never been to prison before and didn’t know what to expect. Although she was a wellbehaved prisoner, she struggled to keep in touch with her children.
Rebecca’s story is not unusual. But she was able to take part in a scheme that helps women inmates from Wales see their children while locked up.
Through the Visiting Mum scheme, set up in 2014, which works with individual families to prepare for prison visits, Rebecca was able to see her kids once a month.
When her 15-year-old daughter became pregnant while she was behind bars, the help from the volunteers on the scheme ensured Rebecca was able to see pictures of her new grandchild after they had been born.
It even helped with her son’s challenging behaviour at home, because he would listen to his mother’s advice when he visited her in jail.
When Rebecca was released, she used money she had saved while working in prison to pay a deposit to rent a home, and was able to resettle and keep the bond with her children. She says it was the scheme that made it all possible.
Now a report from Cardiff University has shown that mothers who used the scheme reported improved mental health, reduced levels of anxiety and fewer instances of self-harm.
It also was found to improve the mental and physical health of the children, reduce their anxiety and help children feel less intimidated by the prison environment.
So far the scheme has worked with 97 mothers and 164 children to facilitate visits in a more relaxed setting.
Although the exact number of children affected by maternal imprisonment is unknown, the Prison Reform Trust estimated that in 2015, 66% of women in prison had dependent children under the age of 18 and at least 20% were lone parents before entering custody.
In 2010 it was estimated that more than 17,240 children were separated from their mothers through imprisonment and that only 9% of those children were cared for by their fathers during this period. So how does the scheme work? Dr Alyson Rees, senior lecturer at Cardiff University and principal investigator of the study, said: “It’s a much more informal arrangement. Normally, when children visit, it’s a big hall where the prisoners sit on one side and children are not allowed to hug, cuddle or play with them. It’s not very child-friendly.
“But on these visits, it’s either just one or two families together in a large hall and there’s materials for arts and crafts, painting, games, and mothers often prepare work for the visits. There’s also drinks and food.
“It’s a much more relaxed environment. It just felt like a safe environment.
“It’s hard to imagine what it would be like as child to visit your mother in prison if you couldn’t touch her.”
With no female-only prisons in Wales, children face long journeys to see their mothers.
Currently, women in south Wales are taken to HMP Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire, while women in north Wales go to HMP Styal in Cheshire.
On average, women prisoners are held 60 miles from their home address, but at Eastwood Park, 20% of women are held over 150 miles from home.
But Dr Rees said that can make the transition for the children more difficult and they often have to leave the family setting.
She said: “Around 95% of children have to move home when a mother goes into prison, so children may go to friends or family and then they have a very long journey. Most prisons are in a rural setting and there’s no direct route.”
Dr Rees said the scheme should not be seen as a reward for the parent, but rather as a fundamental right of the child.
“I think sometimes if a woman’s behaviour is seen as difficult in prison, things aren’t facilitated for her as much, whereas the Visiting Mum scheme works with all women.”
One of the recommendations from the report was to factor in whether a woman is a mother or not during sentencing. Dr Rees said: “What’s really important is if many women serving short sentences, quite often for shoplifting, for example, go into prison, when she comes out it’s hard for her to be the mother again if she’s had no contact.
“If she’s had regular meaningful contact with her children, it’s less difficult for her to pick up the parenting reins.”
But perhaps the most important thing that Dr Rees took away from the study was the importance of looking after children of prisoners – and that starts by recording information about them.
In Wales, despite the Welsh Government’s adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as the basis for policymaking affecting children and young people, there is no national strategy for the children of prisoners, who thus receive little support.
No routine data is collected by local authorities about children of prisoners in either England or Wales, meaning that this small but vulnerable group of children are unknown, and the Welsh Government does not routinely disaggregate and publish data on prisoners or their youngsters.
Dr Rees said: “When a mother goes into prison, nobody really knows what happens to the children. We should be collecting data and providing support.
“I’m not saying there shouldn’t be custodial sentences for women, but I think it needs to be a very significant factor in determining sentencing.”