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Each year about 150,000 children face the stigma of having a parent in prison. As well as the stress of criminal proceedings and the distress of losing a parent, some are also subject to hate campaigns by neighbours. People may shout at them in the street. Shops may refuse to serve them and parents may ban them from playing with their children. Some have even had to endure excrement shoved through their letterboxes.

Then there are the practical consequences. Not only will the children be physically separated from their parent, but if the offender was the main breadwinner then the family will suffer financially and may lose their home. Children might also experience mental health problems and often become disruptive at school.

Despite their vulnerability - and obvious need for support - no service has a statutory responsibility towards prisoners’ children, and universal services may not pick up on their needs if the imprisonment is kept secret.

Too scared to tell
"Generally families are frightened to disclose because they are frightened of the reaction they will get, and children are often secretive because they have been told not to tell anyone," says Sarah Salmon, assistant director of Action for Prisoners’ Families. She adds that not all children will know where their parent has gone.

"Younger children may be told that that their daddy is on holiday, or on an oil rig or working for the Queen. Some children in families are told but not others and that can be a burden for those that know."

Not telling children the truth could add to their distress. Some children will have seen their dad in the morning, and if he has been remanded into custody while they are at school, they could be left to fill in the blanks themselves. In these cases, children sometimes imagine the worst, says Adrienne Katz, chief executive of young people’s organisation Young Voice.

"They might imagine their dad is being tortured in a dungeon or think he is in hospital and very sick. If they are not told the truth they can’t understand why their parent has abandoned them," she says.

Of course it is not only fathers who are sent to prison; about 8,000 children a year have their lives turned upside down because of their mothers’ imprisonment. Some - around 11 per cent - end up in care, but most move in with relatives. This is seldom ideal and is sometimes unsafe.

"Some mums have told me that they were abused as children and that they are worried that their child may now be living with the abuser," says Katz.

Most children want to stay in contact with their parent during the prison sentence. Visits are important but can be difficult to organise. In 2001, prisoners were held an average of 53 miles away from home, and one in four families had to undertake a five-hour round trip to see them.¹ With prisoners entitled to at least one visit per fortnight, the costs soon mount up.

Daytime visits
But it’s not just the amount of time and money involved. Most visits take place on weekdays, meaning a day off school for the children. Given families’ reluctance to tell people this can result in the days off being marked down as unauthorised absences. Teachers do not receive specific guidance on the issue and children often say that teachers treat them differently once they know about the imprisonment.

Lisa Moore, senior project worker for Ormiston Children and Families Trust, works with children who have a parent or other relative in prison. She visits them in schools, youth groups, or at home so that they can talk on a one-to-one basis.

Moore also trains school staff. She asks them to think about the negative comments they have read or heard about prisoners and their families. "They report comments like ‘they are all the same’ or ‘they get an easy ride in prison’. I point out that these are the barriers families face before they walk out of their front door. I explain how this is what the families expect you think."

Schools are encouraged to show their awareness by displaying posters and leaflets so that parents feel comfortable and know that confidentiality is assured.

Prisoners’ children need support to steer them away from criminal behaviour. Having a parent inside is an undisputed risk factor for offending - studies have shown that women who know criminal relatives or friends are six times more likely to offend themselves.² But a recent suggestion by Home Office minister Hazel Blears that government might target special services on prisoners’ children have raised concerns over stigmatisation.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, has reservations. She welcomes government efforts to support children with parents in prison, but would not support targeting them as the prisoners of the future. She says: "If they are seen as children in need then that is one thing. If they are seen as a risk then that could antagonise them and drive them into the very offending behaviour that we are trying to avoid."

Many feel that any initiative aimed at helping the children of prisoners needs to take account of all aspects of their life, not just their enhanced risk of offending. After all it is not the child’s fault that their mum or dad has been sent to prison. Rather than being seen as guilty by association, prisoners’ children should be seen as the victims of circumstance that they really are.

¹ Reducing Re-Offending by Ex-Prisoners, Social Exclusion Unit, 2002

² Youth Crime: Findings from the 1998-9 Youth Lifestyles Survey, Home Office

Comments from teenagers with a parent in prison

"We don’t really talk about it ’cos mum gets upset and it’s no good ‘cos it isn’t going to get him home any quicker. You just have to put up with it really until he comes home"

"She mustn’t think we don’t love her - if we don’t keep in touch she will think we don’t love her and she will harm herself again"

"I felt I had no one to talk to. The school still doesn’t know because I don’t feel they will be sympathetic. Now I am doing my GCSEs, I really wish they knew. I have hardly any free time"

"Mum tells the school that I am ill or I am going to the doctor so there is no need for them to know anything"

Source: No One’s Ever Asked Me, Action for Prisoners’ Families, 2001

Gloucester’s policy

Gloucestershire Council has had a policy for the education of children with a parent or close relative in prison since April 2002. It states that:

• Gloucestershire local education authority will provide schools with appropriate information and guidance so that schools are aware of their responsibilities towards this group.
• The LEA will establish a named person in each school responsible for this group of children.
• The LEA will provide appropriate training to named teachers in schools.