By the Irish Penal Reform Trust
In recent years there has been increasing recognition of children of imprisoned parents as a specific group of vulnerable and marginalised children with particular needs and of the detrimental impact of parental imprisonment on them. While there has been less focus on the specific impact on children when their mother is sent to prison, several studies have found that, while less common, maternal imprisonment can be significantly more disruptive than paternal imprisonment. This is largely because women are more often the primary caregivers for their dependent children. When fathers are imprisoned, the mother usually continues to care for any children. However, studies have shown that when mothers are sent to prison, the family is more likely to be broken up, with children being placed with other family members or into State care. The impact of maternal imprisonment has wider implications as a result, including on the women themselves, their families, and the broader community. Despite the well-documented impacts of parental, and specifically maternal, imprisonment on children and the clear obligations within the international human rights framework to consider children when their parents or primary caregivers come into conflict with the law, there are very few court systems that actively require courts to consider children at sentencing or when determining pre-trial measures. Additionally, when mothers are sent to prison, there are significant data gaps globally in understanding the numbers of children impacted, and a corresponding lack of effort made to mitigate against the potential negative impacts on them. Where data is collected, it is usually facility-specific with no efforts to collate data nationally or coordinate responses across different agencies. The Irish Prison Service (IPS) and the Probation Service have identified the risks associated with maternal imprisonment, noting that, ‘[t]he outcomes for children whose mothers have experienced prison are of major concern. Children of women prisoners frequently exhibit several behavioral and psychological problems and there is an increased likelihood of them becoming offenders themselves.’ Despite this, there has been very limited examination of the numbers and experiences of mothers imprisoned in Ireland and their children. While the IPS, the Probation Service, and other associated agencies appear to recognize the need to support children of mothers in prison – indeed these agencies have made efforts to develop support programs – concern remains at the lack of attention given, at the point of sentencing, to the caregiving responsibilities of women and the best interests of their children. The findings of this research also point to a lack of national efforts to coordinate amongst different stakeholder agencies to reduce the negative impacts of maternal imprisonment on children
Dublin: Irish Penal Reform Trust, 2023. 52p.
