Abstract
As Peter Scharff Smith observes, while the prison has been a central feature of European criminal justice systems for over 400 years, the considerable harm that it inflicts upon the estimated 800,000 children who are separated from an imprisoned parent each year within the European Union has until recently received little attention from researchers or policy-makers. Indeed, it is important to note that this figure is an estimate because countries do not systematically record statistics on the number of children affected by parental imprisonment, something that Scharff Smith argues has contributed to their relative invisibility to penal administrators and wider society. However, this is now a growing area of scholarship to which Peter Scharff Smith’s insightful account of how the damaging effects of imprisonment reach far into the lives of these children is an important contribution.
Much of the originality of this project comes from the methodology that informs it. Many of the current studies of children and families affected by imprisonment are qualitative, in-depth and therefore necessarily small scale. In contrast, Scharff Smith takes a different approach, opting instead to conduct three projects that sought to engage with large numbers of relevant state actors – such as representatives from prisons and other institutions, NGOs, police officers, social services and prison education workers – ultimately culminating in the introduction of specialist children’s officers to represent the needs of children in all prisons across Denmark. This is a powerful testament to the impact that research can have on the lives of some of the most vulnerable children when it seeks to engage with practitioners and criminal justice professionals and is embedded within the realities of their working lives. Further, Scharff Smith situates his discussion within a critical analysis of the methodologies and epistemologies that inform much of the existing qualitative and quantitative research into the impact of parental imprisonment on children. His discussion not only highlights the need for both methodological approaches but avoids painting all families affected by imprisonment as ‘troubled’, deficient or as risk factors of intergenerational offending. Instead he raises questions as to the ‘intergenerational effects of imprisonment’ and how criminal justice practice in the current climate of penal populism may lead some of these children to become stigmatised by, disillusioned with and hostile towards state institutions.
Part III of the book considers the difficulties faced by prisoners’ children at each stage of the criminal justice process, including: children coming to terms with a potentially traumatic arrest; others facing the uncertainty of what might happen to a parent who is being held on remand; and those who are attempting to readjust after the release of a parent. Each group may have different needs and concerns. This is an important point that emphasises the diversity of families affected by imprisonment and is perhaps a theme that Scharff Smith could have developed further, as he implicitly seems to focus on the experiences of children of two parent, heterosexual families despite this model of the nuclear family being very much in decline. A recognition of the impact of imprisonment on grandchildren, step-children, nieces, nephews or adult children who take on the care of younger siblings would have added to his analysis, as these children may all feel the effects of absence of the prisoner and the encroachment of the criminal justice system into their lives if they wish to maintain this relationship.
Yet while the diversity of families affected by imprisonment should be recognised, perhaps what is particularly striking is that while this project incorporates the experiences of a large number of participants from a range of backgrounds, it also confirms and supports many of the existing accounts of the negative impact of parental imprisonment on children. As Scharff Smith rightly argues, the extent to which the sentencing of a parent affects the life of the child will depend on the relationship between the parent and child prior to the offence, and that for some children the imposition of a prison sentence may be a welcome respite from their parent’s behaviour or lifestyle. However, for children who do enjoy a close relationship with their parent, their imprisonment cannot only incite a range of difficult emotions, for example shame, fear, shock or sadness, but also a number of practical barriers to maintaining a relationship such as expensive phone calls, lack of access to more modern forms of communication, geographical distance, inconvenient visiting times, prisons that are inaccessible by public transport, inadequate visiting facilities and difficulties navigating the (sometimes inconsistently enforced) prison rules. Scharff Smith’s comprehensive analysis confirms that these difficulties continue to be faced by thousands of children across Europe every year.
Yet while the impact of these difficulties on the lives of children should not be underestimated, Scharff Smith’s careful analysis of the human rights of these children and their practical implications also gives rise to a cautious optimism that children affected by imprisonment may be becoming more visible to legal institutions and that children’s rights may provide a meaningful framework for improving practice across the criminal justice system. For researchers and policy-makers, this book might lead us to look to other European countries for inspiration as to how family life might be maintained through more imaginative means, for example by embracing modern technologies, greater use of home leave and the introduction of facilities for overnight family visits that allow more room for the features of ‘every day’ family life such as preparing and sharing meals. Scharff Smith’s thoughtful, sensitive and thorough analysis of the damage done to families by imprisonment also makes this essential reading for all those with an interest in sentencing practice, including academics and practitioners.