The number of men and women sent to prison worldwide has dramatically increased over the last few decades (World Prison Brief, 2019). The prison population in England and Wales is twice as large as it was in 1993 (MoJ, 2016, 2018a). On any one day, just under 4,000 women are detained in prisons serving England and Wales; meanwhile, 8,000 women entered prison in 2017 (MoJ, 2018b). This is because most women (83 per cent) are imprisoned for non-violent offences, meaning that 62 per cent serve shorter custodial sentences of six months or less (MoJ, 2018c; Masson, 2019). When applying a family-centred lens to analyse these trends, a critical concern is the significant repercussions that this brings to the whole family because as the female prisoner population grows, so does the number of children separated from their mothers requiring replacement caregivers.
However, being in prison does not remove a mother’s willingness to continue mothering (Corston, 2007; Booth, 2017b) or automatically strip her of her legal parental responsibility in England and Wales. Instead, it is by virtue of the detainment that being imprisoned significantly alters, if not compromises, many of the roles and practices that a mother had previously undertaken. Most notably, this includes the daily care of children.
Caregiving during maternal imprisonment
A large proportion of mothers in prison (around 70 per cent) had been living with their children prior to custody (Caddle and Crisp, 1997). In the event that a sole or primary caregiver is imprisoned, children will require an immediate replacement carer. Usually, family members look after the children in the mother’s absence, often with grandparents and female kin (mostly aunts and sisters) assuming this responsibility. Around 14 per cent of children are taken into social care, with a smaller minority (around 10 per cent) looked after by their fathers (Caddle and Crisp, 1997). As evidenced here, much of what is known about caregiving arrangements is gleaned from a comprehensive (albeit now outdated) survey of the female prisoner population conducted by the Home Office (Caddle and Crisp, 1997). Despite some smaller subsequent studies similarly reporting that grandparents are the main carers (Boswell and Wood, 2011; Raikes, 2016; PRT, 2018), improved and updated data are sorely needed to better grasp these family formations during maternal imprisonment (see the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Human Rights [JCHR, 2019]). Children being cared for by, and within, the family is also seen as preferable to children being taken into social care (Mackintosh et al, 2006). This is similar to informal kinship care arrangements when parents are absent for other reasons, including death and illness (Selwyn et al, 2013). However, another blind spot in statistics occurs because there is no systematic data gathering about prisoners’ children in England and Wales (Williams et al, 2012) – or, indeed, internationally (Flynn, 2011). Instead, there is reliance on these estimated figures and patchwork information about family constructions. Frustratingly, this means that there are few opportunities to pinpoint the exact caregiving arrangements or easily identify the kin caregivers of female prisoners’ children at a national or international level.
What is known about the reallocation of caregiving following maternal imprisonment indicates that only 5 per cent of female prisoners’ children remain in their own homes during their mother’s prison sentence (Caddle and Crisp, 1997; PRT, 2018). An important facet of this process, currently poorly acknowledged or understood, is what these domestic changes mean for caregiving relatives. When a father is imprisoned, up to 90 per cent of children remain in the care of their mothers (Dodd and Hunter, 1992), do not need a new caregiver and do not move home; therefore, family members as caregiving kin are relied upon to a lesser extent (Friestad, 2016). Several studies have provided invaluable insights into the many challenges facing women caring for children during their father’s imprisonment (Shaw, 1992; Losel et al, 2012) but only a few have explored the pressures and experiences of caregivers of female prisoners’ children. However, the experiences and treatment of women in contact with the criminal justice system are distinct from those of men.
Mothers in contact with the criminal justice system
As a ‘response’ to lawbreaking women, prison is often too severe and inappropriate, and there have been repeated calls to reduce the number of custodial sentences given to women (Corston, 2007; Baldwin, 2015; Women in Prison, 2017; Masson, 2019). The long-awaited Female Offender Strategy (MoJ, 2018d) similarly echoed these calls but, sadly, there has been no significant reduction as yet.2 This is likely the consequence of practical and financial problems, as well as political delays, which hinder the implementation of the proposed strategy (Booth et al, 2018). Theoretically, this may be explained by the socially constructed and prescriptive conceptions of femininity that posit the disjuncture between womanhood and lawbreaking activities. Carlen (2002) suggested that women are deemed ‘doubly deviant’ as their lawbreaking activities indicate a twofold breach: first, against the law; and, second, against those expectations placed on her as a woman – mother, wife or daughter (see also Baldwin, 2015). Such conceptions have led to differential – and often harsher – treatment of women in the criminal justice system. Evidence shows that women are more likely to be sentenced to imprisonment on their first offence than their male counterparts (MoJ, 2015), which, as was learned for Linda’s daughter (see the Preface), could cause significant disruptions to caring responsibilities.
Courtroom practices are