Women in prison

I stumbled onto a copy of "Working with women prisoners" on the Prison Service website while looking for a copy of the Prison Rules.

One of the most remarkable things that stood out in the document for me is the table of who is looking after the women prisoners' children while they are in prison.

Just 9% are cared for by their fathers; while 8% are in care.  A relatively massive 24% go to grandparents and 17% to a "female relative".  So, almost twice as many children are cared for by a general female relative as opposed to by their dad.

From my own experience, it is far more common for me to deal with a youth who has little or no contact with his dad than it is to deal with one who has regular contact with daddy.  I've also dealt with a few who have no contact with their mums and they are often the most screwed up kids of the lot.

I was never a fan of the old Tory governments witch hunts against single mothers, but I do think that a lack of family cohesion has a lot to do with crime. 

Comments

  1. Conor11 March 2011 at 18:40

    I expect the children are better looked after while their mothers are in prison.
    BBC1 is currently running a series "Girls Behind Bars". None of the inmates seemed capable of looking after themselves let alone children.

    ReplyDelete

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