ABSTRACT
This young girl is failing at school but no one knows why. She is the child of a complicated family profile and a judicial system that neither recognizes nor takes responsibility for its effect on the emotional lives of prisoners’ children or siblings. Amy’s teachers are not aware that she has a close family member in prison nor do they have experience of the damaging effects the stigma of imprisonment can have on a child. Amy’s attempts to keep her brother’s imprisonment a secret mean that not even the school nurse knows the nature or cause of her distress. Amy is perceived to be a problem at school and at home.
