ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on data from the European Commission funded COPING (Children of Prisoners Interventions and Mitigations to Strengthen Mental Health) project, for which the author was a researcher. The project investigated the impact of parental imprisonment on children and young people and the factors that assisted them to cope and remain resilient. Central to the project was an emphasis on their experiences as recounted by the children themselves. Key messages for professionals from the views of the children and young people will be explored in this chapter. The focus will be on what children told us about how their lives were affected as their parents progressed through the different stages of the criminal justice system; from arrest, through sentencing to imprisonment. Strong themes that emerged were the effects of stigma, the importance of honesty, and the need to promote good quality visits to maintain relationships.
