ABSTRACT

The chapter argues that the families of those who are punished need to be included in this endeavour and explores how this might operate. These issues are then examined in the context of two ongoing research studies, one which examines the children of prisoners, and another which focuses on the partners of long-term prisoners. It utilizes Minson's ongoing research on the impact of maternal imprisonment to provide an illustration of some of the disadvantages children face in England and Wales as a consequence of their mothers' imprisonment, when viewed through the social justice lens of Arditti's four-point analysis. Arditti has argued that the context of parental incarceration has four key characteristics: 'the demographic characteristics of incarcerated parents and their children'; 'cumulative disadvantage'; 'institutional practices'; and what she calls 'sociopolitical: stigma and disenfranchisement'. Furthermore, imprisonment itself can compound and magnify patterns of economic, social, educational, health and mental health disadvantage and create new problems for families.