‘Unsung Heroines’
| Author | Ben Raikes |
| Published date | 01 September 2016 |
| Date | 01 September 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0264550516648396 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
‘Unsung Heroines’:
2016, Vol. 63(3) 320–330
ª The Author(s) 2016
Celebrating the care
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DOI: 10.1177/0264550516648396
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grandmothers for
children with parents in prison
Ben Raikes
University of Huddersfield, UK
Abstract
This article focusses on the issues that arise when grandmothers are put in the position
of caring for their grandchildren while their parents are in prison. It will present the
lived experience of three grandmothers who are in this position and 16 imprisoned
mothers, whose mothers were caring for their children, who participated in two focus
groups at two different female prisons. It is now wel established that parental impri-
sonment general y has a negative impact upon children. Children with imprisoned
mothers often face the most disruption to their lives. Many children with mothers in prison
are cared for by their grandparents, with grandmothers general y doing the majority of
the care. Pressures faced by grandparent carers of children with incarcerated parents
occur as a result of stigma, loss, isolation, poor health and a lack of practical, emotional
and financial support. If grandparents were not wil ing to provide this care, many more
children with parents in prison would face being placed in foster care, or in children’s
homes. The complexities encountered by both grandparents and imprisoned mothers as a
result of the changes in roles that arise from these circumstances will be explored.
Keywords
children with mothers in prison, grandmother carers, imprisoned mothers, stigma,
isolation, lack of support
Corresponding Author:
Ben Raikes, R1/04, Ramsden Building, Queensgate Campus, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield,
West Yorkshire, UK.
Email: b.raikes@hud.ac.uk
Raikes
321
Introduction
The UK children’s charity Barnardo’s is currently spearheading positive initiatives to
assist families affected by imprisonment, for example by providing the iHOP web-
site, which it has developed in conjunction with Partners of Prisoners Support Ser-
vice (POPS). This website ‘is a one-stop information and advice service to support all
professionals in working with children and families of offenders, bringing together
useful information in one place’ (http://www.i-hop.org.uk). Barnardo’s and other
authors (O’Keeffe, 2013; Smith et al., 2007) refer to children affected by parental
incarceration as ‘invisible children’ since, historically, their needs have not been
recognised by statutory organisations. Given that these children can all too fre-
quently fall beneath the radars of agencies which could assist them, the same can be
said of the grandmothers who care for them. Approximately 4000 grandchildren
are cared for by their grandparents in the UK each year as a result of the impri-
sonment of their mother (Vallely and Cassidy, 2012). Although grandfathers are
involved, the ‘vast majority of grandparents raising grandchildren are women’
(Minkler, 1999: 202), with grandfathers generally playing a background suppor-
tive role. Therefore, in recognition of this I shall refer to these carers as grand-
mothers. The purpose of this article is to raise awareness of the needs of
grandmothers in this situation, to promote better practice and to add to the calls for
them to receive more support.
Background
Disruption faced by children with mothers in prison
There is currently no systematic recording in relation to the number of prisoners who
have children (PRT, 2015). It is estimated that approximately 1% of the child pop-
ulation of the UK experience the imprisonment of a parent in any given year
(Murray, 2007), which equates to around 200,000 children (MoJ, 2012), with
about 17,200 having a mother in prison (Wilks-Wiffen, 2011). Only 9% of chil-
dren with mothers in prison are cared for by their fathers (Corston, 2007), with 25%
believed to be cared for by a grandparent (Corston, 2007) and a further 15%
looked after by another female relative (PACT, 2011). The low numbers of fathers
who care for their children while their mother is in prison may be explained partly by
the fact that up to a third of these fathers might be in prison themselves (Vallely and
Cassidy, 2012). As a result of this, just 5% of children with mothers in prison remain
in the home they were in prior to their mother being given a custodial sentence (PRT,
2010), meaning they are often removed from the stability provided by friends and
school just at the time when they need it the most. Therefore, children with mothers in
prison generally face far more disruption than children with fathers in prison, of
whom 90% are cared for by their mothers in the family home following their father’s
imprisonment (Caddle and Crisp, 1997). Grandmother carers of children with
incarcerated mothers are faced with the prospect of coping with the fallout from this
disruption. A large-scale European study entitled Children of Prisoners Mitigations
and Interventions to Strengthen Mental Health (COPING) concluded that children
322
Probation Journal 63(3)
with parents in prison in the UK were 25% more likely to experience mental health
problems compared to children who are not experiencing parental imprisonment
(Jones et al., 2013).
Grandmother carers also have to decide what they are going to disclose to their
grandchildren about the reason for their parent’s imprisonment. There is a con-
sensus amongst agencies working with families affected by imprisonment that age-
appropriate honesty is the best approach (Families Outside, 2012). However,
without guidance and support this can be a very daunting task for those caring for
children with parents in prison (Lockwood and Raikes, 2016). If children are not
provided with proper information then they can find out from classmates who might
have discovered the truth via the media or by doing a web search (Lanskey et al.,
2015). The shock of finding out this way can be devastating for children and it
erodes their trust in the adults around them.
Without a proper explanation of where their imprisoned parent is, children
experience what has been termed ‘ambiguous loss’, whereby they start to experi-
ence insecurity about whether other significant adults in their life are going to be
taken away from them (Bocknek et al., 2009). The situation in which children are cut
off from their parent as a result of them being imprisoned has been likened to a
bereavement (Robertson,...
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