WITH RECENT NEWS about overcrowding in Irish prisons, it can be easy to lose sight of the hidden others affected by imprisonment: children and families.
Deprivation of someone’s freedom in response to a crime is meant to affect them alone, but it also has rippling effects on families and beyond. From my time working in the prison service as an Assistant Psychologist, to my growing familiarity with the impact of trauma on childhood development, I have come to understand the impact that parental imprisonment has on children. There are long-term consequences for both the person-in-custody and their family. What must it be like for the family they leave behind?
As of September 2023, there were over 4,500 people in custody, the majority being men. Of these men, there are no figures for the number of fathers, however, it has been estimated by Children of Prisoners Europethat there are approximately between four to five thousand children separated from their father due …