Following the success of its first conference in New Zealand in 2017, the International Coalition for Children with Incarcerated Parents (INCCIP) held its second biennial conference entitled When a parent is incarcerated: International Perspectives on a Child’s Journey on 12-14 August 2019 at the University of Huddersfield. The three day event included presentations, workshops, and symposiums concerning the impact of parental imprisonment across the world and different means of ameliorating the challenges faced by children with a parent in prison. The conference also included an optional day at Askham Grange Women’s Prison on 15 August which outlined the benefits of overnight stay facilities for children of all ages to stay with their mothers. Attendees heard perspectives from staff concerning the operation of these facilities as well as from mothers who advocated from first-hand experience. Keynote speakers at the conference included Ann Adalist-Estrin, Director of the National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated at Rutgers University, Liz Ayre, Executive Director of Children of Prisoners Europe, and Dr. Avon Hart-Johnson, President and co-founder of DC project Connect (DCPC).
Laurel Townhead, Representative for Human Rights and Refugees at the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO), ran a workshop on the United Nations’ engagement regarding the protection of the rights of children with imprisoned parents, and why its processes are important at the local and global level. The workshop included a focus on expanding the network and membership of the Child Rights Connect Working Group on Children of Incarcerated Parents (the Working Group), thus contributing to better promoting awareness and protection of the rights of children with a parent in prison.
Dr. Sinead O’Malley promoted the understanding of the intergenerational trauma of separating a mother and her child due to incarceration, particularly through experiences in alternative care. She drew from a national participatory prison study in Ireland in the exploration of three crucial facets to presenting qualitative and quantitative data from the study. Dr. O’Malley provided an example of a mother’s own experiences of alternative care as a child, the effects of disrupting a mother’s care for her child, and the reality of extensive foster care and its impact on children and incarcerated mothers.
Dr. Fiona Donson and Dr. Aisling Parks further outlined issues of parental incarceration in Ireland. They developed a project in 2017 in response to the lack of priority placed on the rights of children with a parent in prison, in collaboration with academics and non-governmental organisations. The project aimed to raise awareness of the issues affecting children with a parent in prison, and the paper ‘Principles of Action for Children with a Parent in Prison’ issued from this project sets out steps to take to recognise children affected by parental imprisonment, through a set of Principles for Action to encourage progressive national policy change.
Cassidy McKenna and Ms. Townhead (both from QUNO) spoke about the impact of capital punishment on children with a parent in prison, and how these effects are often overlooked. They detailed how social stigmas result in a sense of disenfranchised grief, and more specifically how uncertainty compounds the effects of a loss. World Day against the Death Penalty was also highlighted as a means of bringing attention to these issues associated with capital punishment on an international scale.
In her presentation, Dr. Lucy Baldwin focused on a group other than biological mothers or fathers: grandmothers. Her paper presentation illustrated the role of grandmothers as caretakers, as well as the rare cases of grandmothers as prisoners. She highlighted the lack of visibility and support systems for these groups, particularly the ways in which issues with mothering in the criminal justice system are compounded when it comes to grandmothering in the criminal justice system.
Other themes explored during the conference include, but are not limited to: Pakistani family experiences of imprisonment (Tahir Abass); Qualitative research on children’s best interests in Belgian sentencing decisions (Heleen Lauwereys) ; Parent and Teacher interventions in prison (Hayley Morris, Corin Morgan-Armstrong, Leanne Jenkins, Julie Jenkins); Children of Roma and Traveller Prisoners in Europe (Rachel Brett); Virtual visitations in the Caribbean (Dr. Wendell C. Wallace).