Recommendation on children with imprisoned parents

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, prison visits were shut in Croatia, thus challenging the child-parent relationship. As a response, the Office of the Ombudsman for Children Croatia conducted thorough advocacy work to enhance children of prisoners’ rights. The Office recommended the wider use of video and phone calls between children and their imprisoned parents, as well as all forms of online communication such as emails. Furthermore, the Office recommended that guidelines for communication with the child be shared with families impacted by parental imprisonment. Their efforts have led to the strengthening of virtual visits in prisons, which were extended to all prisoners. Moreover, the new Act on the Execution of Prison Sentences (OG 14/21) which was adopted recently in Croatia equates the position of children of detained and sentenced mothers, which was not the case until then. The new act now also allows a child born during the mother’s pre-trial detention to stay with the mother for up to three years, as well as a sentenced prisoner’s child born while the mother serving a prison sentence. The regulation also included three of the Office’s proposals, namely:

• that children born in prison can stay with the mother after three years of age if the remaining sentence does not exceed six months;
• to define more clearly who can accompany a child to visit his or her parent in prison;
• that children must be searched in a careful and considerate manner.

At the international level, the Office submitted a brief to the UN Special Rapporteur of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights concerning the challenges of privacy for children impacted by parental incarceration.