Carrefour Prison, a Eurochips member based out of Geneva, recently participated in an event held by the Swiss Society of Forensic Psychology with much success.
The event spread awareness of the various issues surrounding parenting in custody. It was a new opportunity to educate professionals who work in the prison system, primarily psychologists and psychotherapists working with inmates on the effects that separation has on their children.
The Deputy Director of the Institute of International Children’s Rights, Ms Paoloa Riva Gapany, attended the event to discuss children’s rights and particularly the situation of children with imprisoned parents. A sociological perspective on the detention of mothers with young children was presented at the event by Ms Tanja Zingger.
Switzerland has three linguistic regions and as such, a representative from the Ticino region, Ms. DeMartini attended the event in order to bring forth the cultural situation of children with imprisoned parents in the Italian speaking region of the nation. This was particularly significant, as this region of Switzerland has pioneered research on the topic in the past.
Following these presentations, a psychologist, Viviane Schekter, discussed a clinical case of children with imprisoned parents from Eurochips which emphasized the COPING project. The day concluded with the release of the film “Crossroads Prison: the children of darkness”, followed by a question and answer session.
Overall the day was a huge success in combining a variety of cultural perspectives which together brought much light to the issue in the media.
In addition, Carrefour is now working on Christmas prison visits. A Geneva-based prison, Champ-Dollon, will once again host a visit on December 24.