BBC News has used extracts from one of our publications to illustrate the impact on family life of sending women to prison. ‘What Happens When Your Mum Goes to Prison?’ is based around Seen & Heard, edited by Lucy Baldwin and Ben Raikes.
The programme notes that in the UK more than half of women in prison are mothers and that the consequences can be profound. It includes extracts from poems written by children whose mothers were imprisoned, taken directly from the book.
Seen & Heard joins three other books specially designed for children and families affected by a parent’s imprisonment: Alex’s Dad Goes to Prison, Tyler Does Not Have Contact With His Dad in Prison, and Bethy’s Mum is in Prison – all three edited by Lorna Brookes and Emily Livsey of Time Matters and deftly illustrated in colour by the artist Aoife J O’Dwyer.
Also dealing with the subject are a number of academic-level texts by Lucy Baldwin, including Mothering Justice and Motherhood In and After Imprisonment.
For any reader concerned with the social and personal impact of imprisonment on family members we believe that these texts tackle largely neglected areas of the Criminal Justice system.