Children Residing in Prison With Their Parents: An Example of Institutional Invisibility

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study carried out in Finland on the position of children who accompany their parent to prison. The study consists of document analyses and staff and inmate interviews in the two Finnish prisons with special units for children. The results highlight the lack of information on children residing in prisons as well as the lack of guidelines for practice illustrated by the term "institutional invisibility." The term "institutional invisibility" informs about the vagueness of the prison practices in relation to children and their parents.Keywords children residing in prison, mother-and-baby units in prison, child's best interest

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“…Bronfenbrenner highlighted three components of this concept: the person's conception as being active; the reciprocity (or interaction) between person and environment; and the wider concept of environment [18].…”

“…Dyads described by Bronfenbrenner [18] can be of three types: observational dyad, joint activity dyad and primary dyad. The observational dyad occurs when a member pays attention to the activity of the other, who in turn, notices and acknowledges this attention, providing explanation and occasional commentary on their activity to the observer.…”

“…The primary dyad has a strong emotional component and can be combined with an observational dyad or have joint activity. For Bronfenbrenner [18], it is more likely that the children acquire values, knowledge and abilities from a person with whom they established a primary dyad, than with a person that has no emotional significance for them.…”

“…Bronfenbrenner [18] also argued that for the proper functioning of the primary dyad, it is necessary for a third person to be involved, such as the father in the mother-child dyad. If this third person is lacking or plays a disturbing role, the developmental system is broken.…”

“…In the present research, we consider the prison environment as a specific context for human development, following Bronfenbrenner's [18] model of integral development and the impact of the environment on psychological growth. His ecological theory of human development provides a way of understanding the developmental processes that happen within the immediate environment of human relations, and which are deeply affected by conditions and events of the overall context in which they are situated.…”