Foreign Nationals in English Prisons: I. Family Ties and their Maintenance

Autor: Jenny Cutler, Brenda Mcwilliams, Martin Richards, Claire Cameron, Nikki Batten
Rok vydání: 1995
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice. 34:158-175
ISSN: 1468-2311
0265-5527
Popis: Fifty male and 55 female prisoners who were normally resident outside the UK were interviewed in twelve English prisons. All were convicted with sentences of 18 months or more and had been in prison for at least two months. Twenty-four nationalities were represented but prisoners resident in the Republic of Ireland were excluded from the study. All had been convicted for offences related to the import of illegal drugs though had not been selected for this reason. Compared with UK prisoners those from abroad were older, had wider family responsibilities and were on average serving much longer sentences. Non-UK prisoners receive few visitors. Most of those they do see are relatives or friends who live in the UK or people from religious or other voluntary groups. Only two of the 42 mothers had seen their children. In both cases their children happened to be living in the UK. Most prisoners felt isolated and very cut off from their families. Letters were the main method prisoners used for keeping in touch with family and friends. There was wide variety in the number of free or subsidised letters available to prisoners. Though most, in theory, had access to card phones, the cost of these made them of little value to most prisoners. The difficulties in speaking English and lack of knowledge of English culture in general, and prison culture in particular (almost all claimed to be first offenders), coupled with factors such as lack of availability of familiar food, videos or reading material in their own language, contributed to the sense of social and cultural violation of most non-UK prisoners. Recent initiatives to help support the family ties of prisoners have, in the main, had little relevance for this group of prisoners.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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