Kirsty’s Volunteer Blog

The First Prison Visit: “…going through it was horrible ‘cause nobody explained to me what was going to happen.”

I have just completed a PhD at the University of Glasgow looking at young people’s experiences of having a parent or sibling in prison and have been a volunteer with The Croft for just over a year. Having worked for a number of criminal justice organisations prior to starting my PhD I had some awareness of children and young people’s experiences of a family member’s imprisonment but I had never visited a prison, let alone visited a family member in prison. During my PhD I worked with a group of young people who were part of an arts collective known as KIN and a group of young men who were currently serving a prison sentence themselves. They spoke about many things, but something which came through strongly from many of their experiences was the importance of communication, with one form of this being prison visits. Not all of the young people had visited their family member and in fact research has shown that young people tend to visit less. Those who had visited spoke of the lack of information about prison and what it is like – for their family member and for them when they are visiting. The quote in the blog’s title is from Morven, who was twelve when she first visited a prison. They tend to learn about the institution, as do many people, from films and television. While the process of entering the prison for a visit was usually always difficult the experience may have been improved had they at least known what to expect.

 

Having now spent over a year volunteering with The Croft it has borne out the research – I rarely see young people. Where children do visit they are generally younger children. Of course this could be due to the fact that children’s visits are held on weekdays and I volunteer at weekends, which may be the time young people are most likely to be seeing their friends or have other activities they attend. I have, however, spoken to many (adult) first time visitors who do not know what to expect. Some visitors just want someone to talk to, to pass the often long wait before a visit when you need to make sure you don’t miss the strict cut-off time so wouldn’t be allowed in. Some need to be told the “rules” – what you can and can’t take in with you, what you can and can’t wear – which no one else has explained to them. For some you explain the entrance and search process, so a prison officer asking to check in your mouth is not a surprise. First time visitors are not the only people I speak to, and nor are they the only group supported by The Croft, but this seems to be an important part of the service provided by those working in Prison Visitor Centres.

 

The people I tend to speak to are adults but imagine these same feelings and concerns as a child or young person. What can we do to ensure that children and young people are aware of what to expect at a prison visit, that they are not too scared by an unknown place and process to come and see their family member? Those working within Prison Visitor Centres can help with this to some extent but what about the families who never get to the point where they see a member of staff from one of these organisations? While the only way we can really reduce the harm caused to children and young people by a family member’s imprisonment is to reduce prisoner numbers, we must at least try and mitigate this harm with one aspect of this being improving the experience of prison visits.

 

Kirsty currently holds a Scottish Justice Fellow position and is working towards disseminating her PhD findings. Her report “Keeping in Touch: Young people’s experiences of a family member’s imprisonment” can be found here. If you’re interested in volunteering with the Croft, email us help@barlinnievisitorscentre.org .

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