Christmas: a lonely time for parents in prison and their children

Christmas can be a particularly difficult time for children and parents separated by imprisonment.

Approximately 200,000 children in England and Wales have a parent in prison. This is over three times the number of children in care and over five times the number of children on the Child Protection Register. Figures reveal that, in 2009, more than double the number of children were affected by the imprisonment of a parent than by divorce in the family.

Each year over 17,000 children are separated from their mothers by imprisonment.

Primary care responsibilities are a mitigating factor in sentencing guidelines but many parents, particularly lone mothers, are still being locked up for petty and non-violent offences.

No-one routinely monitors the parental status of prisoners in the UK or systematically identifies children of people remanded or sentenced to custody or simply asked who is looking after the children left behind and do they, and the children themselves, have the support they need. Justice ministers can and should put this right.

You can read the BBC Newsbeat story on prisoners’ children by clicking here