When a family member goes to prison – young people’s experiences

SCCJR PhD student Kirsty Deacon is looking for people to take part in her research. She has made a short video about her project.

My research is looking at the experiences of young people aged 13 to 25 who have, or have had, a parent or sibling in prison. I am interested in finding out about these experiences and am hoping to explore what family means to this group of young people and how they experience family when a member is in prison.  I am also looking at how young people deal with the imprisonment of a family member and what support, if any, is available for them.

This research is an opportunity to add young people’s voices to work going on in this area, where often they are not heard, and to inform public understanding as well as policy discussions around these issues.  I hope to try and improve the experiences and support available for children and young people with a family member in prison today and in the future.

If you would be interested in taking part in my research and sharing your story with me, or know someone else who might, it would involve around an hour of your time.  It would involve being interviewed, though actually this would just be more of a conversation, where you can tell me about whichever parts of your experience that you think are most important.

This could be about:

• What is it like when the person first goes into prison?
• What is it like visiting them in the prison, talking to them on the phone or writing to them?  You might not have visited or kept in touch with your family member while they were in prison though and it’s also okay to talk about what that was like as well.
• What is it like being at school if teachers and other pupils at the school know that your family member is in prison?  Did you get any support at school, or from other people or organisations?
• Has your family member missed out on things like your birthday or Christmas when they’ve been in prison and what is that like?
• If your family member has now been released from prison, what was that like for you? 

These are just some examples. There are no right or wrong answers and anything that you would like to share would be very valuable.  I want to add young people’s voices to the work going on in this area and hopefully try and improve the experience and support available for children and young people with a family member in prison at the moment but also in the future.

Anyone choosing to take part in my research will remain anonymous and would be given a substitute name in my PhD thesis and any other reports that I might write about my research.

If you think you might be interested in taking part or would like more information please give me a call on 07780 236 326 or send me an email on k.deacon.1@research.gla.ac.uk.  Or leave your contact details below and I’ll get in touch with you.

This research has been approved by the College of Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee at the University of Glasgow. If you have any questions about ethical issues you can contact the College of Social Sciences Ethics Officer Dr Muir Houston on Muir.Houston@glasgow.ac.uk.

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