Trinidad takes on-board Uni’s work on parents in prison

Symposium in Trinidad makes its mark on the rights of children with parents in prison

RESEARCH at the University of Huddersfield has played an important role in drawing global attention to the often-overlooked plight of children who have parents in jail.  Now, it is a catalyst for improvements in the Caribbean isle of Trinidad, where prison visiting rights have been severely restricted.

Ben Raikes – who is a Senior Lecturer at the University’s Department of Social Work – was a member of the team behind the EU-funded COPING project that examined mental health, wellbeing and resilience among children of imprisoned parents in a wide range of countries. 

He went on to co-found the International Coalition for Children with Incarcerated Parents (INCCIP).  Its inaugural conference was in New Zealand and the University of Huddersfield will be the venue when it convenes in 2019.

Mr Raikes has research links with Trinidad – home to the University of the West Indies, which has a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Huddersfield – and he came to realise that the position of families affected by imprisonment there was extremely serious.

“Children don’t routinely visit a parent in prison in Trinidad.  There is no recognition of UN Convention, that a child has a right to contact with parents.  A child will go months and months and not see their parent at all.”

However, Mr Raikes was encouraged to learn that the Head of Programmes for the Trinidad and Tobago Prison Service intended to make improvements.

“For example, she has an aspiration that every mother in prison in Trinidad should have contact with their children on Mother’s Day.  She clearly had a concern about the impact of children of imprisonment.  So I thought if we were to put on a symposium we could draw attention to the issue.”

Mr Raikes made contact with colleagues in Trinidad and the symposium has now taken place.  He received funding from the University of Huddersfield’s Centre for Applied Childhood, Youth and Family Research, and travelled to the Caribbean for the two-day session.  He paid tribute to Dr Karene Nathaniel-DeCaires, Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of the West Indies.  “She worked tirelessly to draw participants to the event and facilitated it with great sensitivity and skill.”

A highlight was a keynote address from the University of Huddersfield’s Professor Adele Jones – who was Project Leader for COPING – and attendees included several  prison welfare officers, three women who had recently been released from jail and two grandmothers with  daughters in prison.  There was also the widow of a man who died in unknown circumstances in prison.

In attendance were Mr Raikes’s INCCIP colleague, US-based researcher Katie Kramer, plus criminologists and social work experts at the University of the West Indies.  There were also representatives of organisations devoted to child welfare and post-release support for prisoners.

A VIP guest was the new Commissioner for Prisons in Trinidad.

“He was horrified when he heard the released female prisoners talking about the humiliation they suffered,” said Mr Raikes.  “Things came to his attention he wasn’t aware of, so he said he would investigate and that he wanted to create a culture in the prisons service where corrections officers were more family-minded.”

This was a “ringing endorsement” of the research inspired by COPING and INCCIPP said Mr Raikes, and there is now the prospect that it would contribute to new training programmes in Trinidad conducted by colleagues at the University of the West Indies.