Research Aims, Objectives and Questions
The overall aims of this research are to:
(1) understand the long-term impact ofreductions and/or changesto prison socialvisits on CYP’smental health, emotional wellbeingand familial relations between children (from their perspective) and an incarcerated family member;and
(2) explore how the lived experience of CYP can be appliedtoco-produce a child-centred rights-based framework for prison social visits. The specificobjectives and research questions are as follows:
Objective 1: To conduct serial interviews with families over the course of 9 months to explore lived experience of reduction/changes in prison social visits.
RQ1: What are the long-term impacts of changing modes and frequency of contact, between CYP and anincarcerated family member, on familial relations and CYP's emotional wellbeing, health and health inequalities?
RQ2: Did institutional constraints during the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbate health and social inequalities for families in contact with the criminal justice system?
RQ3: Can we learn lessons from the pandemic to help improve face-to-face prison visiting experiences?
Objective 2: To map shifts between different modes of contact across a sample of prisons in Scotland, England and Wales during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic (with particular emphasis on changes between Lockdown 1, Lockdown 2, Lockdown 3 and tiered local restrictions).
RQ4: How did custodial environments adjust to changing lockdown measures and accommodate familial relations?
Objective 3: To co-produce a child-centred rights-based framework for prison social visits.
RQ5: Can rights-based, participatory methods help to amplify the narratives of CYP with an incarcerated family member and facilitate mechanisms for change?
