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Children of prisoners website

Is your parent in prison?  Are you a parent/caregiver or professional supporting children of prisoners?

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"Invisible Children"

PILLARS 1st year research on A Study of Children of Prisoners.

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Press release: 15 December 2009

Core findings of first year study of prisoners’ children

Do the children of prisoners follow in their parents’ footsteps?  Is crime somehow hereditary? Do children come to see a criminal life as just normal?  Or are the social, economic and emotional effects such that children are stuck in poverty with no apparent way out? 

These are some of the questions that we seek to answer in our three year study of the children of prisoners.  We begin, in fact, from a much more basic question:  How many children of prisoners are there at any given time in New Zealand?   Our preliminary and tentative answer is - about 20,000 at the moment, and increasing.

Our study interviewed prisoners, caregivers of the children, some children themselves and a wide range of stakeholders from community and government organisations with an interest in the prisoners of children.  In the first year we interview or surveyed over 250 people.

Our findings so far….

Children seem to be present in around 1 in 5 arrests.  The process of arrest ranges from relatively benign to quite traumatic.  In a small number of cases the arrest has lasting effects on the children. Most children do not go to view the trial, but for some it is an important part of coming to understand why their lives have changed.  Prison visiting is important for many in maintaining good family relationships, but distance, institutional practices and cost often make regular visiting difficult. For families that follow their imprisoned family member around the country, there is a cost to be borne.

Most of the families in this study subsist on a benefit.  They often face significant debt and costs associated with the imprisonment. Most of these families live well below the poverty line. There are few spare resources for meeting non-essential costs.

The children of prisoners may live with their other parent, a grandparent, older siblings, aunties and occasionally with non-family carers. They often move around quite a lot for a number of reasons, including housing costs, moving away from an area, to live with other people or to be near the prisoner.

These children suffer from an alarming array of physical, emotional and (in some cases) mental health issues. There is little evidence that their health needs are being addressed effectively.  Children seem to suffer from nightmares and separation anxiety when younger, then anger, emotional upset and bed-wetting in middle childhood and a worrying range of problems as adolescents.  Some have clear signs of mental ill health.

Not surprisingly, the children tend not to do well at school. Transience, low attendance rates, bullying (as victim and perpetrator), as well as difficulties in concentrating, added to the well-documented effects of poverty on educational achievement, mean that the odds are stacked against these children.

About two-thirds of Māori prisoners and one third of pakeha prisoners had lived with a family member who had gone to prison when they were a child.  The differences in these figures are wholly explained by the high (8 times higher) rate of Māori imprisonment over pakeha.  There are clear trends towards inter generational imprisonment, although the literature suggests the reasons are complex.

This is a study undertaken for the community sector.  Our study has begun to investigate the range of community and government services available to help these children and prevent them following their parents into prison. While health and education services are often supportive, the assistance they give appears not to make much difference. Work and Income, who provides the incomes for most of the families, has no specific understanding of any special needs this group has.  Services that are funded to offer programmes to these children always have large waiting lists or, in the case of PARS prison visiting fund, may run out of money well before the end of the year.

The study continues next year, as we seek to build a fuller and better informed picture.

You may download the full report on this Home Page (on the right).

Contact:

Liz Gordon, Network Research, 03 980 5422 or 027 454 5008





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Introducing PILLARS
Supporting children of prisoners to break the crime cycle 
 
PILLARS has been 20 years supporting the children of prisoners. Donating to PILLARS is a positive way to help fight crime. You can donate online by linking through to a secured website by clicking on the Donation Button at the top right hand corner of this page or go to "How to Help" on the Menu bar.
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The PILLARS programme is a concerted effort to break the cycle of crime in New Zealand - for good!
Approximately 20,000 children in New Zealand are "sentenced" to separation from their imprisoned parent - mainly fathers. Despite these staggering numbers, however, the children of prisoners remain largely invisible.

Research shows that children of prisoners are 6 - 7 times more likely to end up in prison than any other child without intervention. We believe we could significantly cut the crime rate in 10 years if every prisoners child  in New Zealand was matched with a pro-social mentor,

Our Mission

"To work towards a crime free society by providing support servicboy.jpges to  youth and children of prisoners and their families / whanau, aimed at breaking the cycle of intergenerational crime and lowering the rate of imprisonment."

Our Objectives 
  • To be a national voice for children of prisoners, representing their views and directly influencing policy and legislation.
  • To provide innovative best practice models of support for children of prisoners to break the cycle of intergenerational offending.
  • To raise awareness of issues affecting children of prisoners.
  • Contribute to cutting edge research on crime prevention and reduction.

Programme Goals

  • Break the cycle of imprisonment within the family.
  • Provide quality mentors for children of prisoners to help them overcome the trauma and instability of having a parent in prison.
  • Assist with providing children with a safe and secure environment in which to grow up.
  • Help children to expand inner strength by conquering the risk factors involved in having a parent in prison and expand the protective factors and resiliency needed to live a productive, crime free life.

PILLARS provide a free non-judgmental and confidential service. As we rely on financial support to provide our services, a koha / donation is appreciated.

PILLARS is a registered charity under the Charities Act 2005, Registration Number: CC23953, and all donations over $5 qualify for a tax credit.

 

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Interested In Mentoring?

Introduction sessions run frequently and will include: who PILLARS is, what we do, the specifics of the Mentoring Programme, what will be required of you as a volunteer, and will briefly look at some of the issues facing the children.
This session runs for approximately one hour, and at the end you will know whether the mentoring programme is for you.

Please contact:
CHRISTCHURCH
Deborah Porter
03) 377 3990 x705
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AUCKLAND
Katrina Leslie
09) 262 2639
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