http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1157622004
Angela Morgan
"170 delegates, amongst them family members, prison officers and managers, social workers and representatives of the police, the legal profession and the voluntary sector were gathering to hear the voices of families as they described their experience of being in a "prison without bars".
Their stories will reinforce research evidence which has consistently shown - over 50 years - how maintaining family relationships reduces the likelihood of re-offending by up to six times.
Yet despite the individual testimony of lives destroyed and the hard evidence, families affected by imprisonment have been neglected by the criminal justice system and by broader policy and services for vulnerable families."
Families Outside is the only Scottish organisation with an exclusive focus on families affected by imprisonment. Through our helpline we hear of the emotional, social, economic and, for children, educational damage sustained when a relative is imprisoned. For children of inmates, the research shows that a short sentence can be as damaging to their emotional health and development as a longer one.
