Advancing Corrections Journal - Edition #15 - What is Effective Reintegration? (ACJ15-A010)

Article 10: Parenting from Prison: Innovative Ways of Maintaining Connection with Children, Families and Significant Others (ACJ15-A010)

Abstract

This article describes and discusses ‘Invisible Walls’(IW), a pioneering ‘whole family’ approach to enhancing imprisoned fathers’ ties with their children and families. It summarises earlier evaluation findings on the Lottery-funded Invisible Walls Wales (IWW) project in HM Prison and YOI Parc, Wales, UK, outlines its influence on policy, and discusses how th e model has since evolved. In Parc, partnerships with schools now play a significant part; a further important development has been efforts to break down silos and make ‘family’ services available to all people in prison and their ‘significant others’. The paper also addresses the problem of replicating or adapting successful local projects on a much larger scale: experience from IW suggests that this can be helped by individual establishments exchanging ideas, but achieving and sustaining high volumes of beneficiaries requires commitment and investment by government, combined with culture and attitude change at local level.

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Authors

Dr. Anna Clancy

Strategic Planning and Service Innovation Manager, Centacare Catholic Family Services, South Australia

Dr. Anna Clancy is currently a Strategic Planning and Service Innovation Manager for Centacare Catholic Family Services in Adelaide and was previously employed at the Department for Correctional Services, South Australia. Prior to emigrating to Australia in 2020, she was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Criminology, University of South Wales. Her main interests lie in the fields of domestic abuse and the rehabilitation of justice involved people, with a focus upon the impact of family focussed interventions upon motivation, social inclusion, family functioning and intergenerational offending.

Professor Mike Maguire

Professor of Criminology, Centre for Criminology, University of South Wales

Professor Mike Maguire is a part-time Professor of Criminology at the Centre for Criminology, University of South Wales. He worked previously at the Oxford University Centre for Criminological Research and the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University. He has conducted numerous empirical studies of the criminal justice and penal systems, primarily in the fields of policing, probation and the rehabilitation and resettlement of prisoners. His recent research includes an in-depth evaluation of the ‘Invisible Walls’ project in HMP Parc, aimed at facilitating contact and enhancing relationships between prisoners and their families and children. Professor Maguire has over 100 publications to his name, and co-edited five editions of a leading textbook, the Oxford Handbook of Criminology. He is a member of the England and Wales Correctional Services Accreditation and Advice Panel.

Corin Morgan-Armstrong

G4S Care and Rehabilitation Services, United Kingdom

Corin Morgan-Armstrong was Educated at Bath and Cardiff University, (BA Hons & MSc. Econ – Criminology & Criminal Justice). He has worked within the field of rehabilitation and resettlement for over 25 years, starting as a prison officer at HMP Parc in 1997. During the last 15 years, Corin has created and implemented a specific model that has at its heart the engagement of people in prison with their children and families, for the purposes of rehabilitation, derailing intergenerational crime, and re-building community inclusion. Corin established the Family Interventions Unit 2010 (the first of its kind in the UK) and an Interventions Led Visits model at HMP Parc and has worked with corrections in the UK and internationally to achieve replication of the model. Corin also designed and established the Invisible Walls Wales service; initially lottery funded in 2012, now, due to its success, working to become a distinct, not for profit, Community Interest Company. Corin has shared his family approach model with correctional services across five continents, and now oversees the Invisible Walls Family Services strategy for the G4S group of prisons in the UK, as well as more recently delivering new family services in a number of public sector prisons in the UK.

Advancing Corrections Journal - Edition #15 - What is Effective Reintegration? (ACJ15-A010)

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