A labour of love: the lived experience of the parents of prisoners and their role as human rights protectors
chapter
posted on 2023-06-09, 15:53authored byMarie Hutton
Moving beyond the traditional focus on the children and romantic partners of prisoners, this chapter draws on in-depth interviews with Mothers and Fathers of adult children to elicit their lived experience of caring for their imprisoned child. Adopting themes identified Gueta’s 2017 global meta-synthesis, this chapter illuminates important synergies, and disparities, between the accounts of parents of prisoners in England and Wales compared to extant international literature. For many the burden of caring for their imprisoned child was profound and all-encompassing. For some this burden became even heavier as they resorted to desperate measures to protect their children from physical and psychological harm within prison walls. The chapter then goes further and locates the burden of care carried by these parents in a human rights framework. Drawing comparisons with the Salakhov and Islyamova v Ukraine (2013) human rights case, the chapter examines the previously unconsidered role parents of prisoners can play as human rights protectors for their imprisoned child and the human rights implications of the psychological harm this labour can cause parents of prisoners.