'Great expectations?': a review of the role of prisoners' families in England and Wales (Issue on Selected papers from the 2004 British Criminology Conference, Portsmouth July 2004)

In recent years, stable family relationships and community ties have been recognised as important factors in effective resettlement and reducing offending by ex-prisoners. Active family support can also help to ameliorate the ‘pains of imprisonment’, thereby potentially reducing the risk of suicide/self-harm. This paper discusses the roles that prisoners’ families in England and Wales can play both in resettlement and in helping prisoners to cope during their incarceration. Using various studies and research reports that have emerged over the last 40 years, it examines the difficulties that families have in fulfilling these roles, particularly with regard to maintaining contact and support through visits, and argues that the main focus of the prisoners' families literature has been on the families' experiences during the imprisonment of a relative, rather than on prisoner perspectives of family relations and their potentially supportive role. It is suggested that the inclusion of prisoners' perspectives may provide a greater understanding of these issues