Bedford Row Family Project: Holding the Suffering Authors: Dr. Ann Higgins and Ruth Bourke Transforming Education through Dialogue (TED) Project, Curriculum Development Unit Mary Immaculate College, South Circular Road, Limerick Bedford Row Family Project: Holding the Suffering Bedford Row Family Project: Holding the Suffering Copyright © 2017, Curriculum Development Unit, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick ISBN 978-1-900146-31-9 Curriculum Development Unit, Mary Immaculate College, South Circular Road, Limerick, Ireland. T. +353.61.204366 [email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication, except photocopiable materials in the Appendices, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, including photocopying, scanning, recording or any other infor- mation storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright and publisher of this book. All photo- copiable materials may be photo- copied for classroom use only. Every effort has been made to acknowledge contributors and sources throughout this publi- cation. If we have made an oversight, it is unintended and will be rectified in future editions. As information posted on the Internet is constantly changing, web addresses may have become inactive or been modified since the time of publication of this book. contents Contents...........................................................................................................................................................................................................i Foreword .......................................................................................................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................................................................v Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................................................................vi Section 1 – Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................1 Section 2 – Context: Imprisonment has many implications for families of prisoners and prisoners ...................2 Introduction.............................................................................................................................................................................................3 1. Societal Context.....................................................................................................................................................................4 2. Family Context .......................................................................................................................................................................4 3. Imprisonment..........................................................................................................................................................................6 4. Transitioning out of prison.................................................................................................................................................7 Section 3 - Literature review........................................................................................................................................................8 Introduction.............................................................................................................................................................................................9 Society, Crime and Imprisonment..............................................................................................................................................9 Prisoners ...........................................................................................................................................................................................10 Women in prison............................................................................................................................................................................11 Men in prison...................................................................................................................................................................................12 Children of prisoners....................................................................................................................................................................13 Families of prisoners ....................................................................................................................................................................16 Models of Family Support................................................................................................................................................................17 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................................................17 What is Family Support? .............................................................................................................................................................18 Best practice in Family Support...............................................................................................................................................19 Categories of Family Support...................................................................................................................................................20 Supporting prisoners who are parents and their children ............................................................................................21 Reintegration /transition back into society.........................................................................................................................22 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................................................................23 Section 4 - Methodology.............................................................................................................................................................24 Research aim.........................................................................................................................................................................................25 Research approach and methodology ........................................................................................................................................25 Research questions ............................................................................................................................................................................26 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................................................................................26 Data Collection ....................................................................................................................................................................................26 Ethical Considerations......................................................................................................................................................................28 I Bedford Row Family Project: Holding the Suffering Section 5 – Bedford Row Family Project Model of Delivery...........................................................................................30 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................................................................31 Underlying Ethos and Culture of the Bedford Row Family Project................................................................................31 Model of service delivery.................................................................................................................................................................32 1. Organic evolution of services ........................................................................................................................................33 2. Multi-site delivery..............................................................................................................................................................33 3. Suite of integrated services ............................................................................................................................................34 4. Family orientated and intergenerational..................................................................................................................36 5. Working in partnership with other organisations.................................................................................................37 6. Accessibility ..........................................................................................................................................................................38 7. Leadership and staffing ....................................................................................................................................................41