Prisoners’ families: civic virtue and policies of impoverishment

Abstract

This article explores the poverty and disadvantage experienced by prisoners’ families living at or below the level officially recognised as ‘poor’. Current social policy ignores the priority given to the care needs of children by predominantly female relatives and partners of prisoners. In conjunction with criminal justice and immigration legislation, social policies have combined to impoverish, disadvantage and exclude prisoners’ families. Reforms of the welfare system may improve the adequacy of state welfare benefits, but unless fundamentally reshaped, social policy could continue to penalise the ‘care’ offered by prisoners’ families and so further entrench inequalities.