The Strengthening of the Mother–Child Relationship through Group Work Conducted in Prisons

Abstract

Official statistics reveal a female crime rate of 5% Europe-wide for the year 2019. Recent years have seen a growing tendency in this regard. Mothers serving their prison sentences form a separate group among imprisoned women, who, besides carrying the stigma of social exclusion due to the crimes they have committed, they are also struggling with severe psychological and emotional problems given the adverse effects they are suffering from as a result of their forced separation from their children. Particularly great attention should be devoted to these women since their going to prison is not merely a private matter anymore, but it means an entire family’s loss, which has implications presenting dangers at the social level as it may lead to increased rates of child neglect, a growing number of institutionalized children, and the reproduction of criminal behaviour. The overall aim of the paper at hand is to provide a presentation of the group work conducted with imprisoned mothers. These group works were aimed at strengthening the mother–child relationship and preparing mothers for parental fitness. The target group of my intervention was made up of mothers serving their sentences in the Cluj-based external section of the maximum security prison in Gherla. The need for intervention was substantiated by results of the preliminary research. An intervention including 11 sessions of group counselling took place with the participation of 12 mothers serving their time. The group activities were elaborated based on the Raising a Child through Prison Bars international project, and the topics addressed during the sessions were following the guidelines of the programmes implemented in the framework of the aforesaid project.