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The chapter centres on a practitioners' experience of supporting children affected by maternal imprisonment for over a decade in Liverpool, Merseyside in the United Kingdom.

Using the data derived from my PhD ‘Bubbles, Brick Walls and Connectivity’, I offer ‘whole families’ experiences of support systems including their experience of statutory services, nonstatutory services, family and friends and ‘Good Practice’ suggestions are proffered.

Consideration is given to what support can look like, the successes and the challenges. Attention is paid to how to help children who have contact with their mothers and how this help might differ to children for whom contact has been severed.

The chapter also focusses on supporting children and families post release and the challenges of engaging the mother in the service. Stories which highlight how the mother/child relationship can become fragmented/disrupted, either prior to or owing to imprisonment, are shared.

Imprisonment can severely impact and disrupt women’s childbearing and parenting experiences. Building on Sykes’ (1958) “pains of imprisonment” and the expanded “gendered pains of imprisonment” proposed by feminist scholars, this chapter examines the pregnancy and mothering experiences of 18 Filipino incarcerated women. This study has illuminated women’s diverse and distinct situations expressed in three broad themes: (a) lack of control and autonomy, (b) disrupted mothering role, and (c) social networks as coping resources. The findings demonstrated how women’s institutionally imposed “prisoner identity” overshadows their pregnancy status and mothering role, exacerbated by their experiences of systemic scarcity, restricted contact with family, and limited autonomy. Finally, the results illustrated how emotional and material support from social networks (family and prison peers) helped women cope with the pains of imprisonment.

From June 2017 to May 2018, the Prison Reform Trust partnered with Families Outside to identify the particular impacts on children of a mother's involvement in the criminal justice system. This included a literature review and extensive consultations with 25 children and 31 mothers with lived experience. This chapter presents the main findings of the research, which identified five key themes: ‘Children with a mother in prison are invisible within the systems that are there to protect them’; ‘Every aspect of a child's life may be disrupted when a mother goes to prison’; ‘Children feel stigmatised when a mother is involved in the criminal justice system’; ‘Children affected by imprisonment face many barriers to support’ and ‘With the right support, children can become more resilient and develop the skills they need to thrive’. The material presented in this chapter constitutes a compelling case for reform. The chapter concludes with recommendations for action at local and national levels to protect children from the harm caused by maternal imprisonment.

This paper considers a peer education initiative through which incarcerated men provide English as a Second Language instruction to other incarcerated men. Programs such as this are sometimes criticized for objectifying and exploiting their incarcerated participants. I argue that prison programs that support the demonstration of competence and meaningful collective action can bring out the best in their students, transform the climate of the institutions that house them, and promote progressive social change. This study suggests how thoughtfully designed prison programs can create communities committed to personal growth, social responsibility, and engaged citizenship.

This chapter aims to understand how partnerships and networks can aid the development and growth of organizations whose goal is to foster social inclusion along the agro-food supply chain, with particular reference to the social entrepreneurship sector.

The chapter draws on a framework proposed by Newth and Woods (2014) to identify the main drivers of resistance to the development of social entrepreneurship. The empirical evidence is based on a single case, involving an Italian social enterprise, Semi di Libertà, which produces high-quality artisan beer. Case material included an analysis of organization documents and interviews with key actors.

The case study shows how Semi di Libertà faced different types of resistance, related to formal and informal institutions and market drivers, and leveraged partnerships with other actors in the ecosystem. Some of these partnerships were planned a priori to overcome specific problems (e.g., the Prison’s Authority, Mastri Birrai). Other partnerships were developed “by chance” (e.g., “peer” associations) but turned out to be particularly important to deal with the above resistances.

The case study methodology prevents the authors from generalizing too far past the obtained results. However, key elements from the case, such as the relevance of “spontaneous” partnerships and those with “peer” organizations, could be taken into account for similar initiatives in different contexts.

Recent literature has highlighted the relevance of partnerships in scaling social enterprises but has not explored the dynamics whereby these partnerships are created and developed. This chapter provides some preliminary evidence of how partnerships can be used to overcome the resistance limiting the growth of social entrepreneurship and the sustainability of socially inclusive initiatives.

The study explores the ways hypermasculine aggression is both communicated and resisted in prisons.

It is based on ethnographic observation conducted at two correctional facilities: a mixed-security prison for young men where the author has facilitated conflict transformation workshops since 2006 and a maximum-security prison for men where she has taught a weekly writing class since 2007.

It found that performances of masculinity among both prisoners and prison guards are frequently structured around symbolic expressions of violence, but that both groups also engage in supportive behaviors that communicate the possibility of nonviolent caring male identity.

The study was limited to two correctional institutions in one state in the United States. Conditions at other correctional facilities may lead to different types of gendered performance. Also, in the tense atmosphere of a prison, neither inmates nor corrections officers express themselves fully in the presence of an outside observer.

The violent masculinities valued and practiced in prisons replicate in communities and institutions beyond the prison walls. Attention to the alternative masculinities practiced in correctional institutions can help scholars challenge the destructive ideologies of hegemonic masculinity and reduce its prevalence; it can influence policy makers to establish more humane conditions and procedures of benefit to individuals, families, and communities.

The study is of value to scholars of gender, culture, and social justice; to policy makers interested in criminal justice reform; and to activists and people of conscience seeking to reduce violence on both sides of the bars.

Over 2 million individuals are incarcerated in the US criminal justice system. More than half of incarcerated Americans are also parents of minors. Parental incarceration can lead to a higher risk of mental illness and enduring trauma in children, as well as other problematic cognitive, developmental, and educational outcomes. Examining parental incarceration through a racial equity lens is critical, as people of color make up 67% of the incarcerated population despite making up only 37% of the US population. Further, gender-related equity issues pose important challenges for families with incarcerated parents. Here, we discuss prison-based psychosocial interventions designed both to build parenting skills and to improve parent well-being within a racial and gender equity lens. We hypothesize that effective services in these areas are essential components in a broad strategy designed to mitigate the potential negative effects suffered by families and children of incarcerated parents of color as a result of their imprisonment.

This chapter explores the role of cultural activity within prison libraries for not only the general wellbeing of prisoners, but also as a form of indirect intervention for addressing unrecognised and/or unaddressed information needs amongst prisoners; particularly important needs of a more sensitive nature often repressed (e.g. remorse, mental health, relationships). Drawing on research to date, the authors discuss the information needs of prisoners, the associated benefits of cultural activity for information need recognition and understanding, and the support role of the prison library; and in relation, identify opportunities for further development of the library as a key change agent in the progressive rehabilitation of prisoners.