Office, 1997). Additionally, women’s imprisonment results in an estimated 17,300 children being separated from their mothers, and fewer than 1 in 10 children are cared for by their fathers whilst their mothers are incarcerated (Williams, 2017). An incarcerated mother also has a detrimental impact on her children, there is a link of children being at a higher risk of offending because of the factors surrounding their mothers’ criminal status (Sharp, 2001). Furthermore, they are often placed in abusive homes as they await their mothers’ release, either with an abusive partner or in care. The Corston Report revealed that some mothers had no idea where their children are, and of 50 self-harmers studied, a third of the women were in care themselves (Corston, 2007). Corston has suggested that this causes mothers ‘great distress and deleterious consequences for their mental health’ (Corston, 2007: p20), not only this but the children of prisoners have about three times the risk of mental health problems and/or anti-social behaviour compared to other children (PRT, 2015). Moffat (1997) has further suggested that the concept of maternal power is important in explaining the impact. Maternal power is based on an ethic of care which reliant on a mother’s duty and obligation to protect her child and ensure the production of a healthy and obedient citizen, therefore responsibility of being a mother is taken away from a mother who is incarcerated.
Whilst men did report to have similar feelings relating to loss of contact with their children, there were only a small minority of men who had dependent children. Plus, there are fewer reports from male prisoners of a lack of contact with other family members, mostly due to the abundance of male prisons across the country (Crewe, 2017). Therefore, this issue disproportionally impacts women in incarceration. Carlen (1998) further argues that when men go to prison they are aware that their wife or spouse will take care of their children (Carlen, 1998). Crewe suggests that due to the general stigma attached to female offending, many family members tended to stop contact. In contrast, men often report making stronger relationships with their friends or family (Crewe, 2017).
To summarise, motherhood is a clear gender-specific pain of imprisonment that women experience. This dissertation addresses this issue, as it shows that there is more ‘punishment’ or perhaps ‘injustice’ directed at mothers who are convicted and sent to prison, in comparison to the majority of male offenders as they are more likely to be closer to their family and if they were a primary carer.