Effects of incarceration
on prisoners' families

Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl compiled the following lists from its actual experience, over a 10-year span, with prisoners' families. They are presented here without any particular order.

Maltese version

Effects on prisoners' families in general:

• Incarceration is experienced as if some member of the family died
• The roles within the family change
• Personal interest in the members of the same family increases
• Other members of the extended family begin to get involved in the life of the nuclear family
• Free time diminishes (due to new and added commitments)
• The children (of an incarcerated parent) end up with no role-figures (if this, incidentally, is not for the better)
• The children (of an incarcerated parent) show signs of instability
• The children (of an incarcerated parent) show a lack of ethics in their sexual behaviour (and sometimes desire to leave the home early)
• The children (of an incarcerated parent) show symptoms of problematic behaviour, such as:
  • Act like little children;
  • Do things that children much younger do (such as wetting their bed, sucking their thumb, etc.);
  • Argue a lot;
  • Clink to the parent at home (in such a way that they try not to loose him/her from sight, due to the fear of not seeing him/her again);
  • Began to be aggressive;
  • Cause trouble more frequently;
  • Fear being with people they do not know very well; and
  • Become restless.
• Mothers (of incarcerated sons or daughters) feel cheated or robbed of their children.
• Mothers (of incarcerated sons or daughters) experience great fear (or anxiety) from what might happen to their kids in goal (conscious that the prisons change people, generally for the worse)
• Increase in religious faith (and in God)
• Members of the extended family consider support given to the prisoner (from the nuclear family) as irrational or ridiculous

Effects on interpersonal relationships:

• Parents (of incarcerated sons or daughters) begin to idealise their incarcerated kids (due to the fact of their separation)
• Love between the non-incarcerated members and the person in goal increases
• Increase in the desire that the familiar love with the prisoner does not ever come to an end
• The non-incarcerated members develop a sense of guilt, as if they had some responsibility in the crime of their relative (or as if they could have done something to avoid the crime, and did not)
• They also sometimes develop a sense of shyness before their relative- prisoner
• They experience a sense of shame while in public due to their blood-relation to a prisoner
• They experience a conflict of sentiments (anger/mercy; hate/love) towards others, especially their incarcerated relative
• They find some difficulty during visits to their incarcerated relative, in such a way that they mentally plan the meeting, and consciously decide beforehand what to mention to him/her and what to pass by in silence

Effects on the finances of prisoners' families:

• A salary is lost (if the incarcerated part is a parent)
• A considerable increase in expenses due to things that will have to be taken constantly to the prisons
• Less pocket-money for sons and daughters
• Less spending-money for the family
• Payment of exuberant fees to lawyers
• Sometimes the family has to pay also the fines imposed by the courts on their incarcerated relative (so s/he would not do extra periods in goal)

Effects on the relationship of prisoners' families with institutions:

• Parents (of incarcerated sons and daughters) feel frustrated due to their sense of powerlessness before the destiny of their kids
• The members of the family avoid talking about the incarceration of their relative due to the fear of bad effects — goal, incarceration, and the like, become taboo subjects
• The day, and the moment itself, of the declaration of the prison sentence of their relative becomes a trauma for the close relations of the sentenced
• The family feels completely lost in the judicial bureaucratic system
• The family feels disappointed with the system
• The family looses heart when they realise that their sons and daughters are in the hands of an unfeeling institution or system, such as the courts and the prisons
• The children (of incarcerated parents) begin to show lack of respect towards any authority
• The children (of incarcerated parents) show signs of academic proficiency, especially if they are of a young (primary-level) stage

Social effects on prisoners' families:

• The family is discussed in public
• A sense of shame
• A feeling that the members of the family are somehow guilt too of the crime committed
• A possibility that fear of the "criminal" is also extended to the whole family
• A sense of isolation from neighbours (which, though real, may not be altogether realistic) due to the fact that the family of a prisoner is considered a degradation for the neighbourhood
• Isolation of the children (of incarcerated parents) due to the fact that they are considered unworthy of other "normal" children
• The children (of incarcerated parents) begin to show some anti-social behaviour
• Sometimes other members of the community consider support given to the prisoner (from his/her nuclear family) as irrational or ridiculous