My Diary

The experience of having a mother, father, brother, sister, other family relative or even a friend go to prison can be incredibly traumatic for a child. Families Outside works with children and families affected by imprisonment across Scotland and have done so for the last 25 years.

With our awareness of the difficulties these often marginalised children face, Families Outside has produced a publication aimed at addressing the difficulties experienced by young children in such distressing circumstances.

ChildDiary2            ChildDiary(video)

 

           Book version

      Video version

As a consequence of imprisonment, children with a family member in prison can become isolated from their community, including school, and may become the victims of bullying or display bullying behaviour themselves as they struggle to manage their anger and confusion. These children are more likely to have problems at school, with increased risk of school exclusion and disengagement from education. Often children are not told what is happening, which is confusing and worrying, or they are asked to keep it secret, which puts an enormous strain on them.

Children affected by imprisonment suffer from serious mental health issues at up to three times the rate of other children and are at higher risk of offending and, therefore, of ending up in prison themselves. The experience of a family member’s imprisonment puts children and young people at a serious disadvantage and makes engaging positively in society extremely challenging.

My Diary is available to download from our research and publications page.

The video version of the diary is also available which may be more suitable for the child or for training of professionals working with children affected by imprisonment.

The video can be downloaded from our Vimeo account.

 

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