Impact on families

• Emotional distress - loss of a loved one.
• financial Strain - decreases the families income and increases their spending
• Families spend £180 a month to support somebody in prison
• In Scotland, 16500 children have a parent absent due to them being imprisoned
• Katie Allan (case study)


  A 20 year old who was sentenced to 16 months in Polmont (near Falkirk) in march of 2018. She was arrested for a drink-driving offence in which a teenage boy had been injured. only 3 months into her sentence Katie committed suicide due to her bullying there.
• Financial impact


  Families may need to pay for things which they would otherwise not needed to have spent the money - such as funeral costs which can be very expensive. For example, recent figures show that a funeral using a funeral director costs an average £4,078.
• Parents in prison 


  This, in some cases, is the loss of the breadwinner and the family may struggle to survive as a result. For example, some families can no longer able to afford their rent or mortgage payments and may lose their family home.
• Social stigma on the family 


  Offenders are stigmatised to their offence, and their families often are too even if they had nothing to do with the crime that was committed or were even close to their family member who committed the crime. For example, families are seen as guilty by association even thought they are legally innocent and generally have had no involvement in the offence.