Browsing by Author "Booth, Natalie"

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    Disconnected: Exploring provisions for mother-child telephone contact in female prisons serving England and Wales
    (Sage, 2018-09-24) Booth, Natalie
    Despite a growing body of international work describing the negative consequences of imprisonment for children and families, few studies have explored the accessibility and functionality of prison telephones. Mother-child contact has recurrently been identified as an important mechanism to alleviate and manage some of the emotional and practical adversities which accompany maternal imprisonment, and telephone contact has the potential to provide regular, perhaps even daily, contact for these separated family members. Responding to the knowledge gap, this article qualitatively explores the narratives of fifteen mothers in prison with first-hand experience of using prison telephones to communicate with their children. Thematic data analysis revealed four critical obstacles and challenges with prison telephone facilities for Reconnecting in the first weeks, in the Cost of calling, in Telephoning privileges, and Inconsistencies across prisons. Contrary to legal and policy guidelines, the findings illuminate how institutional barriers seriously affect mother-child communications, and recommendations are made.
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    Families separated by bars – the home truths about sending mothers to prison
    (The Conversation, 2016-03-29) Booth, Natalie
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    Family Matters. a critical examination of family visits for imprisoned mothers and their families
    (HMSO, 2018) Booth, Natalie
    Whole families can experience serious disruptions and disadvantages when a mother is imprisoned . The enforced separation generated by prison creates challenges for sustaining meaningful mother-child relationships. This paper focuses on ‘family visits’; which are visiting opportunities generally designed to provide extended time and interaction between imprisoned parents and their children in the prison setting. The paper draws on the author’s doctoral research findings which explored the lives of families following the mother’s incarceration in England and Wales. Qualitative data was collected from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with fifteen imprisoned mothers and twenty-four caregivers (comprised of family members and friends) looking after children of female prisoners. Chiming with previous research, thematic data analysis revealed how family visits were highly valued and appreciated by families as they provided a special opportunity to engage in more ‘normalised’ family practices. However, extending prior knowledge, this study also identified how institutional barriers in the prison setting could hinder or prevent families from accessing and participating in family days. Practical recommendations attempt to respond to these issues, and to improve access and support for mother-child relationships during the mother’s incarceration.
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    Feminist Ethics and Research with Women in Prison
    (Sage, 2022-03-23) Quinlan, Christina; Baldwin, Lucy; Booth, Natalie
    In this article, we propose a new model, An Ethic of Empathy, as a guide for researchers, particularly new scholars to the discipline. This model emerged from our concerns regarding the application of ethics and research to women in criminal justice systems. The key issue is the vulnerability of incarcerated and post-release women in relationship to the powerful status of social scientists whose studies focus on the experiences of female offenders. in these circumstances. We believe that the complexity of ethics in such research settings necessitates a particular ethical preparation, involving formation, reflection, understanding, commitment, care, and empathy. We outline three cases, documenting our own ethical formation as researchers.
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    Maintaining Family Ties: The Disparities between Policy and Practice Following Maternal Imprisonment in England And Wales
    (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018-01) Booth, Natalie
    This chapter focusses on the policy landscape concerning the children and families of female prisoners in England and Wales. Specifically, it traces an emerging discourse in penal and policy documents which has fixated on the way in which family relationships can play a crucial role in reducing reoffending. Motivated by this link between family and recidivism, successive governments have appeared to advocate and support prisoners to maintain their family ties. The chapter reveals empirical evidence, from a qualitative study conducting semi-structured interviews of 30 family members, to critically examine how families experienced staying in contact following a mothers’ imprisonment in England and Wales. The findings demonstrate distinct disparities and contradictions between the policy rhetoric, and the inadequate provisions available to families as they attempted to remain in contact within the constraints of the prison context. Looking at these issues from the rights of the child raises questions around the moral and legal responsibility of the state and prison service. Genuine commitment is required from the government to ensure that prisons are equipped and operating effectively to deliver appropriate provisions for meaningful mother-child contact. This study strongly recommends that a unit is formed within central government, tasked with the responsibility and accountability for the children and families of prisoners, to address these disparities and contradictions.
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    Maternal imprisonment: a family sentence
    (Policy Press, 2017-06-28) Booth, Natalie
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    Prisoners' Children and Families
    (LexisNexis, 2017-04-15) Booth, Natalie
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    Promises, promises: can the female offender strategy deliver?
    (Sage, 2018-10-30) Booth, Natalie; Masson, Isla; Baldwin, Lucy
    Following a number of postponements, the long awaited and much needed female offender strategy for England and Wales was finally published in June 2018. The strategy reflects the strong agreement across the sector of the need for a ‘distinct’ or ‘gender-specific’ approach to respond to the vulnerabilities of women in the Criminal Justice System (CJS). Despite this, the strategy lacks clarity and offers little assurance that the direction taken will result in actual change and positive reform. It is vital that the government’s implementation of the female offender strategy provides and demonstrates a genuine commitment to appropriate provision for females in the CJS through ring-fenced permanent funding as well as top-down accountability.
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    Seeing is believing: The effect of prison-based insight-days on student nurses’ perceptions of undertaking practice placements within a prison healthcare environment
    (Elsevier, 2020-05-01) Hunt, Emma Louise; Booth, Natalie; Hunt, Louise Anne
    Prisoners' access to healthcare should mirror that of the general public, but is adversely affected by challenges in recruiting nurses to work in custodial settings, potentially impacting on prisoner well-being. To address this issue prison-based insight-days have been developed jointly by one university and prison to positively influence students’ views of undertaking placements in custodial settings because nurses are known to subsequently seek employment in areas where they have had positive student placements. A phenomenological investigation explored student nurses' lived experiences of prison-based insight-days. Questionnaires and interviews were used to gather qualitative data about students’ feelings both prior to and following the insight-day (n = 17). All data was thematically analysed resulting in four themes: pre-placement curiosity, escalating admission anxiety, calming down inside and post-placement decision making. The empirical findings showed that first-hand exposure to prisoners, and to the realities of a working prison, were crucial factors in dispelling stereotypes and addressing negative preconceptions of prison healthcare environments, as students could find prison placements unexpectedly appealing. Drawing on the findings, this paper recommends that facilitating prison insight-days within custodial settings may be one way to encourage students to undertake prison placements.