Women in Prison and the Children of Imprisoned Mothers: a Briefing for Friends

Produced by the Women in Prison Project Group – a joint venture by Quaker Peace & Social Witness, Quaker United Nations Office Geneva, and Quaker Council for European Affairs – the briefing offers an outline to the particular problems and needs of women in prison around the world, including the effects on children of their mothers being in prison. It also suggests some actions you can take and/or support in order to change things for the better.

The Quaker United Nations Office, Geneva and the Quaker Council for European Affairs (Brussels) have, since 2004, been undertaking research on Women in Prison and the children of Imprisoned Mothers as part of a joint project together with Quaker Peace & Social Witness (United Kingdom) and the Friends World Committee for Consultation representation to the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and the United Nations Crime Congress.

The project aims to gain a clearer understanding of the particular problems faced by women prisoners and children of imprisoned mothers and how these problems can be better addressed by governments and policy makers. The project is international and it is intended that this briefing will be too. Written initially for Quakers in Britain, we hope users will translate it into other languages and add their country-specific resources.

Women in Prison Briefing [PDF: 100 kb - opens in new window] - English

Mujeres en la cárcel [PDF: 157 kb - otra ventana]