Pact responds to new report on the impact of Covid-19 on prisoners' children

We were pleased to see the publication of a new report by Dr Shona Minson released today, examining: The impact of COVID-19 prison lockdowns on children with a parent in prison.

The new report is an important reminder that prison lockdown has affected the lives and mental health of over 200,000 innocent children, who are all too often forgotten by the criminal justice system and, most recently, have been ignored by experts whose advice on the roll out of vaccinations fails to take into account the wider health impacts of continued prison lockdown. 

Whilst HM Prison Service has done an amazing job in minimising the loss of life due to COVID-19 in prisons, this report tells us that there are over 200,000 good reasons to see a route map out of the current prison restrictions. We would urge Ministers to think again about the approach to vaccinating prison communities, so an efficient prison vaccination programme can be delivered and visits can re-start as soon as possible.

About Dr Shona Minson

Dr Shona Minson is a British Academy Post Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford, studying children’s rights during family reintegration after parental imprisonment. Find out more about Dr Minson's work here.