Greater role urged for social workers in women’s jails

The Irish Association of Social Workers has backed a call for its members to play a greater role in working with jailed women in a bid to reduce reoffending levels.

In the paper, published in the Probation Journal, it was argued that criminal offending did not necessarily equate to bad parenting and that “promoting the relationship between incarcerated mothers and their children should form an integral part of their prison experience”.

According to the paper, entitled ‘Supporting incarcerated mothers in Ireland with their familial relationships: A case for the revival of the social work role’, there is an argument for “reviving the role of supportive social work practitioners to work alongside incarcerated mothers in an effort to retain and realise their parental rights and duties and to maintain relationships with their children”.