Women prisoners unable to parent their children due to past traumas and addiction — study

'All participants spoke about past trauma and/or their histories of addiction prior to entering prison, with almost all addicted to drugs and/or alcohol.'

The majority of women in Irish prisons are mothers, with new research showing the trauma endured in their own childhoods can lead to drug addiction and a chaotic lifestyle — reducing the likelihood they will parent their own children.

The study was carried out by researchers at the University of Galway and features input from 62 mothers who, at the time of interview, were in the Irish prison system. Their memories of childhood trauma include sexual abuse and vicious beatings.

At the initial stage of the research, there were 126 women in prison in Ireland, with 98 reporting they were mothers of either young or adult children. Yet the absence of their children in their lives — sometimes even before incarceration — had a huge impact, with one interviewee saying: "Sometimes it feels like I gave birth to them kids but I don't own them anymore."

The research, carried out by Dr Sinead O’Malley, Dr Carmel Devaney and Professor Michelle Millar of the Unesco Child and Family Research Centre, University of Galway, found “all participants spoke about past trauma and/or their histories of addiction prior to entering prison, with almost all addicted to drugs and/or alcohol".

"Past trauma predominately included sexual abuse and neglect, domestic violence, traumatic pregnancy and births and the trauma of loss and separation from their children."

One woman said: "If I drank [alcohol] they’d hold me down in a cold bath, beating me with rocks and stones, beating me with walking sticks. I used to have horse's whips all over me."

Another described how her mother broke her leg on one occasion and pushed her and her sister into a fire. One interviewee said her now-dead husband "was killing [her] even up until the day he died", yet described herself as his "saviour" and emphasised that "all the beatings aside, all the rapes aside, he was my life and I loved him".

Of the 98 mothers in prison, they ranged in age from 20 to 56 and most were Irish, with the remainder British, Brazilian or Eastern European, while 13% said they were members of the Travelling Community.

Severe addiction issues

Many outlined early and severe addiction issues, including to heroin, and relapses after treatment. Drugs were described as a way of coping with earlier trauma, with addiction then leading to criminal behaviour.

According to the research, "drug addiction and an associated chaotic lifestyle ... conflicted with the needs of child(ren)", with other factors such as domestic violence, mental ill health, parental separation, alcoholism, child neglect and previous prison committals also factored as reasons provided for mother–child separation.

Some participants explained how they found mothering difficult to manage and how motherhood made them feel depressed, while those who received visits from their children described how they had to endure long journeys, long waiting times, intensive search processes and negative visiting experiences which often resulted in a reluctance to return.

However, some participants discussed how they recently reconnected and re-established relationships with their children, particularly young children in foster care and adult daughters.

Just last month the Irish Penal Reform Trust said an estimated 278 children are impacted by maternal imprisonment and recommended that the courts take the impact on children into account when sentencing mothers.