Under SSGT’s Family Matters grant programme, we supported the investigative journal, Noteworthy, to research and produce several articles and a podcast about the impact of prison visiting for children of prisoners with a small strategic grant. The Calling Time series, published in November 2023 showed that prison visits are still not back to normal since the pandemic and exposed a system that is failing families, with children’s rights left unfulfilled. Over the course of six months, the Noteworthy team spoke to more than 20 NGOs, charities, prison workers and families who have or had a parent in prison, collected data from the Irish Prison Service (IPS) and read through hundreds of pages of documents.

The news article, ‘A long way from normal’: Families say visits to prison still restricted post-pandemic’, published on Noteworthy and The Journal had over 13,000 views. ‘Children don’t deserve this’: Visiting an imprisoned parent is ‘traumatising’’ was published as a large feature and had over 10,000 views. A Podcast explainer ‘Are kids being locked out from jailed parents’ was also produced.

This is a particularly sensitive area and the voice of families of prisoners are rarely heard or valued. SSGT believes that putting families at the heart of the criminal justice system and processes is the ‘golden thread’ which can reduce the harm of imprisonment and contribute to rehabilitation. The grant had a number of impacts including receiving the Mary Raftery Prize for social affairs journalism.

The articles were shared by a number of influential stakeholders on social media including an ‘expert by experience’ who had a family member in prison and who bravely spoke up about his experiences for the article. Noteworthy also received emails from other affected family members who thanked them for highlighting the issues they were also experiencing. Because of Noteworthy’s engagement with the Irish Prison Service for the article, information on visiting entitlements was made clearer for families including the number of children who could be brought to visits. This was limited during the COVID-19 pandemic and had not fully reverted. This has now happened.