Dr Rebecca Foster R.Foster2@napier.ac.uk
Lecturer
‘Now there you go, there’s my life. All my life is coming to prisons!’: persistent punishment in the lives of Scottish families affected by imprisonment
Foster, Rebecca
Authors
Abstract
Internationally, there has been increased attention by research, policy and practice to the experiences of the family members of prisoners. Scotland continues to experience a disproportionately high rate of imprisonment, and this often translates to those punished serving repeated sentences, sometimes over the course of their lives, so-called ‘persistent punishment’. Yet, so far under-explored is how this plays out in the lives of the family members ‘on the outside’. This article draws from ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews. It seeks to foreground the experience of persistent punishment for affected families. In so doing, the article explores how family members respond and adapt to frequent, and often sustained, interactions with the prison. It explores how families maintain relationships, and how they (re) fit prison into their lives, albeit not without challenge or strain. The article calls for greater recognition to be paid into how imprisonment fits into the broader context of families’ lives.
Citation
Foster, R. (online). ‘Now there you go, there’s my life. All my life is coming to prisons!’: persistent punishment in the lives of Scottish families affected by imprisonment. Families, Relationships and Societies, https://doi.org/10.1332/20467435Y2024D000000037
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Oct 22, 2024 |
Online Publication Date | Nov 18, 2024 |
Deposit Date | Nov 18, 2024 |
Publicly Available Date | Nov 19, 2025 |
Print ISSN | 2046-7435 |
Electronic ISSN | 2046-7443 |
Publisher | Policy Press |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1332/20467435Y2024D000000037 |
Publisher URL | https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/frs/aop/article-10.1332-20467435Y2024D000000037/article-10.1332-20467435Y2024D000000037.xml |
Files
This file is under embargo until Nov 19, 2025 due to copyright reasons.
Contact repository@napier.ac.uk to request a copy for personal use.
You might also like
Long-acting depot buprenorphine in people who are homeless: Views and experiences
(2022)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Edinburgh Napier Research Repository
Administrator e-mail: repository@napier.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search