Professor Nancy Loucks

The families of people held in prison overwhelmingly live on very low incomes. The research found the impact of additional costs and loss of income means that families are often pushed into extreme food and fuel poverty. To keep families together and maintain contact, costs can include travel, staying in touch, postage, and paying money into personal accounts.

The research, published by Families Outside and supported by abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, also found the combined stigma of poverty and having a family member in prison experienced by women was leading them to cover up their situations: for example, dismissing drastic weight loss as being on a diet, or attributing it to anxiety rather than financial hardship. These households experience a loss of income resulting from their family member’s imprisonment, and the research found an urgent need for better identification of financially vulnerable families so they can access the support they need.

The research also found:

• Many children and women were unable to take part in any social activities during the imprisonment term of family members in Scotland.
• Remand was an especially costly and stressful time for families. Families spent an average of £300 per month providing support to the person in custody – around half their average monthly income. There are unacceptably high levels of remand in Scotland compared to other countries – with Scottish families paying the price unnecessarily.
• Household income often decreases, the level of Universal Credit may change, and housing may become unstable if the tenancy or housing benefit was linked to the person now in prison.
• Families spent on average £180 a month (a third of the disposable monthly family income) and a day and a half per week of their time supporting relatives serving a sentence in prison.
• On release from prison, the costs are shouldered by families. Claims for benefits can and should be set up before the person leaves prison, but this was not taking place in practice.
• Keeping in touch via visits and phone calls – so essential to maintaining family relationships – is very expensive for supporting partners. Regular contact, where appropriate, can be hugely beneficial towards supporting the health and wellbeing of all involved, and can help reduce reoffending, with a person being six times less likely to reoffend if regular contact is maintained. The very high cost of travel and transport, distance to the prison, subsistence, accommodation, childcare, and time off work all factor into a family’s ability to remain in contact. Calls from mobile phones and video calls were introduced during the pandemic at no cost to families but may not remain so.

Lynn supports her partner who is serving a prison sentence. Speaking on the main costs that impact her, she said that postage charges to send in clothes are “extortionate”, and that these fees vary from prison to prison.

“It should be one rule for all. You’re sending in clothes and they’re keeping them at security and saying there are things on them [illegal substances], and then they’re getting destroyed. It’s horrendous. It takes time to save up to buy stuff. It’s not right.”

Professor Nancy Loucks, CEO of Families Outside, said: “Imprisonment creates enormous difficulties for the families left behind; financial impact is just one of these, but a key one. Even before the cost-of-living crisis, these families were making significant sacrifices of their own physical and emotional wellbeing just to get by, simply because of their circumstances. We can and must do more to prevent this.”