Children | Children and detainees - staying in touch

When a person is detained far away it can be difficult to stay in touch - this can be even tougher for children or toddlers, who might find writing letters a challenge and are unlikely to be able to speak to their parent or other relative very often from overseas. Sending letters, pictures, stories, or photos regularly can help both the child and detainee to feel remembered, loved and valued.

The articles here discuss the issues of children and detainees remaining in touch throughout the detention, and tips about how to make it fun, interesting and worthwhile. The first is produced by Prisoners Abroad and is written for the detainee themselves, but which you may still find interesting as it provides many ideas which we hope will work despite the distance involved. Please let us know what you think - we welcome your feedback about which ideas worked or did not work, any new ideas you have found or any thoughts you would like to share with others. You can email us at info@prisonersabroad.org.uk or you can use any of the ways described on our Contact Us page.

Keeping in touch with your children (File size: 98KB)

The following article called 'Communication Tips' is written by the Families and Corrections Network, and follows on from the article 'Questions Children Ask' which can be found on the Should we tell the children? section of our website. Although the first part of this article discusses visiting prison, it goes on to highlight a range of other thought-provoking issues such as children communicating with their parents over a long distance, how to raise difficult issues in letters, coping with feelings of rejection, the issue of discipline and tips about children sending gifts and items in the mail:

Communication tips (File size: 90KB) (Courtesy of Families and Corrections Network)

This article from the Canadian Familes and Corrections Network may also give you further ideas and thoughts:

Maintaining a relationship with your children (File size: 26KB) (Courtesy of Canadian Familes and Corrections Network)