engleski

ICT in prison during Covid-19 pandemics: Connection beyond bars and wires

ICT in life is multidimensional concept, applied in various environments. Beside schools, kindergartens, health and social care institutions, it is also present in the prison system. ICT in prison settings durig Covid-19 pandemic helped prisoners and their families to stay connected, providing communication for children and families with their imprisoned member. To find out more about children’s view on parental imprisonment and use of ICT in their lives, overall 15 children aged 8 to 16 were interviewed. As main benefit of ICT, children stated a possibility to talk with incarcerated parents regardless epidemiological measures: ICT helped families to overarch problems such as limit per person for contact visits, lack of public transportation, and lack of possibilities for testing when entering the prison for visiting hours. For three children, ICT offered a opportunity to see their parents for the first time, after imprisonment. However, children stated they would prefer direct contact and communication with incarcerated parent, whenever possible. They suggest that children should be provided with more opportunities to talk to their parents when they need, rather when scheduled. Children also expressed a concern that other people could listen their conversation, and to some extention, they don’t feel ICT provides enough private space they need, especially when they talk about own problems in schools. To conclude, ICT has a great role for children of incarcerated parents, however it is second-best solution. The advantage should be given to contact vists. Also, it is important to introduce children to their rights such as privacy during video calls, and rules during video calls, so they could adequately cope with situation of parental incarceration during Covid-19 as much as possible.

ICT ; prison system ; children of incarcerated parents ; communication ; children rights

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