Due to Covid-19 the Children of Prisoners expert group could only meet online in the course of 2020. A total of five online meetings took place throughout the year. During the meetings the experts shared their experiences on the impact of Covid-19 on the relations between imprisoned parents and their children and how this was addressed through alternative means, like video conferencing. Since the main focus of the group is on the implementation of the Council of Europe Recommendation on Children of imprisoned parents, the group has worked on drafting three documents to support member states in the implementation process.

First of all the members worked on a report addressing four areas in relation to the Recommendation:

  • Security and normalization
  • Relation with NGO’s
  • Engagement with the Justice family
  • Child’s voice & data collection

Second, a Table of Recommendations has been developed. This table contains concrete good practice examples from the member states of the expert group for each article of the Recommendation. This will provide very practical guidance on how to transform the Recommendation into practice.

Finally, the collection of data on the number of children affected by the imprisonment of their parents is an issue of high interest and addressed very differently throughout Europe. A Data Collection Matrix has been developed that reflects the current practice in the member states with regard to this data collection.

Two videos were created to present how the expert group reflected on the recommendation and the benefits of the collection of data.