A multi-level systems approach to reducing the effects of maternal incarceration

• In Event: Better addressing the needs of incarcerated mothers and their children: Transforming Corrections to Transform Lives

Abstract

Female imprisonment rates are rising worldwide, with a majority of incarcerated women being mothers. Maternal incarceration has profound adverse impacts on both mothers and their children. While multiple systems of support are aimed at reducing these impacts, these systems are complex, operationally siloed, and often directed at different goals. Despite the notion of a ‘criminal justice system’, little criminological research has focused on making broad systems work better to support individual change.

We are using a systems thinking approach to understand and transform supports for families affected by maternal incarceration. Systems thinking addresses the complexity, non-linearity and interdependencies of entrenched problems, and recognises the connections between system level decisions and outcomes for individuals. Systems theorists argue that core criminal justice sub-systems such as policing, courts and corrections need to be viewed as interdependent, with policy changes in one area capable of unanticipated profound impacts on another. These impacts act to propel individuals along pathways that can either enmesh them further in the system or assist them to return to the community.

This paper describes the multi-level, whole-of-system protocol we developed directed at achieving broad systems change in Queensland, Australia. The Transforming Corrections to Transform Lives Centre is trialling both a program to better support families, and a suite of interventions designed to achieve system change at the macro, meso and micro levels. These interventions will be described, along with the system change evaluation framework that is capturing data across all three levels. Findings will inform other efforts to change complex systems across multiple domains.

Authors

• Janet Ransley, Griffith University

• Lorena Rivas, Griffith University

• Leane Francia, Griffith University

• Brian Jenkins, Griffith University

• Krystal Lockwood, Griffith University

• Tara Renae McGee, Griffith University

• Susan Dennison, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia