Unpacking the Impact of Prison Visitation Experiences on the Lives of Visitors

Join us as Dr Nicole Ryan presents new innovative research seeking to address the gaps in our knowledge about prison visitation and identify ways to improve the visitation experience for prisoners and their loved ones and reduce the impact of secondary punishment and prisonisation on the "free".

Title: Unpacking the Impact of Prison Visitation Experiences on the Lives of Visitors

Date: Wednesday 4 September

Time: 10:00am – 11:00am

Location: Online, via Zoom (link provided after registration)

Description: Predominantly, research on prison visitation has focused on understanding how visitation effects prisoners’ behaviour in-prison, risk of reoffending/reincarceration, barriers to visitation, and the importance of maintaining child-parent relationships for children with incarcerated parents.

However, there is a dearth of research examining visitors’ experiences of prison visitation. The limited research that has explored visitors’ experiences have predominantly focused on experiences in the prison visitation area. By only focusing on experiences in visitation centres, previous studies fail to consider how visitors experiences may be affected by complex administrative processes, stigmatisation in the workplace, family, and/or social circles, as well as the impact of the visitation experience on visitors’ mental health.

Further to this, there is little work examining the barriers to prisoner visitation in Australia. This session presents new innovative research seeking to address these gaps in our knowledge about prison visitation and identify ways to improve the visitation experience for prisoners and their loved ones and reduce the impact of secondary punishment and prisonisation on the "free".

Registration: Eventbrite