MORE ATTENTION must be paid to the needs of children of imprisoned fathers in the whole rehabilitative process.
Minister of Social Care Steve Blackett drew attention to the vulnerability of such children yesterday as he commended Prison Fellowship International (PFI) for the work the regional body was doing to ensure the spiritual, emotional and material well-being of children of the incarcerated.
In an address during the closing ceremony of a three-day PFI conference, Blackett noted children bore the same shame and indignity fathers endured as a consequence of imprisonment. He also observed there was often estrangement and distance between children and their imprisoned fathers.
“The incarceration of greater numbers of males and fathers across the region and the southern hemisphere as a consequence of the rise in criminal activity presents us with increasing numbers of children who need the care and attention of our societies as a whole,” Blackett said. (GC)
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