Prisons and fatherhood: Description and process analysis of a correctional group activity using photography

The maintenance of family bonds during incarceration is a key element in the offenders’ re-education programs (Art. 15, Law n.354/1975). The promotion of such bonds becomes particularly important in the case of incarcerated parents; it is well known that the interruption or deterioration in the parent-child relationship may result in a loss of social competencies on the convict’s side. Moreover, the children of convicted parents are at greater risk of marginalization and of developing problems in several areas. In recent years, the Penitentiary Administration has made huge investments to develop “good practices” aimed at improving the management of interactions between imprisoned parents and their children at a national level. The present work aims to describe an intervention based on the use of photography with a group of fathers detained in the District Prison of Como. Photos were used with the aim of fostering and supporting the convicts’ parenthood and helping them manage the interactions with their children. Moreover, a process analysis of the above mentioned intervention - carried out throughout a pen and paper coding of each session’s transcript - is also be presented. Such an analysis allowed the identification of some key themes, among which: the truth, that expresses the convicts’ dilemma about what to tell their children about their life in prison; the connection, that underlines the importance of instituting a parallelism between their life in prison and that of their children. The outcomes will also be discusses in terms of their clinical implications.