Evaluation of parental support in Swedish prisons - "For the sake of our children"
This project was carried out during 2019 to 2021 and investigated the effects of the parental support intervention "For our children’s sake" (FOCS) on parents' perceived closeness in relation to their children, criminal attitudes, and interest in participating in the Swedish Prison and Probation Service's treatment programs.
Evaluation
The evaluation was conducted as a controlled study with an intervention group including 8 prisons and a control group including 7 prisons. The evaluation included both mothers and fathers and was carried out when the intervention was already being used in the activities of the Swedish Prison and Probation Service's. Measurements were conducted before intervention (baseline), after completion of the intervention and at three-month follow-up.
You can read more about the intervention and how the evaluation was planned in this published article
Result
The results showed that the parents who received the intervention experienced a significantly higher quality in the relationship with their children over time, compared to the control group. This effect was explained by a higher relationship quality at the follow-up measurement, three months after the intervention had ended. Furthermore, the intervention group had a significant reduction in criminal attitudes over time among the parents who participated in all FOCS meetings, compared to the control group. This difference was also explained by a lower estimate of criminal attitudes in the follow-up measurement. There was also a difference in motivation to participate in the Prison and Probation Service's treatments for the intervention group at the follow-up measurement compared to the control group, but this difference was not significant over time.
Interviews and surveys that focused on the experience and conditions for participating in and carrying out the intervention were conducted with parents, group leaders, and responsible managers. Overall, these results showed that both staff and parents felt that the intervention filled important needs, but at the same time that the implementation of the intervention was difficult for several reasons. These were largely linked to a lack of structural resources for the intervention within the agency.
Summary
In summary, this project suggests that the intervention has a promising influence on measures linked to child-parent relationships as well as measures linked to change in the parents’ criminality. There is a need for further evaluation of the intervention to further investigate its impact and function.
Published articles
You can read more about the results of the evaluation in the published articles: