Riksbryggan (In English)

Riksbryggan works with children whose parents are the subject of the correctional system. These children have long been an invisible group in our society. Every day there are between 8-10,000 children with one or both parents in a correctional facility.
Bryggorna work from a child’s perspective, which means that they always focus on what is best for the child. There have been some variations as to how far the local bryggorna have come in their work.
Bryggan is a safe meeting place for children, young people and parents, where it is possible to meet others in the same life situation.

At certain bryggor, children and young people are offered a structured group activity, similar to that run for children with parents who are addicts. Mothers and fathers are offered parent groups. The families are offered meaningful leisure time, various types of activities, such as creative activities, sports clubs, museum visits, theatre visits and family camps and much more.

Background
Riksbryggan is working to emphasise and improve the conditions of children whose parents are the subject of the correctional system. The most important people in a child’s life are its parents and we are also working on supporting them to take responsibility for their parenthood, both the one serving the sentence and the one on the ‘outside’.

We are working on the basis of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Riksbryggan is an umbrella organisation for the local Bryggan organisations, the national organisation was established in 2002 and the first Bryggan opened in Göteborg in 1998. Today there are 7 Bryggan organisations, Stockholm, Norrköping, Karlstad, Sundsvall, Borås, Malmö, and Göteborg.
When a parent is sentenced and deprived of his/her liberty, the whole family is affected, not least the children. Every day there are between 8-10,000 children with one or both parents in a correctional facility.
Since the report by the National Swedish Prison and Probation Administration and the National Swedish Board of Health and Welfare: ‘Children who have parents in prison’, submitted to the government in 1998, within the correctional system, work has been carried out on implementing the child perspective. There has been an improvement in visiting opportunities and it is possible for imprisoned parents to attend parent circles. A follow-up of what has been happening in the area was made by the children’s ombudsman in the report ‘Don’t punish the child’, that came out in 2004. Much has been done especially in the correctional system but much remains, especially on the part of the municipal social services.

Those of us who work with these children and parents want to draw attention to the special situation of these children and increase the knowledge among other professionals who meet children in various situations. The work that has been done within the correctional system makes it possible to a certain extent for the parent who is serving his/her sentence to take his/her parental responsibility, but for the parent on the outside there are no or very few possibilities of support.
In the report by the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Ds2004:41 on financially vulnerable children there is a description of how the children of the people in prison are affected socially and financially. We must not forget that the children are innocent of their parents’ criminality, but are still punished.

There have been some variations as to how far the local bryggorna have come in their work.
Bryggan is a safe meeting place for children, young people and parents, where it is possible to meet others in the same life situation.
The families are offered meaningful leisure time, various types of activities, such as creative activities, sports clubs, museum visits, theatre visits and family camps and much more.
Children and young people are offered a structured group activity similar to the one run for children with parents who are addicts.

Mothers and fathers are offered parent groups
During 2003 approximately 350 children were, in various ways, involved in the organisation’s activities, and over a thousand parents were given the opportunity to better understand how their punishment affects the children and in that way, improve children’s lives.

Our experiences are that parents, who receive support in taking responsibility for their children, are also influenced into changing their life situation in general. Even if they, themselves had given up, they want things to go well for their children. In many of ‘our’ families there is a strong distrust towards the authorities that offer family support.
We do a lot of work with KRIS (CRIS - Criminals Return into Society) and through their trust have contact with parents. KRIS with its zero tolerance against drugs is a good partner. Bryggorna can be the link to ensure that children and parents receive access to the resources that are available in society.

Today, Bryggorna are working under very uncertain financial conditions. A considerable amount of energy and work is being put into finding funding. The government grants to which the Swedish Prison and Probation Service and the National Board of Health and Welfare in Sweden have access to must be shared by many voluntary organisations which all fulfil important work.
Children with parents in the correctional system are a group, which today, is almost invisible. Those of us who work with this group are convinced that we are doing important work for these children, which hopefully will lead to them breaking the social legacy.
We are also convinced that we are contributing to reducing the parents’ relapse into criminality. Our operation is still so new that we cannot support it with any research findings, but it is what we see in our work.

Convention on the Rights of the Child and children of people in prison.
In 1989 the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the UN General Assembly. Following this, more or less all the countries in the world have supported the rights that the convention gives to all children in these countries. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child a child is a person who has not reached 18 years of age.The Convention on the Rights of the Child is an international legally binding document, which the State has a responsibility to live up to. It is the State that must guarantee children and young people the rights provided by the Convention. The Convention on the Rights of the Child contains 54 articles of which 41 are about the matter in question. In the articles on the matter in question are the rights given to children and young people by the Convention. The Convention’s rights shall be read together as the Convention is considered to be whole and indivisible. It is particularly important to have access to four of the articles on the matter in question when interpreting the Convention, these are called basic principles. In article 2 it states that children and young people have the same rights and equal value in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children must not be discriminated against, whether in relation to each other or to adults. According to article 3 the best interests of the child shall be of primary consideration in actions concerning them. The child’s best interests have not been defined as it must be decided in each individual situation. Each child is unique and must be seen as an individual with his/her own rights. Article 6 says that each child has the right to survive, to live and develop. The article does not only deal with the child’s physical health but also the spiritual, moral, mental, and social development. The child’s right to be heard and have his/her own opinions taken into consideration is the fourth main principle and can be found in article 12. The child’s right to express his/her opinions is absolute and must not be restricted e.g. to apply to children from a certain age or only on a certain issue. On the other hand, the possibility for the child to affect a certain issue becomes greater the older the child is.

When Sweden ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 we undertook to guarantee children a long succession of different rights. Several of the rights in the Convention on the Rights of the Child permeate parts of our national legislation. The fundamental rights concerned are the principles of the best interests of the child being of primary importance and the child’s right to be heard. These principles can e.g. be found in the Parents and Children Code, the Social Services Act and the Aliens Act.

If a State does not live up to the rights of the Convention there is no court to handle the matter. Instead there is the Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva which inspects each country every fifth year. The Committee can praise or criticise countries, a significant means of pressure against countries which, on various issues, need to improve their work.

In the Convention on the Rights of the Child there is an article which concerns the child’s right not to be separated from his/her parents (article 9), a right, which for many children is a matter of course. However, today there are more and more children who are separated from one parent mainly when the parents choose not to live together. Another major group of children is those children focused upon in Riksbryggan’s work, children with parents in prison. The children who have one or both parents in prison or on remand are separated from them because of something the parents have done. The child is never an accessory and therefore, as far as possible, must not be punished for the parent’s crime. What is to be done?The Convention on the Rights of the Child is clear that children who for some reason are separated from one or both parents have the right to maintain a personal relationship and direct contact with both parents. It is a fundamental right in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and applies to all children irrespective of what the parents have done. Far too often we meet the attitude in society that parents who have committed a crime should lose the right to be parents. But this is not an approach that corresponds with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The child never loses the right to visit his/her parents. It has nothing to do with right or wrong, morality or politics. It’s about human rights. And that we should have human rights is something we can all agree on.

However, we must also see what the needs of the child are, e.g. could the child need to be protected from a parent. That is also a right according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Furthermore and perhaps most important of all is that the child has the right to express his/her opinions and have them taken into consideration.