In March 2021, the 大象传媒 Shared Data Unit reported on the problems faced by 300,000 children of UK prisoners and concerns that they had been "forgotten" during the pandemic.
These included delays to a "military grade security" video call system which was not fully rolled out until nine months after the start of the pandemic and had suffered a range of problems, and variations in when prisons allowed in-person visits after national and localised lockdown restrictions.
The 大象传媒 has found that, while more than half of prisons resumed visits by the end of July, some 5,000 inmates had to wait until September or later.
The Ministry of Justice said: "There is no question our response has saved lives and helped protect the NHS, with infections and deaths in prisons significantly lower than predicted at the start of the pandemic." It said it was also working to improve the video calls system.
Get the data
- Report:
Interviews and quotes
- Spokesman, Ministry of Justice (MoJ)
- Jodie Beck, co-founder, prisoner family support network Our Empty Chair
- Jake Richards, barrister representing seven families in a legal action against the Ministry of Justice
- Sarah Burrows, chief executive, Children Heard and Seen, which provides support to families with a parent in prison
- Michelle, from Lincolnshire, who has been looking after her and her husband's three children alone since he was imprisoned in late 2019
- 'Jessica' (not her real name), who has four children and whose husband is in prison
- Statement, Inquest
Visualisation
- Histogram: Coronavirus daily cases, Feb 2020-Mar 2021
- Infographic: Lockdown rules for England from 29 March
Code
- Scraper () of changelogs on gov.uk webpages for each prison
- : Using the Wayback Machine API to find snapshots of prison pages
Partner usage
The Shared Data Unit makes data journalism available to the wider news industry as part of the 大象传媒 Local News Partnership.
The story was used on 大象传媒 local radio stations in Kent, Shorpshire, Teeside, Leicester, Bradford and Berkshire. It also featured as television packages on 大象传媒 Look North, 大象传媒 South West and ITV Central.
Stories written by partners based on this research included:
- Your Thurrock: 31 March 2021
- Sunderland Echo: 30 March 2021
- Yorkshire Evening Post: 30 March 2021
- Saffron Waldon Reporter: 5 April 2021
- Dunmow Broadcast: 5 April 2021
- Belfast Live: 9 April 2021