The objective of this thesis was to provide information about the employees´ views on finding out a child´s opinion while preparing the parent´s supervised probationary freedom. The purpose of the thesis was to explore the thoughts of personnel in the criminal sanctions agency, as they have a whole new responsibility to find out a child´s opinion, but no established custom of doing it. The interviewees were employees of Criminal Sanctions Agency and in charge of finding out a child´s opinion as a supervised probationary freedom of the parent is under preparation.

The theoretical framework consisted of legislation and theory relating to imprisonment and family relations. Earlier research on finding out a child´s opinion was also reviewed. The thesis was a qualitative study. The research data were gathered through thematic interviews and analyzed by thematic methods.

The results of the thesis show that finding out a child´s opinion includes various dimensions: it consists of interviewing and observing a child, but it also includes giving information to the child. The aim is to form an understanding of what consequences the parent´s release has on the child´s life. Finding out a child´s opinion merely based on one interview was regarded as a challenging task. Multilateral cooperation and interaction were considered an essential precondition for finding out a child´s opinion. Interaction is important within the Criminal Sanctions Agency, but also with the cooperation partners in order to create common practices. However, interaction with the family of the prisoner was regarded as the most important thing in finding out a child´s opinion. According to the results, long-term work with the families seems to solve many of the problems related to finding out a child´s opinion. The best possible basis for finding out a child´s opinion is when the employee knows the family in advance.