Patricia Amos (left) and her daughter Kerry outside court

Patricia Amos, of Banbury, Oxfordshire, was sentenced on Tuesday to 28 days in prison for letting her daughter Jacqueline, 14, miss classes.

In 2002, she was sentenced to 60 days for failing to stop her daughter, Emma, then 15, from truanting.

But another of her daughters, Kerry, has told the BBC that the move would not work.

I can see how they have come to their decision, but it doesn't make it right Kerry Cowman

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Kerry Cowman said: "I don't think it is right to send anyone to prison.

"I don't see how it helps at all. It didn't work last time, it hasn't worked this time.

"It might work for some people; kids who are genuinely skiving for a laugh and something to do, maybe it did scare them back to school.

"I don't agree with it at all. I can see how they have come to their decision, but it doesn't make it right."

Ms Cowman said the family had had a lot of problems, exacerbated by the death of the girls' grandmother.

Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis said prison should be a last resort for people who were a threat to society.

But former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe said it was extremely rare to jail parents for their children's truancy and the court must have been persuaded it was appropriate for Mrs Amos.