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Insight: Oct 30

SBS asks "What’s it like when your parent goes to prison?"

Insight continues to come up with interesting forum topics.

What’s it like when your parent goes to prison? Tonight Jenny Brockie speaks to children of prisoners.

Chloe was school captain in primary school. She did public speaking, debating and dreamt of becoming a lawyer.

But when she was 14 and her father was sentenced to over six years in prison, with four years non-parole, Chloe’s world changed entirely.

“Once my dad went in, it showed me that things can happen out of the blue and my future went really blurry”, she tells Insight host Jenny Brockie. “I didn’t know what to do”.

Since her father went to jail two years ago, Chloe has only attended school for a handful of days. There are more than 43,000 children in Australia like Chloe who have a parent in prison, and with Australia’s prison population rapidly rising, that number is also steadily increasing*.

A 2015 survey by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found 17 per cent of people who entered prison that year also grew up with a parent or carer in prison**.

For 17 year old “Brian”, that’s a reality. Brian’s parents were both in and out of prison throughout his childhood and he has been in and out of juvenile detention since he was 12 years old.

“Brian” says if his parents had been around, things might have been different.

“It’s just hard to cope. You know, it’s like carrying the world on your shoulder by yourself. You expect your Mum and Dad to be there to help you out”.

In this rare discussion, Insight puts the children of Australia’s inmates front and centre to share what it is like for young people when their parents are incarcerated.

Guests include:

Taylah
“When I first started going in there [prison], I didn’t really understood [sic] what it was. But then when I got older I didn’t really want to be there anymore, because I’ve been there for so many years. I just wanted to get out of there.”

Chloe
“Before I could go to school with no worries. But once my Dad went in, it showed me that things can happen out of the blue, and my future went really blurry. I didn’t know what to do.”

Jemma
“If something happened at school I couldn’t just run in and talk to Mum about it. I had to wait for a week, and then when that time come [sic], I was then sharing it with six or seven other people.”

Melody
“I always thought I would turn out like her. I thought I would be a horrible person and I never thought I was worthy of having good friends.”

“Brian”
“Every time I think of being in a stolen car and all that stuff I always think, ‘do you really want to go down that track? Do you really want to follow the cycle? Do you really want to follow your Mum and Dad?’”

Tom
“He was in jail when I was born and just so often in and out, it was just a normal thing. I didn’t really know any different. You know, I was never raised with a father figure in the house.”

8:30pm Tuesday October 30 on SBS.

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