ABOUT THIS EPISODE
In the words of Fiona Patten MP, Chair of the Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee, children impacted by parental incarceration are “the invisible victims of crime. They serve a sentence alongside their parents, an experience that may affect them negatively for the rest of their lives.” Whilst we know regrettably little about this vulnerable cohort of children, the Inquiry into Children Affected by Parental Incarceration, published in August 2022, highlighted the plight of these children, giving rise to an essential question – given we cannot ‘unsee’ what we now see, who will take responsibility for these children and when?
The Inquiry into Children Affected by Parental Incarceration, published in August 2022, brought the community’s attention to a vulnerable cohort of children whose lives can be changed irrevocably and forever by the incarceration of one of their parents. Given the rising prison population in Victoria, we spoke to lived experience advocate, Leigh Pappos and leading academic, Catherine MacKinnon about what those children can expect to experience and what we as a community need to do in order to ensure they are not ‘serving a sentence’ alongside their parent.
Show notes:
The Report
https://new.parliament.vic.gov.au/4a4cea/contentassets/c5301ed866b64611a2a6f4979865e991/lclsic-59-11_children-affected-by-parental-incarceration.pdf
Assoc. Professor Catherine Flynn
https://www.monash.edu/medicine/spahc/socialwork/about/our-people/flynn
https://new.parliament.vic.gov.au/4a4d23/contentassets/57dc86234cbc40c18f0fe4b294514462/submission-documents/027-dr-catherine-flynn_redacted_.pdf
Shine For Kids
https://shineforkids.org.au
Parenting Inside Out
http://www.parentinginsideout.org
Best Interests Children’s Law Podcast is sponsored by Ex Curia: Coaching & Consulting Pty Ltd, Meliora Psychology and Claudia Grimberg Lawyers.
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