HAVE YOU EVER thought about what it would be like to have a loved one in prison? Would you stay in contact with them to support them, or would you sever all ties? What if that person was the mother or father of your child? How would that shape your family’s life?

The number of adults in prison in Australia has reached an all-time high of around 43,000. More than one in four of those identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. There are now more children with a parent in prison than ever before. Current estimates are that one in twenty Australian children will experience the incarceration of a parent before adulthood, and this figure is much higher for Indigenous children – standing at one in five – due to the appalling over-representation of First Nations peoples in prison. Despite these staggering numbers, families are typically left to navigate the fallout of the sudden departure of a parent – and the transition into and then out of the correctional system – on their own. These families may come from some of the most vulnerable and socially disadvantaged populations in Australia. For most, this disadvantage becomes further entrenched by the incarceration of a family member.