Building parent-child relationships from behind bars

It’s estimated over 40,000 Australian children have a parent in prison (Flynn et al., 2023). Parental incarceration is classified as an adverse childhood experience (ACE) due to its traumatic nature and association with physical, emotional and behavioural challenges (Herreros-Fraile et al., 2023). Without support, the impacts of parental incarceration on children’s mental health and wellbeing can continue through adolescence and into adulthood (Del Toro et al., 2023). 

Many incarcerated fathers want to learn the skills to rebuild relationships with their children and other family members while in prison. But physical, mental, emotional and logistical barriers can easily get in the way, discouraging fathers from maintaining contact with their families. 

In this episode, we’re joined by Linh Nguyen, a mental health counsellor, social worker and Senior Practitioner, Family and Relationship Services at Centacare Catholic Country SA. Linh works with incarcerated individuals in the Port Augusta prison, providing services focused on depression, anxiety, anger management and behavioural change. She discusses the role shame, guilt and past trauma play in preventing incarcerated fathers from connecting with their children, and the approaches she has found helpful in overcoming these and other barriers. She shares how therapy homework tailored to improving individuals’ emotion regulation and interpersonal skills can support fathers to engage more meaningfully with their children, both during incarceration and after their release. Linh also explores how these learnings can be applied to support any father looking to strengthen or rebuild their relationships with their children. 

Please note: This episode focuses specifically on father–child relationships. Transforming Corrections to Transform Lives provides information and resources on supporting the needs of incarcerated mothers and their children, while Sisters Inside offers services and programs for criminalised women and their children.  

We recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults make up a disproportionately high percentage of the national prison population. This episode does not explore the nuances of effectively working with incarcerated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fathers; however, our online course Rebuilding our shields: Sharing the stories of deadly dads explores ways to break down dominant stereotypes and give fathers opportunities to share their hopes for their children and their stories of strength and resilience. 

In this episode, you will learn: 

• how parental incarceration can impact children’s mental health and wellbeing [03:21]  

• what a distress exposure approach is and how it supports parent–child relationships [10:16] 

• how therapy homework translates to improvements in fathers’ relationships with their children [15:33] 

• how these insights can be applied to support non-incarcerated fathers [29:43] 

• what systemic changes are needed to improve parent–child relationships within the prison system [33:17].

Further information and resources:
 From Emerging Minds 

• Practice strategies for implementation (online course) 

• Engaging children: Paving the way with parents (online course) 

• The impact of parental incarceration on child behaviour and development (short article) 

• ‘Invisible’ children of imprisoned parents at risk of falling through the cracks (short article) 

• Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) toolkit  

Other resources 

• Nguyen, L. (2025). Restoring fatherhood from confined settings: Emerging evidence for distress exposure homework. Peer reviewed papers from the FRSA 2025 National Conference, pp. 64–73 

• The National Information Centre on Children of Offenders (UK) 

• Shine for Kids