MEET GRAHAM – A “MY PARENT’S IN PRISON” PARTICIPANT

My Parent’s In Prison is Create’s innovative storytelling project that promotes understanding of having a parent in prison. Launched in 2021, the project aims to create a collection of books for children of different ages by giving groups of prisoners the opportunity to write a children’s book, which they illustrate using collage.

For parents in prison, separation from their children can be one of the most difficult parts of a custodial sentence. For children, having a parent in prison can present its own complex emotions and challenges.

Recent Ministry of Justice analysis estimates that 192,912 children in England and Wales had a parent in prison during a one-year period between October 2021 and October 2022.

Behind that number are thousands of families navigating separation, uncertainty and relationships across prison walls.

For Graham*, taking part in a Create project offered an opportunity to communicate some of those experiences through creativity.

MEET GRAHAM

In August 2025, Graham, 53, took part in Create’s My Parent’s in Prison project at HMP Oakwood.

Over seven days, Create artists Carol and Chloe led creative writing and visual art workshops during which prisoners worked together to devise and illustrate a story for their children.

Graham often thinks about the impact of his imprisonment on his family:

“I wanted to write a book for my children so they could understand the difficulties that I’m going through and what they’re going through too.”

For him, storytelling became a way to approach subjects that can be difficult to explain:

“The book shows them that you’re safe, everything’s okay. Obviously, Dad’s in a bad situation, but one day he’s going to come home. It’s to reassure them.”

Why family connections matter

Maintaining family relationships during imprisonment can be important for both prisoners and their families.

Government research has found that prisoners who receive visits from family members have 39% lower odds of reoffending than those who do not. Family relationships have consequently been described as a “golden thread” running through rehabilitation.

Creative projects cannot remove the realities of imprisonment or separation. They can, however, provide different ways for prisoners to reflect on relationships, communicate and express experiences that may otherwise be difficult to put into words:

“I’ve got six years and eleven months to serve. You miss your family ties in prison. I think about my children all the time. Reading the book explains the difficulties of prison. I don’t ever want my children to come into jail. I want them to realise it’s not a nice place.”

For Graham, he overcame challenges throughout the process of creating the book:

“It took me a bit of time to get into it, but I got into it and enjoyed it as well. Writing this book was hard, but as we progressed through the book, it got easier to write.“

It became easier to come up with your expressions and how you feel.

Graham, My Parent’s in prison participant

Creating together

The project also created a space for participants to work collaboratively.

While each person brought different experiences to the sessions, developing the story together required the group to listen, contribute ideas and make creative decisions collaboratively.

Graham found that this shared process helped participants speak more openly:

“In the end, we all got together and we all enjoyed it. Working as a group, we all expressed our feelings. We all opened up. It’s been a good experience.”

Research gathered by the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance highlights the wider role that arts programmes can play within criminal justice settings, from supporting wellbeing and learning to helping participants develop skills, cooperate with others and build new, positive identities.

Graham’s story is a reminder that imprisonment affects more than the individual serving a sentence.

Create thanks The Boris Karloff Charitable Foundation, Elle (via HMP Oakwood),The Leigh Trust and The Michael and Shirley Hunt Charitable Trust for funding this project.

*Name changed to protect anonymity.