A new program is helping dads in prison read bedtime stories to their children.
About Time magazine recently ran an enlightening article about what would appear to be a program without a single downside, currently up and running in NSW, Queensland and WA, and also in the ACT’s Alexander Maconochie Centre.
Denham Sadler, chief reporter and assistant editor at About Time, explained that the Storytime program involves the recordings of fathers reading stories being sent to their kids on the outside.
“The recorded stories range from simple picture books for toddlers to Harry Potter for teenagers,” he wrote. “The fathers are encouraged to add a message to their child at the start or end of the story, and to change the names of the characters to their own.
“The recording is sent along with a physical copy of the book so they can continue reading whenever they like.”
Linda Carn, of SHINE for Kids, which runs the program, was quoted as saying, “It gives fathers in custody the opportunity to stay connected with their children in a meaningful and personal way.”
The About Time report continued, quoting the mother of a three-year-old boy who had received a recording.
“For our son, hearing his dad’s voice and knowing the story was recorded especially for him brings comfort and familiarity,” she told About Time. “It creates a moment where he can simply enjoy his dad reading to him, just like so many other children do.
“It reminds him that he is loved, thought about every day, and is still a very important part of his dad’s world. Rather than every interaction being centred around incarceration, Storytime creates moments that simply feel like a dad reading to his little boy. Those moments are incredibly precious to us.”
It’s an important advance for the criminal-justice system in Canberra, and those jurisdictions which have not yet taken it up, should be encouraged to do so.
Far from pandering to those who must punished, it is a truly sensible move, which provides not only comfort to kids, but hope to the incarcerated, and, through that, greater chances of avoiding recidivism, when they are re-united with family in person.