Unpacked – Kerri Matthews: what happens when parents go to prison?

About this episode

The episode explores the impact of parental incarceration on families, featuring insights from Kerri Matthews of EveryFamily charity.

What happens to families when a parent ends up in prison? That’s the question we’re getting into this week on Unpacked with Kerri Matthews, a director of Bristol's EveryFamily charity. Over more than a decade EveryFamily , which started as a SureStart children's centre, has developed specialist services working with families where a parent is in prison – something Kerri, a mum herself, has been at the heart of. It leads on supporting families affected by parental offending across South Gloucestershire, Somerset and, via a contract with Avon and Somerset Police, Bristol. So what is the impact on a child when their parent is jailed – something that’s been likened to a bereavement? What’s it like working with mums and dads to open up about their own feelings and relationships – and parenting – in the tough environment of a prison? And looking at the big picture, what needs to change in how we work with children and families, to give people the best chances in life? Neil and Kerri get into all this and more, in this week’s Bristol Unpacked – hope you enjoy. The Bristol Cable is Bristol's community-owned cooperative newsroom – fiercely independent journalism that puts people before…

People in this episode

Host: Neil

Guest: Kerri Matthews

Topics covered

• impact of parental incarceration
• family support services
• parenting in prison
• child welfare
• community journalism

Keywords

• parental incarceration
• family support
• Bristol
• EveryFamily
• child welfare
• prison parenting
• community journalism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: EveryFamily, Avon and Somerset Police

Places: Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Somerset

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