A Hidden Sentence
From a video for the charity North East Prison After Care Society (NEPACS)
A Hidden Sentence is a video created by young people impacted by having a parent in prison. The film was created by Digital Me, working with Nepacs and a group of young people in the north east of England. Here are quotes from the film:
"I was around 10 or 11 years old when he first went in. I was a bit stressed, confused, a bit lost. Didn't really know what was going on."
"He handed himself in. I was in the car with my mum dropping him and two other men off. All the way there he had hold of my hand. Then when he got there, he got out and he burst out crying. I remember him saying it was going to be all right then I gave him one last hug."
"I walked home from school and I was getting ready and then the police came into my house. My dad was stood in the corner with handcuffs being put on. I got put out of the house by my mum and went up the street crying."
"I felt sad, confused, angry."
"I don't like to think about it too much."
"Everything got published in all the newspapers and then everything started on social media and got like over the top. It was like everyone was looking at you, knowing who you were and what happened. They knew all your business. It annoyed me because they didn't know my dad like I did. They were going off what they read what other people thought."
"It took quite a long time to come to trial and obviously we were hoping for a short sentence. They kept coming back, telling us he was going to get different sentences. Then I remember getting in the car on the way back from school and mum said he's got years. I remember everyone just sat there crying in the car because we thought it was going to be a lot shorter sentence."
"I've kind of forgotten the first couple of visits because it's tough to think about so I block it out. But I remember I used to hug him and that's when I used to cry because it was nice to have that closeness to your family. When you're hug him you've got it back for a bit."
"I remember going and you had to go through all this metal stuff. We had to wait a bit before he came out. I remember everyone just running over and giving him a hug and everybody was crying. It got to the time we left and then everyone just started crying again and nobody wanted to leave because we knew it would take ages again to be able to actually see him."
"We're going on a visit next week but we have to spread out the visits because you're only allowed three visitors at a time so we have to take turns on who can go."
"I used to be the most laid-back person ever and now I would get mad at the slightest things, lashing out on everyone."
"I have a lot of like mental health problems including anxiety, depression and stuff. It makes me really sad to think about some of it but more about my family and what they're going through rather than myself."
"I'm worried about my mum because she has to work a lot and I feel she overworks herself because she has to rely more on herself to get money and do all the financial stuff. My dad earned most of the money and now my mum has to do it and she's looking after three kids."
"I started misbehaving a bit more and getting angry with teachers that wouldn't really help or give any support when they said they would. They told us I'd get a social worker from the school but then that never happened."
Watch the 17 minute video:
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From a video for the charity North East Prison Aft, 15/11/2023