The Children of the Incarcerated: why they’re left behind? 

In Brisbane Supreme Court on Tuesday 15th September 2026, a man pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

After a night of drinking and an ensuing argument, Brandon James Ogborne physically attacked and beat Anthony Clairvo Meunier, eventuating in his death.

During Ogborne’s sentencing, the Supreme Court Judge spoke of the offender‘s abhorrent childhood trauma.

Brisbane Supreme Court

The court heard Ogborne’s father was incarcerated for killing a man and he was abused by stepfathers that came in and out of his life.

He was sexually assaulted by a groundsman at his school at the age of 9 and started using drugs at 13, suffering with substance abuse since.

Justice Peter Callaghan told Ogborne, whilst he has expressed his desire to become sober and be a present father figure, he will miss out on his own two children’s formative years.

Emerging Minds a not-for-profit who lead the National Workforce Centre for Child Mental Health and explain how children with incarcerated parents are known as an “invisible” group.

There is currently no standard procedure to identity and support children of the incarcerated. 

Research published in the Journal of Child Pyschol Psychiatry found children with one incarcerated parent are 2.5 times more likely to offend.

It is something child safety officers see every day, children with incarcerated parents engaging in similar high risk and complex behaviours.

Kyla Phillips a child safety officer and paralegal at the Department of Families, Seniors, Disability Services and Child Safety Queensland works closely with these children, ensuring the safety of and removing them from unsuitable environments.

“It's very difficult for children who have grown up watching their parents behave in a certain way to be able to choose a different path when that's all that they know,” Phillips said.

Phillips says much of this behaviour is learnt in a child’s formative years,  which becomes entrenched in the child’s decision-making processes.

“For a lot of the older departmental staff that's definitely a trend that we're seeing, kids that they were case managing are now coming back into the system as parents,” Phillips said.

When a parent is incarcerated it creates further environmental and financial stresses on a household and subjects these children to psychological stress and stigmatisation.

Erin Campbell, senior team leader of the Child Safety Service Centre at Cannon Hill says the increased likelihood of youth offending is due to the lack of early prevention programs.

“In terms of support we just don’t have enough, the system is critically flawed…I mean pretty much all the systems that interplay in relation to this…we don’t have enough early intervention…for the families…for offenders,” Campbell said.

During Ogborne’s sentencing, Justice Peter Callaghan told the offender whilst no excuse, his unjust childhood can help us to contextualise how people come to commit crimes. 

“About 87% cent of all young people who are involved in the youth justice system have a prejudicial childhood,” Campbell said.

Early intervention is key to preventing antisocial behaviours typically linked to criminality.

A Monash University study found government programs to support children through a parent’s incarceration have been trialled, but no ongoing programs systematically fulfill this need.

The existing landscape of support programs are greatly underfunded, unevaluated and too small-scale.

According to SHINE for Kids a support program for children impacted by the justice system, 40,000 kids in Australia identify as having a parent in prison.

In SHINE’s national survey uncovering the compounding disadvantage of these children, it reported 30% have been suspended or expelled and 50% are frequently absent from school.

Erin Campell says our education systems are failing to support children with prejudicial childhoods and that methods of expulsion further isolate children exhibiting anti-social behaviours.

“We have this false belief that children or victims can make better choices for themselves... in reality they can't. Often they're making the only choice that's available to them, for survival,” she said.

“If we were to create more opportunities for them, they are likely then to break the cycle and not repeat it…when we talk about early intervention, probably the biggest thing that's missing is education,” Campbell said.

Emerging Minds, advocates the need to address developmental vulnerabilities in these children early to create more opportunities to break the generational cycle of offending.

Despite decades of warnings from researchers for the government to acknowledge and support the needs of these children, Australia’s criminal justice system is severely lagging the rest of the world.

Ogborne’s children will now navigate their early years without their father as a present figure.