TV3 goes behind closed doors with heartbreaking and gritty documentary - ?Prison Families?.

TV3 GROUP RELEASE                                                                               

IMMEDIATE: Thursday 27th March, 2014.

 

 

TV3 goes behind closed doors with heartbreaking and gritty documentary - ‘Prison Families’.

 

Four thousand prisoners are doing time in Irish Prisons - four thousand families are doing their own time outside.

 

For the first time on Irish television family members come forward confiding to camera the heartbreak and stigma surrounding a family member's imprisonment.

 

Prison Families airs from Monday 31st of March 2014 at 9pm on TV3.

 

Video Link available on request.

 

Interviews available on request.

 

For the first time on Irish television, TV3 documents the heartbreak of family members whose loved ones have been imprisoned. In a special two-part documentary beginning Monday 31st March at 9pm, we meet a number of families who come forward and confide to camera the heartbreak and stigma surrounding a family member's imprisonment.

 

Filmed over six months, Prison Families goes behind closed doors and follows real life prison families as they carry out their everyday lives and cope with the gritty reality of a loved one's imprisonment, the moments of triumph and of course their quiet despair.

 

In Episode 1, we meet four different families each with their own unique story.

 

Dad of four, Brendan from Mulhuddart, is counting the days down to his son's Stephen's release from the Midlands Prison. Brendan has been down this road before, as Stephen (25) has spent the vast majority of his adult life in prison.   

 

The cameras also follow Donna from Tallaght. Donna is facing up to a year without her partner, who is serving time in Mountjoy. We follow Donna as she gets on with life without the father of her two-year-old toddler.   

 

Meanwhile, in Limerick, everyday life is an ongoing battle for Rachel. With five young children to raise, Rachel is angry and grief stricken after being left with the majority of the parental duties following her partner’s imprisonment.   

 

Recently released from Wheatfield prison, Jason is trying to abide by the strict conditions of his temporary release. Jason missed his brother's funeral and his child's birth while in prison, so his partner Lauren hopes that he will be there for the next big family event, their imminent wedding and all the ordinary days in between.  

 

Produced for TV3 by Motive Television, this ambitious, observational documentary gives the families of prisoners an opportunity to share their stories.   

 

Series producer, Anne McLoughlin said: "There are hundreds of families - mainly mothers and partners across Ireland dealing with the fall-out from a family member's actions.  We decided to give these families a chance to tell their story in their own words and after a few months in their company we feel privileged and humbled that these families allowed us into their homes and gave us unfettered access to their everyday lives and shared with us their own very personal heartbreak."  

 

Prison Families, Episode 1, airs Monday 31st March at 9pm on TV3.  

 

 

Images have been sent to your picture desk and are available on request

 

See Notes to Editor for key quotes from the episode   

 

ENDS

 

For further information
Sharon McHugh
Head of Press & Publicity

087 922 4143

publicity@tv3.ie                        
www.tv3.ie

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Notes to Editor

 

Key quotes:

 

Brendan commenting on the discovery that his son Stephen, who was just released from prison, was back on drugs:

 

“I went f**king mad on him. He was well out of it. I told him to get dressed and get his clothes together and put him out. He was whinging and crying and said it was his first time to smoke it since he got out. I said ‘once is enough’. He knew the conditions before he came back to the house after getting out of jail.

 

“He buttered me up that much in the prison that I believed in him, that he was finished, that he was starting a new life. He was getting a job and everything we talked about for hours and hours. He said he was clean getting out of jail, clean from methadone but if they gave you information about if he was clean or not you’d be able to work on it and if they could tell you that he was still getting methadone you’d know where you stood but they don’t give you any personal information, which is probably not right, because people are bringing people home to their homes. They don’t know what to expect. They think they’re clean and they don’t be clean.

 

“Even the kids are disappointed. The lads were very very disappointed.

 

“God knows now what he’s up to. He’s probably back in town selling drugs and taking drugs and whatever. Probably end up back in jail now again and f**ked up again now for another couple of years, in more trouble. I’m finished going to jails. Finished going to prisons. Finished visiting. Finished going to Portlaoise. I told him that the last time, before he got out, that I was finished with running around after him, so it’s up to him now. He’ll have to paddle his own canoe now.” 

 

Rachael finds life an ongoing battle without her partner’s help to raise their five children. Even visiting him in prison takes its toll.

 

“I never thought I’d be going up and down to a prison, never, to be actually going up and visiting my partner in jail. There would be weeks there where you think how the hell am I actually going to get all this done because you’d be up at half six to get the train. Make sure you have everything packed, change of clothes, nappies, bottles.

 

“There’s five kids to be brought up on the train and walked from the train station to the jail and then they’re upset more after seeing him whereas I give them a break, give them time to settle back in again. They’d be lucky to see him once every four months because it’s so hard.

 

“Is it their fault that he’s actually in there, they actually asked once or twice you know and you’re trying to explain to them, no it’s not your fault.”

 

Donna has been engaged to her partner for almost a year but she still has reservations about marrying him in the prison.

 

“Like if I get married to him in the prison, I’m going home on my own. I’m not doing the whole reception and first dance thing so I think I’d rather if I wait until he’s out.

 

“He’s in there so I’m standing by him 100 per cent. A few people have said to me ‘are you going to wait for him?’ and I’d be like ‘why do you ask that?’ Obviously I’m going to wait for him. I’m the mother of his child. I’ve that ring on my finger, I’m going to wait for him; you know what I mean.”