Concerns up to 25,000 children with a parent in jail are falling through the cracks of the justice system.
Pillars, an organisation supporting children of prisoners said children with a parent behind bars, serve an invisible sentence.

Corrina Thompson leads programme development, research and youth advocacy at the organisation.

“These children have committed no crime, yet they are far too often forced to carry this invisible burden of hardship and stigma, that’s completely outside of their control,” she said.

New Zealand’s prison population topped 11,000 in early 2026.

That’s 199 per 100,000 people, well above the OECD average of 147 and significantly higher than our Australian and Canadian counterparts.

Pillars estimates that means up to 25,000 children now live with a parent behind bars.

“I think New Zealand has got some careful soul-searching to do around what we are trying to achieve when it comes to our justice system,” Thompson said.

Treasury data from 2016 identified having a parent in prison as one of just four key risk factors for poor life outcomes.

“Children in our community do not deserve to be seen as New Zealand’s future prisoners. They are children of promise and potential,” Thompson said.

Pillars established its Ngā Rangatira Mō Āpōpō, Youth Advisory Panel in 2021, bringing together rangatahi aged 16 to 24 with lived experience of an incarcerated parent.

Their recommendations include the creation of Kaiwhatu Kura Whānau – a navigator embedded in the Criminal District Court.

The worker would help families from the moment a parent faces a custodial sentence and co-design a support plan to address the child’s needs during a parent’s incarceration.

“The point between arrest and prison can take months, sometimes years, and that’s an absolute roller coaster for families when their world has been completely turned upside down,” Thompson said.

“Having access to the right support where whānau feel safe, seen and heard is not a nice to have, it’s a critical need that must be built into the system.”

She said a purpose-built role like this has the potential to be transformational in the long-term for children whose parents go to prison.

The Children’s Commissioner Dr Claire Achmad supports the “powerful advocacy” of the group – and believes the role “would help to make the child’s rights visible”.

“The best thing about this idea is that it has been created by rangatahi who have lived-experience. They know best what they need,” Achmad said.

But the Courts Minister Nicole McKee said “there are no plans to introduce a court navigator programme for the criminal court”.

“I have sympathy for any child who, through no fault of their own, has a parent in prison,” McKee said, “but the Government makes no apology for putting public safety first”.

“The best thing for children is if their parents do not commit crimes that send them to prison in the first place,” McKee said.

“The responsibility for a parent being separated from their children sits squarely with the person who committed the crime.”

But Commissioner Achmad said there’s a lot of potential and promise in this role.

“I’ll continue to advocate for it,” Achmad said.

“When a parent goes to prison, it’s absolutely crucial that their child does not pay for the consequences,”

“We shouldn’t lose sight of solutions that are co-designed and laid out by young people with lived experiences because they know best what is going to work for them.”

“It’s incumbent on the state as a primary duty bearer under the Children’s Convention to fulfil and support that child to experience their rights.”

Thompson describes the current Government’s direction reinstating three strikes and introducing boot camps as “emotion-led rather than evidence-led approaches to harm reduction”.

“The evidence tells us that being tough on crime is getting really strong on housing... mental health and addiction support, on access to employment and education,” said Thompson, “those are the things that in the long run, reduce harm.”

She said the rangatahi in the youth panel are calling for more visibility – especially after the Malachi Subecz tragedy.

In 2021, 5-year-old Malachi Rain Subecz was tortured and murdered by his caregiver Michaela Barriball, who is serving a life sentence with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

Malachi’s sole parent was his mother, Jasmine Cotter, who was jailed in June 2021 for importing drugs and signed over guardianship of her son to her friend at the time, Barriball.

In February, the Independent Children’s Monitor (ICM) review found New Zealand had made no significant improvement to children’s safety since Malachi’s death.

Another 24 children were killed by their caregivers between December 2021 and June 2025.

“There has been a shift after Malachi’s death,” said Thompson, who acknowledges Dame Karen Poutasi’s recommendations as a meaningful step forward, “but we’re not yet at a place where these shifts are in practice”.

“People are starting to talk about it, but it’s not being experienced by families on the ground,” Thompson said.
Pillars is calling for a bi-partisan approach.

“Having access to mana-enhancing support shouldn’t be a political issue,” said Thompson.

“It shouldn’t be a debate as to whether these children deserve access to support. It should be built into the system.”

Labour Justice spokesperson Camilla Belich said they would look “seriously at what more can be done to support children, including backing existing programmes that help children maintain connection with their parents and other support services”.

Rosie Leishman is a Christchurch-based reporter and multimedia journalist at Newstalk ZB.