"The things that I've put them through over the years — I'd understand if they never spoke to me again for not being there."

'Patrick', a 38-year-old man covered in tattoos, sits in a plastic chair in the corridor of Middleton, a minimum restricted prison in Castlemaine, a couple of hours north of Melbourne.

He explains that he's the father of five children to three different women, despite having spent the last 16 years in and out of prison.

He's been participating in the Read-Along Dads (RAD) program in an effort to reconnect with his kids, because if all goes to plan, he'll be out in 18 months.

RAD is a simple idea: prisoners are recorded reading their children a bedtime story and the recordings are then posted out to the children.

It provides an opportunity to bond, and at the same time improves the prisoners' literacy skills.

Prisoners select books suitable for their children's ages. ( ABC RN: Fiona Pepper )

Before joining the program Patrick had read just two books in his life — Chopper and Underbelly 10, though he assumed he'd be able to read children's books.

"When I first started doing it, I sort of thought I wouldn't struggle to read 'em," he says.

"But when the tape recorder started, my nerves just kicked in and I struggled a little bit. I read it but I was sweating and very nervous."

After participating in the program over the last 18 months he can now "read with confidence" — and says "the kids have picked up on that".

Patrick has three teenage daughters to one of his ex-partners. The youngest was just 18 months old when he went to prison.

Patrick believes the RAD program has helped him re-establish a relationship with his children. ( ABC RN: Fiona Pepper )

"The Read-Along Dads and speaking to her on the CDs, I think has really encouraged her to speak to me," he says.

"From her opinion she'd probably think 'oh dad's pretty crazy, like he's tattooed and he's done a lot of jail'.

"But I guess hearing me voice on the CD and that, she's come to realise 'hang on a minute, he's not that scary'."

At Middleton Prison

The classroom where the program is taking place has piles of kids books — Possum Magic, Wombat Stew and Dinosaurs Love Underpants — and there's some young adult fiction too—The Outsiders and Billionaire Boy.

Outside the room big, burly prisoners stand in a corridor, rehearsing reading aloud while they wait.

Some of the Middleton prisoners have recorded more than 20 books for their children. ( ABC RN: Fiona Pepper )

Lisa D'Onofrio, the facilitator of RAD, has been running the program at both men's and women's prisons for the past six years. She says there are benefits for both the children and the parent.

"For the kids it's a really lovely thing to receive in the post and it's a way for them to maintain a connection with their parents in a non-confrontational way," Ms D'Onofrio says.

"And I think for the participants it's a very gentle way for them to keep in contact with their kids and it opens up all sorts of doors for them."

From improving prisoner literacy skills, to reigniting an interest in reading, Ms D'Onofrio says she has witnessed many positive benefits from the program.

Patrick and his kids

Patrick cannot currently receive visits from children, so the only contact he has with his kids are phone calls, letters and the RAD recordings.

And while he is counting down the days until he is released and he can see his children, he acknowledges his time in prison has taken a toll on them too.

"I just haven't been there when I should have," Patrick says.

While he's determined to have a relationship with his kids on release, when asked whether his kids want to have a relationship with him, he replies: "100 per cent."

The kid's experience

To get the other side of the story, the mother of three of Patrick's children, who has since remarried, agrees to drop their daughters off at their local park.

The keen footballers are all very close in age: 13, 15 and 16.

None of them are shy when asked questions about their father, but his absence has obviously left a significant mark.

Patrick's three teenage daughters are keen to have their dad around when he's released ( ABC RN: Fiona Pepper )

"Everyone else has their cute little families and they go home and they go out with their dad and their mum," the eldest says.

"But I think our step-dad has changed a lot — he's always there and he takes us to football and he does what a dad should do and what my dad should have done for us."

While she is relatively intent on having a relationship with him, she's not sure if it will work out that way.

"Yeah I want him to be a dad but don't know if that's going to happen — no-one knows," she says.

Patrick's middle teenage daughter says she's struggled with behavioural problems which she linked to her dad.

"I've inherited my dad's anger issues, so I struggle so much in school," the middle daughter says.

"It causes so much trouble for me because I get in so much trouble at school."

Patrick's middle daughter has struggled with behavioural problems which she believed she inherited from her dad. ( ABC RN: Fiona Pepper )

She adds that her whole family worries that she could go down the same path as her dad.

And while the girls miss their dad, she admits their home life was fairly dysfunctional when he was around.



"I can probably only remember one good thing of when I was living with dad and that was probably one Christmas and he bought me a doll," she says.

"That's the only good thing I can remember, everything else was pretty scarring."

The middle daughter elaborates: "How he treated my mum, drugs, physical fights with anybody and everyone, leaving me at school for so many hours and just not remembering."

And yet, every second night Patrick calls from prison to speak with the three girls, for exactly 11 minutes, and they all fight to speak to him before the call runs up.

Patrick's teenage daughter is a recipient of the reading program. ( ABC RN: Fiona Pepper )

"What they don't know is when I ring and they answer — the jail plays a message 'this is a prisoner from Middleton prison' and they don't understand that I can hear, and they're arguing like 'I'm talking first'," Patrick says.

"That just makes me feel good and makes me think it's worthwhile ringing cos they're arguing over who gets the first five minutes."

Patrick's youngest says the calls get a bit monotonous but it's always nice to chat.

"There's not much to talk about, every time he calls he asks 'how's football?' — it's a bit boring but it's good hearing his voice and knowing what he's up to," she explains.

Then there is the RAD recordings that arrive in the mail every couple of months.

"I walk into my sister's room and put it into her TV and listen to it, it's pretty nice to listen to his voice every once in a while," Patrick's middle daughter says.

And the girls say they can hear the improvements in their dads reading ability too.

Determined to change

Patrick is currently serving a five year sentence for a string of crimes from recklessly caused injury to aggravated burglary.

"I'm in here for — it was quite a few charges," he says, when asked why he is in jail.

Patrick was 21 when he first went to jail, and he's served multiple sentences spanning over more than a decade.

Patrick said a dependency on drugs and alcohol were largely to blame for his time in prison. ( ABC RN: Fiona Pepper )

"Alcohol and drugs were a big factor," he says of what led to this cycle of criminal behaviour.

"I'd had the three kids to an ex-partner and the pressure of being a failure of a dad I think at a young age.

"The ex-partner all she wanted me to do was pull me head in and do the right thing, go to work, earn money and live a family life and I think that I was too immature and stupid to hang the gloves up when she wanted me to."

Patrick describes his childhood as fairly uneventful, so a dysfunctional past can't be blamed.

"I was never treated unfairly as a kid, witness to violence or any of that so my mum still says she, 'doesn't understand where I went wrong. I was such a beautiful kid and I guess anyone can end up in jail'."

But he's determined to show that he's changed, and that this prison sentence is different.

His children have a somewhat more reserved attitude.

"I believe the prison has helped him a lot but I don't think things will change when he gets out — I think he'll go back to normal," his eldest remarks.

"If he comes out [he might] go back to his bad habits and get into stuff he got into again," his youngest says.

The Read-Along Dads program has been running for the past six years at Middleton Prison. ( ABC RN: Fiona Pepper )

But his middle daughter is slightly more optimistic about her father's future.



"I'm proud of him and everything he's achieving, he hasn't done that before," she says.



"Every other time he's gone in, he's come out and he's done the same thing 'cos it hasn't been a long sentence, but this one he's doing great.

"Like if this was three years ago he would have told you, 'get out of my face, no way am I reading a book and he wouldn't have tried'."

*The Read-Along Dads program was first started in 2012 by the Friends of Castlemaine Library (FOCAL). The initiative relies on donations to keep the program running in prisons throughout Victoria.