Keeping in Touch

- the case for family support work in prison -

Prisoners are less likely to re-offend if they are able to maintain contact with their family whilst in custody according to a report published today by the Prison Reform Trust.

The report, Keeping in Touch, says that having supportive family and friends can help prisoners cope during their sentence and rehabilitate people back into society preventing them from returning to a life of crime. Families can also provide vital information to prison staff about a prisoners’ well-being, particularly if someone is feeling depressed or suicidal. Last year 95 people in prison in England and Wales took their own lives. In the last twelve months there have been ten apparent deaths by suicide in Scottish jails.

Keeping in Touch commends the Scottish Prison Service for establishing Family Contact Development Officer posts in its prisons and calls for every jail in the UK to have dedicated family support workers who encourage and re-establish links between prisoners and their families. As things stand, nearly half of all prisoners lose contact with their families when they go to prison.

The report also recognises that good family relationships are beneficial to prison security. It notes that prisoners with stable relationships outside are more likely to be stable prisoners inside.

The report highlights the specific needs of young parents in prison and their children. Every year about 150,000 children are separated from an imprisoned parent, an estimated 17,700 are separated from their mothers. According to Government figures, seven per cent of primary school children experience the imprisonment of their father. The Scottish Prison Service estimates that 13,500 children and young people have a parent in prison in Scotland. Evidence from Families Outside shows the damaging impact of this on children’s social, emotional and educational development.

This Prison Reform Trust review of family contact development work in Scottish prisons, together with information about examples of good practice gathered from prisons in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, was supported by the Lankelly Foundation. The report’s author, Dr Nancy Loucks found that, although the Scottish Prison Service created these specialist posts over ten years ago, in reality provision in individual jails is very mixed, ranging from high levels of support for families through to a nominal presence only.

The report recommends that:

* A family contact development officer should be introduced on a formal, statutory basis in prisons in England and Wales as is the case in Scotland.

* The post should be supported by ring-fenced funding, adequate management support and allocated a minimum number of hours per week as is the case for Race Relations Liaison Officers.

* Family contact work, including child protection protocols, should be made an integral part of prison officer training.

* A performance target, or Prison Service standard, should be introduced to make sure family liaison work is an integral part of the prison regime and is evaluated.

The report will be launched at a conference, ‘The Revolving Door. Young People and Families: Breaking the Cycle of Crime’, taking place at Norton House Hotel, Edinburgh on Monday 28th February, 2005.

Speakers include: Cathy Jamieson MSP, Minister for Justice, Scottish Parliament and Professor Kathleen Marshall, Commissioner for Children and Young People in Scotland. It is chaired by Dr Andrew McClellan, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland.

This major event has attracted around 150 delegates including criminal justice policy makers, prison staff, teachers, social workers, members of prisoners’ families and representatives from the voluntary sector. It is organised jointly by the Prison Reform Trust, whose advice and information service responds to over 4,000 prisoners and their families each year, Families Outside, the only national organisation in Scotland working exclusively on behalf of families affected by imprisonment, and the Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents (APSA), the UK organisation of multi disciplinary practitioners working with adolescents, which is keen to disseminate good practice and highlight the needs of professionals.

Speaking today the Director the Prison Reform Trust, Juliet Lyon, said:

‘A prison sentence is imposed to deprive offenders of their liberty not to deny them the lifeline of contact with family and friends. Too often prisoners are held far from home and the support they need to resettle in the community. Meanwhile prisoners’ families are condemned to isolation, and sometimes vilification, by neighbours, and treated by professionals as part of the problem rather than part of the solution. This report shows how support and information can reassure families and help prisoners survive, and make some use of, time in jail.’

Angela Morgan, Director of Families Outside, welcomed the timeliness of this report following, as it does, the recommendations recently made by the Justice 1 Committee of the Scottish Parliament in its Inquiry into the effectiveness of rehabilitation in Scottish prisons and the commitment to support offenders’ families expressed by the Scottish Executive in its new criminal justice plan. She emphasised the need for good quality family support work in all prisons and pointed out that:

‘Families affected by imprisonment face a process of grief and readjustment throughout the course of arrest, trial, imprisonment and release proceedings. Families find it difficult to get the information and support they need to make them feel in control during periods of crisis and stress.’

The Chair of APSA, Neil Hemstock, welcomed the proposal to develop the role of Family Contact Development Officers as having a significant contribution to make in the field of mental health care and the enhancement of multi disciplinary work with adolescents. He said:
  
“APSA has always been at the forefront of multidisciplinary approaches and places the adolescent at the centre of skill and service development. We believe Family Contact Development Officers will be valued by young people whose mental health may suffer as a result of having a parent in prison or who, as young prisoners themselves, may need the ongoing support of their families and friends."