Joint agenda for action
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Action for Prisoners' Families, CLINKS, Prison Advice & Care Trust and the Prison Reform Trust working together to bring about positive change for children and families affected by imprisonment.
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160,000 children of prisoners ignored by government
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Keeping in Touch
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PRT's 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.
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Read more here
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| Prisoners are often held far from home and the support they need to resettle. Each year PRT’s advice and information service responds to over 4,500 requests for advice and information from prisoners, families and other concerned individuals. | |
| This service, supported by the Hadley Trust, acts as the bedrock to PRT’s work to effect policy and practice leverage. Drawing on the experience of its users, the service consistently informs research reports, press and parliamentary briefings and responds to government consultations. In doing this care is taken to maintain confidentiality, act as advocates and enable people to represent themselves. | | | 
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PRT produces a range of prisoners’ information booklets, most recently for foreign national and disabled prisoners. The advice and information service represents PRT on the Prison Service Family Ties Consultative Group, the Prisoners Families Helpline Steering Group and the National Consumer Council Public Service Users Forum. PRT also undertakes applied research to highlight the concerns of prisoners’ children and families and to promote good practice.
Responding to concerns
Over the year PRT’s advice and information service has helped thousands of people to obtain clear, accurate information. Issues raised have included transfers, visiting arrangements, sentence progression, remands, recalls, eligibility for tagging, support for gay prisoners, racism, suicide and self harm, assaults, segregation and mental health, conditions for foreign national and older prisoners and access to legal information. Requests vary from straightforward information, or a referral for legal advice, through to more detailed work. For instance, prisoners continue to experience problems accessing offending behaviour courses due to long waiting lists or problems transferring, to appropriate prisons. Delays in risk assessments and sentence planning boards hamper sentence progression and release dates. Sometimes, the advice and information service has been able to expedite things, in other cases it has ensured that MPs and officials have been made fully aware of this catch 22 situation.
Supporting families
In 2004 PRT published ‘Young parents – from custody to community’ a policy and practice guide to work with young parents who offend. This has been taken up by the Youth Justice Board for use by all its youth offending teams. In 2005 in Edinburgh PRT launched ‘Keeping In Touch’. This influential report reinforced the Scottish Executive in its commitment to family contact work and made the argument for this to be extended to English and Welsh prisons. A number of prisons have now appointed family workers, often through partnership with the voluntary sector. Following PRT’s families research and sustained lobbying, in 2005 the Home Office agreed to monitor, and record, the parental status of all prisoners and care needs of children.
Raising awareness
Drawing on the experience of its users, the advice and information service has contributed to, amongst others, the Parole Board’s communications strategy and a report by the Audit Commission examining diet and exercise in prisons. It was consulted on the Prison Service Order on suicide and self harm and informed PRT’s contribution to Sentencing Advisory Panel consultations. Work to gather concerns has underpinned PRT’s recent successful grant applications to examine health, safety and basic conditions in local prisons and to highlight the needs of people with learning difficulties and disabilities in prison. As well as public and parliamentary work, PRT raises awareness within prisons. On an individual level this may mean alerting a duty governor to the distressed state and suicidal intent of someone in that establishment. Concerns are sometimes grouped, such as the numerous complaints received about a surge in recalls to custody for technical breaches of licence conditions. Here PRT has produced a briefing paper, attracted considerable press interest, informed parliamentary questions, held meetings with Home Office Ministers and officials and presented NOMS with dossiers of individual cases. Action has been taken to investigate claims and to change procedures. Meetings to resolve the situation are continuing with the review and recall section. |
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