Prison visits fall despite record population

The Prison Reform Trust is calling on the Home Office to address the dramatic fall in the number of prison visits by family members and friends despite there being record numbers in jail.

The prison population of England and Wales stands at an all time high of 75,485. But according to the most recent official figures the number of visits has fallen by a third in five years event though there has been a 20 per cent increase in the prison population during that period.

The Prison Reform Trust in conjunction with the Prison Service has just published an updated Prisoner’s Information Booklet ‘Visiting and Keeping in Touch’ which provides basic information for prisoners on how to maintain contact with the outside world. Research has found that having supportive family and friends can help prisoners cope during their sentence and significantly reduce re-offending.

Families can provide vital information to prison staff about a prisoners’ well-being, particularly if a person is feeling depressed or suicidal. Last year 94 people in prison took their own lives.

There are a number of factors that could explain the fall in prison visits:

* The record prison population has resulted in prisoners being held in jails further from home. More than a third of prisoners are currently held over fifty miles from their home town. A quarter of all women in prison are held more than a hundred miles from their home town. In 2003 prisoners were held an average of 53 miles away from home. Increasing numbers of prisoners are also being moved from jail to jail at little or no notice.

* Families and friends have difficulty finding out about how to book visits and actually making the bookings lines are often busy or not available at convenient times.  Nearly half of all calls over the past 12 months to a helpline for prisoners’ families have been about problems arranging visits and difficulties gaining information. In some prisons restrictions on visits, last minute cancellations due to short staffing and unsuitable visiting times compounds the problem.

* There is an overall lack of support for prisoners’ families and friends. Research by PRT and Action for Prisoners Families has found that the standard of facilities for visitors varies enormously but in general is under-resourced and under-staffed. One in five jails does not have a visitors’ centre.

The Prison Service needs to prioritise helping prisoners maintain links with their family.

* It should monitor the number of visits and examine the reasons for the fall in visits.
 
* Each prison should have a well resourced visitor’s centre that has to meet minimum standards which are monitored.

* Each prison should have a family contact development officer, similar to those who are employed in Scottish prisons.

* Maintaining and strengthening family ties needs to be a central part of a Prison Service resettlement strategy.

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

“Far too often family visits are seen, not as a lifeline for the prisoner and a valuable way to ensure successful resettlement, but as an inconvenience to hard pressed staff struggling to run overcrowded prisons. Cutting lines of support and making contact between prisoners, their families and friends as hard as possible is a sure way to increase the risk of re-offending on release.”

The Director of Action for Prisoners’ Families, Lucy Gampell, said:

"The prison system all but ignores the importance of prisoners keeping in touch with their families. Prisoners are increasingly kept many miles from their home, with inadequate transport and visiting facilities. Families are given no information and are left isolated and confused in a prison system they know nothing about."

The husband of a prisoner added:

“In the face of the most significant trauma and bureaucratic obfuscation, some of us are committed and determined to try to keep our families together. But it seems the system does what it can to make that as difficult as possible. If you’ve never had to do it you simply can’t appreciate the frustration of a system which often takes hours, even to get a call answered.”