Prison Support
Prison sentences can affect entire families, leading to feelings of isolation, stress, and uncertainty.
Supporting Families Through a Prison Sentence
Our prison-based family support services are dedicated to supporting families with loved ones in prison, offering the help and resources they need to navigate and cope with the emotional, practical and social challenges they face.
The Importance of Family Support
The impact of imprisonment extends far beyond the individual behind bars—it reaches families, children, and communities. Maintaining strong family connections can make a significant difference in an individual’s rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Research shows that strong family ties are linked to lower recidivism rates, and helping families navigate the prison system can have a profound impact on their wellbeing and resilience.
Our prison-based services aim to:
- Improve family relationships: By offering support, advice, and tools to help families strengthen their bonds.
- Reduce stress and isolation: We help families feel more supported and less alone in their journey, providing both practical and emotional assistance.
- Facilitate successful reintegration: Preparing families for their loved one’s release, helping to ensure a smooth transition back into the community and reducing the likelihood of reoffending.
What We Do
Our prison-based family support services are designed to address the unique needs of families with someone in prison. We provide a range of services aimed at reducing the emotional and practical challenges faced by families, while also promoting positive change and resilience.
Key services include:
One-to-One Family Support:
Our trained support workers offer confidential, personalised guidance to family members, helping them understand the prison system, manage their emotions, and cope with the complexities of their loved one’s incarceration.
Social Visits:
We provide practical advice and assistance with prison visits, helping families plan their trips, understand the visiting process, and manage the emotional impact of seeing a loved one in custody.
Family Days:
Working with the prisons we help design and deliver engaging Family Days. These extended visits enable families to interact with the person they are visiting in a more relaxed environment, engaging in a variety of fun activities.
Emotional Support:
Families often experience feelings of shame, guilt, and stigma when a loved one is in prison. Our services provide emotional support and reassurance, helping families manage these feelings and stay connected with their loved ones.
Information and Advice:
We offer up-to-date information on prison rules, sentence plans, and parole processes, ensuring families are fully informed about what’s happening with their loved one. We also offer practical advice on topics such as housing, employment, and mental health.
Practical Support:
We assist families with housing issues, financial concerns, and access to other services, ensuring that practical challenges don’t become barriers to maintaining family connections.
Family Forums:
We offer family forums and coffee mornings where families can connect with others in similar situations, share experiences, and receive guidance. These forums are an invaluable source of peer support, helping families feel less isolated.
Social Isolation:
POPS also work with prisoners who are not currently receiving visitors to help them re-establish contact where possible, or to link them to other services that can offer a visit. This work extends to prison-based events bringing together individuals who are isolated to build friendships and access support.
How to Access Our Services
Our prison-based family support services are available to any family with a loved one in the prison’s where we are based. Accessing our services is simple, and we encourage families to reach out directly using the contact details on our individual prison pages.
We know that the road can be tough, but you don’t have to walk it alone. With POPS, you’ll have the support, tools, and community you need to thrive, no matter what challenges lie ahead.