A new report published by HM Inspectorate of Prisons has revealed that prisons too often fail to help prisoners maintain contact with family members – despite evidence that this contributes to safer and more rehabilitation-focused prison cultures, as per the 2017 Farmer Review.
“Too many jails were failing to get the basics right, making it difficult for families to book visits, get to the establishment, and access financial support. When prisoners first arrived in jail it took too long for family members to find out where they were held and to be able to contact them – at a time when prisoners were often at their most vulnerable.
Prisons rarely involved families in supporting men and women at risk of self-harm or violence, and concerningly, families could not always get through to prisons by telephone to tell them about welfare and safety concerns. Disappointingly, release on temporary licence was not used effectively to support family contact and rehabilitation in any of the men’s prisons inspectors visited.
In general, the prisons relied heavily on external providers and volunteers to lead family provision, and it was too often seen as a ‘nice to have’ rather than an essential element in a prisoner’s journey through custody and towards resettlement.”
Inspectors identified six key concerns:
- Family work was largely seen as the responsibility of the contracted family provider, rather than a joint endeavour with the prison. Prison leaders did not always understand the importance and quality of family ties in motivating good behaviour in their prisons.
- Specialist family provision was not accessible to all prisoners who needed it. Precarious funding meant that services were often too reliant on goodwill and volunteers.
- Prisons were often failing to get the basics right in relation to visits. Problems included inefficient booking systems, incorrect visiting times on prison websites, insensitive and excessive searching, and visits often starting late.
- Not enough was done to support family contact during the early days in custody. The system to help families locate prisoners was slow and there were frequent delays in approving phone numbers for prisoners’ accounts.
- Families were rarely involved in supporting prisoners at risk of self-harm or violence – despite evidence that family contact can have a substantial impact on mental health and behaviour. Some prisoners were unaware that family involvement was a possibility.
- HM Prison and Probation Service’s self-assessment system did not provide adequate assurance or sufficiently drive improvement.
To read the full report, click here.