Help and Advice
Action for Families Enduring Criminal Trauma (AFFECT) - AFFECT is a charity supporting families and friends of offenders facing prison sentences. Telephone 0300 365 3651 PO Box 454 Southampton SO31 0BQ affect01@hotmail.com
Borderline Books - Borderline Books provides free books to people in prison on request. We don’t have Archbold, Prisons Handbook or text books and most of our stock is over 2 years old. Prisoners need to remember to put their location and number on their letter and send to Borderline Books, PO Box 528, Gateshead NE9 9DQ.
We are also interested in hearing from organisations providing books for the families of prisoners, so do get in contact if we can help.
Children Heard and Seen - Children Heard and Seen provide support across England and Wales to children impacted by parental imprisonment and the people who care for them. Support is tailor made to each child and includes, specific 121 support, age-appropriate group work, 121 mentoring for a minimum of six months, outdoor activities and residentials. Specific groups for parents who are the non-offending partner where the offence is of a sexual nature and another for the carers of children who have experienced domestic homicide.
Criminon UK is a registered charity (1098120) that provides free accredited and non-accredited distance-learning courses to prisoners in prisons in England, Wales and Scotland and to ex-offenders. We’ve been operating for 20 years and our courses are open to all prisoners and ex-offenders irrespective of age, gender, disability, religious or no religious belief or crime committed. If a prisoner moves prison or gets released whilst doing a course, they can still continue. For more information please contact Phil Tyler by Tel: 01342 316042 or email phil.tyler@criminon.org.uk.
Families / Friends of Prisoners Service (FFOPS) - Support, Help & Advice for the Families and Friends of Prisoners. 101 Mansel Street, Swansea, SA1 5UE. Telephone 01792 458645.Email:info@ffops.org.uk
Families Outside - Families Outside is the only national charity in Scotland that works solely to support the families of people involved in the criminal justice system. Every prison (except HMP Dumfries, Greenock and Castle Huntley) has a visitors’ centre Call their Support & Information Helpline FREE on: 0800 254 0088. Family Contact Officer (FCO) within the prison – click here for further details:
The Howard League For Penal Reform is a charity working for less crime, safer communities, and fewer people in prison. See our website to read about our research, campaigning, and legal work, and get in touch via info@howardleague.org. We offer free membership for prisoners and prisoners’ families – please consider joining to support our work. We also run a free and confidential legal advice line for young people in prison; get in touch if you are under 21 and have a legal problem, call 0808 801 0308 (Mon & Tue 11am – 1pm; Thur & Fri 10am – 12pm).
Inside Time - The National monthly newspaper for prisoners.
Listening Books - Listening Books is a charity which provides an audiobook library service to anyone who struggles to read in the usual way due to an illness, disability or learning difficulty. The charity currently has funding to support ex-offenders and those serving their sentence in the community.
Longford Trust - Funds Longford Scholarships for Ex-Prisoners
Nepacs - is a charity which provides support for people impacted by the criminal justice system in the northeast from the point of arrest, at court, during a prison sentence and on release. The charity provides a range of services including visits services at all northeast prisons, specialist family support, care leaver projects and their specialist youth projects support children and young people during prison visits and in the community.
Contact the Nepacs helpline on Freephone: 0800 012 1539
New Bridge Foundation - New Bridge was founded in 1956 to create links between the offender and the community. The intention is not to forget the victims of crime but to prevent more people becoming victims.
Pact - The Prison Advice and Care Trust (Pact) provides practical services for prisoners and their families at a number of prisons across the South of England and Wales. They run visitors' centers just outside prison gates, children's play areas inside prisons, 'first night in custody' services for new prisoners, and much more besides.
POPS (Partners of Prisoners and Families Support Group) - Provide information and support to the families of offenders from their earliest contact with the Criminal Justice System, through to release and beyond. POPS have Family Support Workers attached to a variety of prisons and probation initiatives as well as running a number of prison visitor centres across the North-West. POPS are currently contracted to deliver the Offenders’ Families Helpline.
Prison Chat UK - An online community giving support to those who have a loved one inside the British prison system.
Prison Education Trust (PET) - Since 1990, Prisoners Education Trust has been providing learning opportunities for offenders in custody to broaden their horizons and to focus on a more positive life on release, whenever that may come.
Prison Fellowship - Your faith will be encouraged as you hear the testimonies of hardened life prisoners giving glory to God for their healing and salvation.
Prisoners' Families and Friends Service - Offers advice, information, support and friendship to families and close relatives affected by imprisonment. They provide a helpline, advice and support in courts throughout London, a family centre and a befriending service. Their services are free and confidential.
Prisoners' Families Helpline - 0808 808 2003. A free and confidential service providing information and support to anyone in contact with the criminal justice system. The helpline is open from 9am – 8pm Monday - Friday and from 10am – 3pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Translation services are available for those whose first language is not English. The Helpline is run by Pact (the Prison Advice and Care Trust) and is commissioned by HMPPS.
Prisoners' Penfriends - Making it possible for carefully selected volunteers to write safely to prisoners.
Rehab 4 Addiction - Imparting valuable advice for people suffering drug, alcohol and mental health isues. Rehab 4 Addiction was founded in 2011 by people who have overcome addiction themselves. You can contact them on - Free phone 0800 140 4690.
Priory Addiction Centre UK - The Priory website has a wealth of information for individuals and families affected by addiction. They also offer a free addiction assessment at one of their nationwide hospitals.
Rehab Recovery - Rehab Recovery is an organisation that provides advice for a wide range of addiction & dependency problems.
St. Giles Trust - Works with offenders and other disadvantaged people to help them resettle through a range of projects which assist with housing, employment, education and training. It works directly in 20 prisons offering a peer prisoner support service and works with prisoners up to, on the day of and immediately after release to ensure that housing and appropriate support is in place during this time.
Storybook Dads - helps to maintain family ties by producing personalised story CDs. The story, read by an imprisoned mum or dad (or brother, auntie, grandad etc) is recorded and then edited and enhanced on a computer before being sent to the children. The scheme is currently operating in approx. 70 prisons and growing.
Unlock - The National Association of Reformed Offenders.
Unseen Victims - When the criminal justice system touches a life, it doesn’t just affect the offender - it ripples through the lives of their loved ones. Unseen Victims is here to support and illuminate the often-overlooked hero’s on the sidelines - the partners, adult children, and friends who stand unwavering with those caught up in the web of the system.
Telephone support: 0161 818 6900
Unwanted Prisoner Contact - We understand that not all contact from people in prison is welcome. Help is available if you want to stop getting calls, letters or texts from a prisoner. The new national Unwanted Prisoner Contact Service (formerly Victims Helpline) helps protect all victims from receiving unwanted contact from prisoners.
The service is there to help if you are suffering from a prisoner’s attempts to control, use, bully, harass or intimidate you.
Who can use it? - Anyone who wishes to stop contact from prisoners can use the service. This includes survivors of domestic abuse, all victims and witnesses.
The service can stop you getting unwanted:
- Letters
- Texts
- Other messages from a prisoner
How to use the service - Complete the Stop prisoner contact online form on GOV.UK
Contact the service by email: unwantedprisonercontact@justice.gov.uk
Or telephone: 0300 060 6699 -
Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm
Invisible Walls Wales (IWW) is a Big Lottery funded project based in HMP Parc, South Wales, aimed at maintaining and improving relationships between male prisoners and their children and families, improving the quality of life of all participants, reducing re-offending by the prisoners, and reducing the risk of 'intergenerational' offending.
Services
SIS - Criminal convictions insurance specialists.
https://www.knowyourmoney.co.uk/current-accounts/prison-bank-account-guide - bank accounts for people leaving prison. A comprehensive resource for people that require a bank account after leaving prison.
