There is growing evidence that providing family support and maintaining family ties is not only important for the well-being of prisoners, but can also help prisoners to resettle back into the community, reduce reoffending and reduce the risk of intergenerational offending.

The prison service is committed to supporting prisoners to maintain relationships with their families during their time in custody. In 2019 the prison service introduced the Strengthening Prisoners Family Ties Policy Framework, which requires all prisons to have a Family and Significant Other Strategy in place. This strategy should set out how the prison will help families to stay in touch, build their relationships and support one another. To read a copy of the Family Strategy for a specific prison visit the National Information Centre on Children of Offenders Service Directory and select the prison you want.

Prisons provide a range of different services to support family relationships including:

• Visit Centre family support, information and advice
• Family visits and special events
• Parenting and relationship programmes
• One to one support from specialist family engagement workers

Many prisons commission a specialist family support organisation to provide their visit and family support services. Those organisations will often have a family support worker based at the prison who you can contact directly for support, advice and information. To find out who is delivering family support services in a prison and how to contact them, visit the National Information Centre on Children of Offenders Service Directory and select the prison you want.

For further information about organisations providing support to the children and families of prisoners click here.

Page last reviewed: 15 February 2021

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