Inspire Justice Awards (1)

04/09/2024

News

Pact’s safer prisons partnership reaches Inspire Justice Awards final

Pact has been named a finalist in the Inspire Justice Awards for its groundbreaking partnership with His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) and prisoners’ families to improve the safety and wellbeing of people in prison.

The Inspire Justice Awards, organised by Skills for Justice, celebrate the exceptional contributions of individuals and teams working in the criminal justice system. Pact is a finalist for the Voluntary Contribution to Community Safety & Justice Award for its Gateway Communications Project. The initiative, funded by an HMPPS Innovation Grant, aims to improve communication between prisons and prisoners’ family members where there are concerns about a prisoner’s welfare. It aims to bring prisons and families together to better support people in prison, making establishments safer and ensuring prisoners receive the care they need to make a fresh start on release.

Over the past decade, safety in prisons has deteriorated rapidly, with self-harm rates reaching record levels. Pact’s initiative responds directly to Lord Farmer’s Report, ‘The Importance of Strengthening Prisoners’ Family Ties’, and its 2019 joint report with the Prison Reform Trust and INQUEST, which found that families and friends often struggled to share urgent safeguarding information with prison staff, putting prisoners’ safety at risk.

Since 2021, Pact has collaborated with six prison establishments, HMPPS, and prisoners’ families to develop systems and resources that enable families to communicate their concerns to prison safety teams. The project has seen the redevelopment of the Prisoners’ Families Helpline website, providing prison-specific information and support for families and a new online portal for sharing concerns directly with prisons. It has also standardised the systems by which prisons log and respond to concerns about prisoners’ welfare while supporting teams to respond effectively and empathetically to families.

Following a successful evaluation, the HMPPS Safer Custody Board approved funding to disseminate the project’s learning and resources across the entire prison estate, establishing the first national consistent gateway communication mechanism for prisoners’ families.

Gateway Communications Project Lead Lesley Ward commented:

“Prisoners’ family members play a vital role in supporting their loved one’s health and wellbeing, yet they so often feel ignored or ‘fobbed off’ by prisons. From our research and speaking to families, we knew they needed better ways to share concerns.

"We are hugely grateful to HMPPS for working with us to address this need and look forward to continuing to work together with prison teams, people in prison, and their families to improve safety and ensure brighter futures.”

The winners of the Inspire Justice Awards will be announced at a ceremony on 12 September 2024 at the QEII Centre in London.

Read more about this project: Safer Custody Partnership

Resources for prisoners’ families & significant others