Manager, The Croft (Visitor Support & Advice Service at HMP Barlinnie)
Through direct collaboration with visitors to Barlinnie, the service provided by the Croft to families affected by imprisonment ensures that our work not only meets the needs of families but, it is driven by them and designed around their specific needs. This creates a unique, symbiotic partnership which underpins the support we provide to families at a time when they may feel a lack of control over events and to provide them with the information they may need to take back control and move forward with their lives.
Covid 19 restrictions and lockdown impacted greatly on everyone – with the most vulnerable in society at the core of this – our families included. We are a visitors’ support service located in the front entrance of HMP Barlinnie – in the areas where families come to visit their loved ones in prison.
When face-to-face visits in the Prison shut down we lost the core access route to support many of our families. Due to the nature of our work face-to-face support was our mainstay so our website, social media and phone service was used by families less so.
The only constant in life is change – Heraclitus
A lesson well learned during lockdown and subsequently with ongoing restrictions, to continue to support families we had to “adapt & thrive”. Despite the majority of the staff team being on furlough for an extended period of time, we drew strength from each other and our partners to continue to provide a service to our families, details of which can be found in our Annual Report 2020 We expanded our use of social media and the phone/text service to keep families up to date and find out what they needed.
Feedback from families was that more practical support was required e.g. providing shopping vouchers, kids activity and craft packs to help keep them active and entertained, care/well-being packages for both adults and children alike, specific family support packages. Much of this kindly provided by our partner organisations who were not able to access their families and had secured additional funding to support those affected by Covid 19 but wanted to extend their reach. Along with this families were kept up to date with Covid 19 changes, how restrictions impacted on sending in items/money for loved ones, how to set up virtual visits and the emotional support which is at the heart of what we do.
We have exciting plans moving forward to embrace the learning from the last year with more focus on using social media and technology to engage with families outwith Barlinnie through online groups, revised social media strategy and embedding outreach in local communities through peer support hubs, created in partnership with both existing and new partner organisations and agencies. We have secured the tech to take these to our hubs and host virtual visits for families which loved ones in any Scottish prison and for those unable to make it to Barlinnie.
Our families often have a wide range of needs that they require support with often in specialist areas such as housing, addictions, benefits and such like. We are not experts in these areas so to provide the best all round experience for families, we work closely with a variety of partners whose core focus is providing this specific information and support, these include but are not limited to:
- Citizens Advice Scotland (CAB)
- Department for Work & Pensions (DWP)
- Housing Associations
- Families Outside
- Govan Law Centre
- Glasgow City Health & Social Care Partnership (GCHSCP)
We are able to support families by applying brief intervention work and referring onto the appropriate agencies, not only pointing them in the right direction but supporting them through the referral process as the may not have the knowledge and confidence to access this initially for themselves.
The Croft in context – The work of Croft does not sit in isolation, working in partnership it sits within the wider context of the Community Justice agenda, whereby, as well as providing emotional and practical support to those family members impacted, the work that we do also has a role in reducing re-offending.
Support for families to maintain positive contact when someone is in prison has been identified, through evidence, as a factor in preventing reoffending – Families can be the sole reason for preventing individuals who are involved in the criminal justice system from reoffending. For example, research by Dr Sapouna, M et al (2015) Scottish Government, What Works to Reduce Reoffending – A Summary of the Evidence (2015), found that families can help with the intervention process and have a positive impact on the reintegration of their family member who has been involved in crime.
To support the work of helping to prevent reoffending, we act as the conduit between the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) at Barlinnie and families, working in collaboration to make the visiting and communication processes the best possible experience for all. We feedback comments from families to SPS to help inform policies and procedures to facilitate this whilst attending prison meeting such as Familiy Strategy Group to ensure two way communication, that families voices are heard and acted on to affect change.
English Poet John Donne once wrote, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of a continent, a part of the main.”
A partnerhip is more than two organisations delivering a service(s) to the same group of people, it is about communicating and acting in a collaborative manner, each acting to enhance the support and information we provide to families, working together, learning together, changing together, to meet the needs of those we sere set up to provide a service to.
CONTACT US:
You can email us at help@barlinnievisitorscentre.org anytime with questions, concerns or for general help and advice. If you want to speak to someone call 07484 664 950 10.30am-6.30pm Monday to Friday.
