1. What is your overall assessment of the presentations given?
2. How successful do you feel the conference was in meeting your objectives?       
3. Overall, how interesting/enjoyable/stimulating did you find the conference?
4. What is your overall assessment of the conference location, venue, and facilities?
5. How well did you think we handled the administration?

Delegates were also asked to leave general feedback on the day as well as comment or suggestions as to what they would like us to consider regarding future conference.

Click here to view the feedback

“It was very insightful! There really is such a stigma attached to families who have someone in prison. I definitely think teaching and learning should consider this! Put it in the curriculum.”

“Very, very useful experience and information was extremely relevant. First time we have had any input about children who have parents in prison – should definitely be more widely available for those working with children.”

“I found visiting the prison to be a valuable experience and seeing the prison facilities helped to make the connection between the emotions the children might experience.”

We are currently in discussion with HMPs Perth, Addiewell, Aberdeen, and Shotts and hope to deliver similar sessions at these venues in the near future.

The new centre was officially opened by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland, Brigadier Hugh Monro, who has been a strong advocate of prison visitors’ centres. Other guests included West Lothian Council Social Work, Sacro, Community Justice Authorities, Circle, the Visiting Committee, and HMP Addiewell staff.

The facility will be run directly by Families Outside and we aim to fully enhance the visiting experience through a number of initiatives as the centre develops while also providing our Helpline and direct family support to those families involved in the criminal justice system.

BULLETIN – APRIL 2013

In the last quarter we saw the official opening of the Families Outside managed visitors’ centre at HMP Addiewell as well as a number of family events at the Open Estate prison.  Along with these events, Families Outside have also been involved in a number of teacher training sessions, highlighting awareness of children affected by imprisonment in schools.  In addition, our new colleague, Sarah Roberts, was a guest on Radio 4’s Women’s Hour talking about this very subject and also attended the Barnardo’s Silent Children conference in Birmingham.  This is a subject that we blogged about, among a number of other topics on our new guest membership to the blog site No Offence!  Finally, we would also like to invite you all to attend a special screening of the “Mothers of Bedford” in both Glasgow and Edinburgh (more details in the newsletter) – we have just confirmed that Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill MSP, will be taking part in the Panel Session after the screening in Edinburgh.  And finally finally, we would like to take this opportunity to welcome Dimitra Perrou to Families Outside.  Seconded from the Scottish Prison Service, you can find out more about what Dimitra will be up to in the newsletter, but needless to say, we are delighted to have her with us for the next twelve months.

If you have any comments or suggestions for the Bulletin we would be delighted to hear from you.

The campaign aims to ensure that the topic of children with imprisoned parents is included in the conversation surrounding children’s rights at the international level.

EUROCHIPS is seeking action from the international community (prison-reform initiatives, national watchdog agencies to monitor these children, etc.) to uphold the rights of children with imprisoned parents(particularly those stipulated by article 9 of the convention on the rights of the child) at all levels of the European Judicial Process.

What will you be doing for it?

Excellent film!  Families Outside has arranged a special screening of it (UK premier) in Glasgow (Centre For Contemporary Arts) on the 5 June and Edinburgh (Edinburgh Filmhouse) on the 6 June from 6.00pm to 8.00pm as part of European Prisoners’ Children Week.  The film will be followed by a panel discussion on both days. 

We would love you to join us! 

Please contact us for more information on where the film will be screened.

BBCi player – Call Kaye (Work With the Children of Prison Inmates in Scotland)

Dear Ms Smyth,

I read your article of 26 March (Fund To Pay For Prison Visits Comes Under Fire) with interest, as supporting families to maintain contact with loved ones in prison is the core of our work. Families Outside is a national Scottish charity that works exclusively on behalf of families affected by imprisonment. Families of prisoners are unfortunately an easy target, as they tend not to speak up about how this devastating experience affects them. For your readers who believe support for travel to prisons should be cut, I would like to highlight a few key facts:

1. The families are not guilty. Children and families of prisoners suffer the consequences of someone else’s behaviour; we are literally punishing the innocent. Indeed, children and families of prisoners are often targeted and blamed for an offence as though they are the guilty ones.
2. Prisoners who maintain contact with their families while in prison reoffend up to six times less than those who don’t. Family contact literally reduces crime – and what we all want is to prevent someone from becoming the next victim.
3. About half of prisoners lose contact with their families as a direct result of going to prison. Difficulties for families in travel and transport to prison, and the cost of this, is a major reason for this loss of contact.
4. Funding from APVU covers the cost of only two visits a month. When someone is in custody on remand, the family can have daily visits of half an hour, so the fund covers a fraction of their visits entitlement. Not long ago we supported a lady who’s partner was on remand in HMYOI Polmont (Scotland’s national facility for young people in prison). She lived in Dumfries and travelled every day with her two toddlers up to see her partner in Polmont – a journey that took 5 hours on public transport. With APVU only covering two of those visits, she was putting herself in considerable financial difficulties to maintain contact with her partner, and to ensure that her children were able to see their dad.
5. Claimants have to be on benefits, and they have to produce receipts stamped by the prison to prove that they have taken their visit. Only 2nd class travel directly to and from the prison is covered, with mileage reimbursed at 11p per mile (compared to the 40p per mile business travellers can claim). Your article made this clear, so the scheme is highly unlikely to “be abused for other trips or lavish taxi journeys”. Prison visits are hardly a good ‘day out’ for the family.
6. Surveys reveal that only 30-50% of families are aware that they can claim travel costs through the APVU scheme. An important part of our work is to raise awareness of the availability of such support.
7. Children have the right to contact with their parents unless this is not in the child’s best interest. In the vast majority of cases we work with, children want to stay in touch with their parent in prison but often find it difficult to do so. Parents in prison are not automatically bad parents any more than those outside are automatically good ones.  Scotland’s National Parenting Strategy highlights parents in prison as needing extra support to fulfil their role as parents; the APVU scheme is a (very) small part of that.

In challenging APVU as a waste of taxpayers’ money, the TaxPayers’Alliance takes an extremely short-sighted view of a very complex issue. Family contact is our greatest asset in preventing offending and reoffending; supporting this contact where appropriate is worth every penny.

Yours sincerely,

Prof Nancy Loucks
Chief Executive, Families Outside

A shortened version of this response was subsequently published online in The Courier:
‘The families are not guilty’ — Charity defends assisted jail visit fund

Teacher training in Scotland to support kids with family in prison – our new project in Scotland aims to help teachers who have children in their class affected by imprisonment. Trips to Edinburgh prison help staff understand what pupils face when seeing their parents. We hope that this will help them develop understanding about their home life and to tailor support packages for the children to help with their school work.

BBCi player – Radio 4 Women’s Hour (Teacher Training in Scotland to Support Kids with Family in Prison)