Strengthening family ties can play a crucial role in helping
offenders to turn their lives around beyond the prison gates,
Welsh Secretary said today following a visit to
HM Prison and YOI Parc in Bridgend.
The visit to HMP Parc – which is the only privately-run prison in
Wales – comes in the year following the publication of a UK
Government-commissioned report, which identified family
relationships as the “golden thread” running through the reforms
across the prison estate.
Mr Cairns met with Parc prison director, Janet Wallsgrove and
prison staff to see first-hand how incorporating family members
into the prison’s innovative rehabilitation schemes is having a
significant impact on preventing prisoners from reoffending after
release.
In September 2016, Lord Michael Farmer,
in partnership with the membership charity Clinks, was
commissioned by the UK Government to investigate how connecting
prisoners with their families can improve offender wellbeing,
assist in keeping the public safe and reduce reoffending.
During the visit to HMP Parc, the Secretary of State met Corin
Morgan-Armstrong, head of family interventions for G4S Central
Government Services in the UK, who highlighted how the success of
the prison’s ‘Invisible Walls Wales’ project has helped to inform
the Farmer Review, and outlined the tangible results the scheme
is having on the rehabilitation of offenders.
Secretary of State for Wales, said:
Safe and secure prison environments are just the foundation for
successful rehabilitation. But as ’s review outlined last
year, building and nurturing family relationships is also
fundamentally important if people are to change.
It has been inspiring to meet the passionate staff at HMP Parc
and to experience how they are pursuing trailblazing
initiatives like ‘Invisible Walls Wales’. It’s also been an
experience to listen to prisoners who have taken up the
opportunities available, using their own drive and
determination to change as they look towards life beyond the
prison gates.
Backed by Big Lottery Fund investment and working in partnership
with Barnardo’s Cymru, the Invisible Walls Wales scheme helps
prisoners to strengthen family ties and maintain healthy family
relationships as well as providing them with advice on issues
such as debt, housing, training and moving towards employment.
Janet Wallsgrove, Director of HMP & YOI Parc said:
Initiatives such as Invisible Walls Wales, and the wide range
of educational and training programmes which are offered at HMP
Parc, all play a key part in supporting prisoner
rehabilitation. Our aim is to reduce reoffending after release
by providing prisoners with the right skills and support during
their sentence, and by strengthening their ties with the
community.
Today’s visit was a great success, and we’d like to thank the
Secretary of State for taking the time to meet our staff, and
allowing them to demonstrate how outstanding results can be
achieved through innovation, service excellence and teamwork.
