Valuing volunteers in prison

“Clinks has uncovered countless impressive examples of volunteer involvement that brings the community into prisons, supports rehabilitation, resettlement and humanises our prison system. We have within our reach a prison that welcomes the community in, reflects the diversity of the prison population, and helps people re-join their communities with hope and the skills to be active citizens. Now we need action to make it a reality.” - Anne Fox, Chief Executive Officer, Clinks

As part of the Valuing volunteering in the Criminal Justice System project, commissioned at the request of Andrew Selous MP, case studies were commissioned from fourteen organisations, chosen by Clinks to give examples of a diverse range of volunteering managed by different organisations. The case studies cover:

• how volunteers are involved in each organisation’s work
• what resources are used to recruit, train and manage volunteers
• what barriers to volunteer involvement have been encountered
• how these barriers have been overcome.

Download the case studies by clicking on the links below:

1. Feltham Community Chaplaincy Trust
2. Fine Cell Work
3. Hacro and HMP The Mount
4. HMP Send and The Nazareth Way
5. HMP/YOI PARC
6. Independent Monitoring Boards
7. Mosaic
8. Pact
9. Prisoners’ Advice Service
10. HMP Whatton & Safer Living Foundation
11. Samaritans
12. Shannon Trust
13. Spurgeons
14. Trailblazers Mentoring

These examples of volunteering in prisons will be useful for organisations which would like to expand the use of volunteering in their work. They contain a realistic account of the challenges and difficulties involved in establishing volunteering in a secure environment, with all of the unpredictability that it can entail. They also describe a number of tried and tested solutions to common problems.