What has it meant for those we support to not have Prison Network inside the prisons over the last few years?

“We lost the people we used to talk about what is going on. Women inside always gravitate to the Prison Network familiar faces. You don’t trust many people in prison, so we lost that person who is on our side. That person to go to for advice, that safe person.

In terms of the programs, we really missed Craft. For two years we haven’t been able to make our space beautiful and put our personal touches on it. You can’t understand how massive that is for us. It gave us identity; it pretties our room up. Without that you feel like you’ve lost that little bit of yourself and your ability to express yourself in a that way.

With Fitness, Loz would come through the gym and chat to us and do up individual programs, show us how to use machines and give us exercises to do when she’s not there. And the classes brought women together. Those workouts gave you confidence. If you’re dedicated to your recovery – it helped you to focus and zone in on health and wellbeing.

It is going to incredible to have someone to debrief with, to have a vent and a cry….face to face ” – Jade

“A very sad, consequence of covid-19 is that long-term prisoners have lost that vital physical connection with their young children. Our family tried so hard to foster a relationship between Oscar and Amy, his birth mother and our beloved daughter and sister. From the time he was 5 days old we took him to see her at least twice a week, including Fun With Mum on Sundays.

Visits as they are now pretty sterile for an active boy who has just turned 6. To think he wasn’t even 4 years old yet when his visits with Amy stopped! We want Oscar to look forward to visiting his birth mother, so that their bond can be reformed. We are hoping that Fun with Mum can actually bring back some fun and life.” – Mary