Who can help

This site does the sums and explains the rules. These are the people who will talk to you, sit with you at the visitors' centre, or take on your case. Every one of them is free. We have said what each is actually for rather than listing everybody.

Start here: national helplines

• Prisoners' Families Helpline

  Free, confidential, 0808 808 2003. Weekdays 9am to 8pm, weekends 10am to 3pm. Run by Pact for the Prison Service. If you only ring one number, ring this one.

• Prison Reform Trust advice and information

  020 7251 5070. Their advice guide is the clearest explanation of the Sentencing Act 2026, HDC and parole that we have found; we use it as a source.

• Prisoners' Advice Service

  Free legal advice for prisoners on their rights, 020 7253 3323 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday). Families use the contact form. Their information sheets on recall, licence and HDC are excellent.

• Unlock

  For life after a conviction: disclosure, spent convictions, jobs, housing, insurance. 01634 247350, weekdays 8.45am to 4.45pm. Their disclosure calculator is the authoritative one.

Children and young people

• Children Heard and Seen

  Nationwide one to one support, peer groups and mentoring for children with a parent in prison, plus a free legal advice clinic for the adults looking after them.

• NICCO

  The national information centre on children of offenders (Barnardo's and HMPPS). Its directory of services shows the family support at every prison, and its resources are written for professionals and families.

• Time-Matters UK

  Merseyside. Peer groups and mentoring for ages 4 to 24, and a really good list of children's books about a parent in prison.

• Storybook Dads and Mums

  The parent inside records a bedtime story and the child gets it on a CD or download. Runs in around 100 prisons.

• Spurgeons

  Prison support services in the south, including the visitors' centre at Winchester, and practical tips for talking to children.

Regional family support and visitors' centres

• Pact (Prison Advice and Care Trust)

  Runs visitors' centres and family services in many prisons, and the national helpline above.

• POPS (Partners of Prisoners)

  North West. Visitors' centres at fifteen prisons and the best first-time families guide there is.

• Nepacs

  North East. Visitors' centres at Durham, Frankland, Holme House, Low Newton, Deerbolt and Northumberland, plus release-day departure lounges.

• Ormiston Families

  East of England. Visitors' centres at Norwich, Wayland, Chelmsford, Whitemoor, Highpoint, Warren Hill, Hollesley Bay and Bure, and Breaking Barriers support for children.

• Sussex Prisoners' Families

  Sussex. Family support for Lewes and Ford and for Sussex families with someone anywhere, 01273 499843. Good plain factsheets.

• Himaya Haven

  Birmingham and the West Midlands, with a focus on families from ethnic minority communities. One to one support, court preparation and help with schools.

Scotland

• Families Outside

  The Scottish equivalent of everything on this site. Helpline 0800 254 0088, Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm, information sheets and a jargon buster.

Other

• Official Prison Visitors (NAOPV)

  Volunteers who visit prisoners who have nobody. If your relative has no visits, they can ask the chaplaincy for one.

• Inside Time

  The national prison newspaper. Reading it tells you more about daily life inside than any official page.