Post Release Support
We believe that time in prison can be a time of positive transformation. Every week we see numerous examples of men, women and youngsters who have gained skills and a new sense of self worth whilst in prison. We often see long sentence inmates leaving prison with secondary level qualifications, even after entering prison illiterate. However, regardless of how much one has been rehabilitated whilst in prison, the immediate period following release is a very difficult one. Many countries are unable to give ex inmates any support once they leave prison. Without the means to travel back home, to buy food, pay for accommodation or clothing and without employment to go to, reoffending can seem like the only option. The aim of our post release support activities is to build on the rehabilitation work which takes place in prison. We strive to help ex inmates continue to live with dignity and hope. This includes helping them to find support that they need upon release, assisting with healthcare, education, counseling and advice.
- We aim to keep families whole, enable communities to support their members who are in prison, to help those who leave prison to support themselves and lead normal lives, and to make society safer.
- We acknowledge that education is a life long process. We aim to plant the seed of interest in education amongst people in prison, and to nurture it amongst those who are released.
- We realise that many people who are released from prison when they are sick or dying have no one to take care of them and no means of supporting themselves. We are committed to helping those who come to us to find support, in addition to that which we can offer ourselves.
- We understand that people released from prison sometimes feel that they can not readily return to their families or communities. We strive to provide a sense of community and support to those who come out of prison unsure of where to turn.
The principles behind our Post Release Support initiatives are that:
- Lifeline programmes, connecting inmates with their support networks outside.
- Recording prisoners’ music. As we cannot take prisoners out into society to educate people about prisons life and the potential for change in prison, we record their music instead. Through these recordings we give prisoners back their voice.
- Prisoner pen pals. Having seen that prison is often a lonely place, the African Prisons Project will assist inmates in finding those on the outside, including prisoners in other countries, with whom they can correspond, in the belief that this will be a powerful tool in tackling isolation and building support networks.
- Provision of counseling and guidance on issues related to reintegration.
- We provide access to education facilities for ex prisoners, including libraries and computer centres.
APP will bring about systemic change in Post Release Support in Africa by:
1. Short term
2. Improving infrastructure
- Lifeline project: connecting inmates with their families etc
- Advocacy to local groups and organisations
- Working with the media to raise awareness
- Providing volunteer opportunities
- Facilitating prison visits by family members
- Providing health care and accommodation for ex inmates
- Employing ex-inmates
- Condemned Choir CD (read more)
Post Release Support past and present projects
- Life line programmes which provide contact with the outside world for more than 250 inmates.
- 20 or more inmates linked with those on the outside via pen pal schemes.
- Provision of assistance upon release to more than ten inmates (including medicine, advice, clothing etc).
- Employment of three ex inmates.
Impacts
To give you an idea of the level of impact we are having, this is what we achieved in this area in Uganda in 2010: