Caring in Christ's Name: Polmont Prison Family Bus

Monday October 10 2016

This week is CrossReach Week, when the Church of Scotland celebrates the work of its social care arm. Throughout the week, we will profile a cross-section of CrossReach projects, starting with an innovative approach to supporting families of inmates at a young offenders' institution.
By Jackie Macadam

“It’s a double decker bus with a play room on the top deck and a coffee area downstairs as well as some private areas to talk. It’s parked outside the prison for 10 out of 14 days and it’s serviced every fortnight.”

Viv Dickenson, Director of Children and Family Services for CrossReach is talking about the rather unique approach to a visitors’ centre they’ve taken to help families visit their inmate relatives at Polmont Prison.

“There was just no way we could have a purpose built centre in the space available, so we had to think a bit outside the box. That’s how the bus was born.

“It’s proven that if families can support their son (Polmont is a Young Offenders Institution) then he is six times less likely to re-offend on release. It’s strange, but sometimes people find it easier to speak to their son in prison, over a table for an hour uninterrupted, than before.”

The bus is parked outside the prison so that families who sometimes travel long distances to see their relative can sit down, have a cuppa, settle themselves down, clean up and if they want, talk things through before they go in to meet their son and have the formal visit.

“At our Visitors’ Centre at HMP Perth we also piloted a new project in partnership with Barnardos. Simply named THRIVE, it was specifically targeted at working with families with a child under five who has a parent in prison, supporting the children to flourish in the face of incredible disruption in their early years – in a country where an estimated 27,000 children face the locking up of a parent and where children with a parent in prison are three times more likely to experience a mental health problem than their peers,” says Viv.

“Money for the project comes from a variety of sources including the Scottish Government, and is specifically targeted at working with families as opposed to the imprisoned person,” she says.           “It recognises that people who haven’t been convicted of any crime will need support to deal with the practical and often the emotional stigma to continue their lives while their family member is imprisoned.”

In the last 18 months, the number of families using the service has continued to increase. The Polmont Family Bus has a long road ahead of it still.

Next: the Rankeillor Initiative

This article first appeared in October's Life and Work. Subscribe here