FAMILY relationship workshops are being piloted at Dartmoor Prison as part of a resettlement programme to help keep prisoners on the straight and narrow when they are released.
This initiative, which involves the national charity Action for Prisoners? Families and Devon charity Time for Families, reunites prisoners and their partners for a one-day course to help them prepare for living together again.
A stable family environment is believed to be one of the key factors in reducing the reoffending rate, together with accommodation and employment, and Dartmoor Prison is addressing all these issues under its resettlement programme.
Over 40% of prisoners say they have lost contact with their families whilst in prison and 22 per cent of married prisoners have become divorced or separated. Some 125,000 children are affected by imprisonment each year.
Dartmoor Prison?s senior probation officer Jamie McGregor said: ?This is a pilot project where we are looking at eight men and their partners and it is about basic relationships skills and problem solving ? this is not aimed at disfunctional families but strengthening the relationships that already exist.?