Help for families
We provide a personal, friendly and confidential service. Whether you need information, advice, or simply someone to talk to, our Prisoner and Family Support Service team are here to help you. Call us free of charge on 0808 172 0098 (free from any UK landline. Costs vary from mobiles. To call from overseas please dial +44 20 75 61 68 20. These lines are open Monday - Friday, 10am - 4pm).
Our support workers can liaise with prison authorities and lawyers overseas. We work closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and are often in contact with British Consulates overseas. We also provide information about transfer back to the UK and have a number of briefing papers on different topics. We can respond to other specific requests for information, as well, where appropriate.
If you know someone who has been arrested, or is in prison overseas, you probably have lots of questions: when will he be released? Can she transfer to a British prison? What are conditions like in the prison?
Talking to friends or family may be difficult – other people may not understand the range of emotions imprisonment can bring up.
We can’t promise to have all of the answers, but we will always do our best to find out. We also promise to listen, and to use our experience of talking to people going through similar situations.
Our freephone line is open from 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday. The number is 0808 172 0098. It won’t cost you a penny if you call from a British landline (prices from mobiles vary). Everything you tell us will be in the strictest confidence – we won’t even tell the person in prison that you’ve called if you don’t want us to.
If you prefer, you can contact us by email. Our address is info@prisonersabroad.org.uk. All email will be treated in the same confidential manner as a telephone call, and we will never pass your email address to any other organisation.
Alternatively, you can write to us with your queries. Again, this won’t cost you a penny. Our freepost address is
Prisoners Abroad
Freepost KE7737
London
N4 3BR
Often, the only people who can truly understand what you’re going through are people who have been through the same themselves. That’s why we put family members of prisoners in touch with each other. They tell us that talking to other mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, helps them feel less alone. Just knowledge that you’re not the only one in this situation is often a relief. If you want us to put you in touch with someone, just tell us when you phone. Alternatively, you may want to come and visit us in our office in Finsbury Park, north London – please contact us for an appointment if you would like to meet us. We hold regular Family Days, on themes ranging from particular countries to issues such as what happens when your loved one is released. If you think you might want to come to the next Family Day, give us a call on 0808 172 0098 so that we can give you more details.
We can offer practical help too. Our team of skilled caseworkers have years of experience of supporting Britons in prison overseas. Depending on the country, we can advise on prison visiting times, or what you can send in the post. We might even be able to book visits on your behalf; all of our caseworkers speak at least one other language, so they can talk to the prison staff in a language they understand. For more information about visiting a loved one in prison, please see our Visiting page.
We can also send you information about the prison system in that country, and we have general leaflets covering subjects such as human rights and transferring back to a British prison. Many of these factsheets are available in the Family Resources section of our website.
We will also tell you about the support we can offer to the person in prison. These services are explained in detail on our Prisoner Support page.
