February 26 Newsletter

Dear Supporters,

Happy New Year!  

This time of year, often invites reflection. We want to gently remind  everyone how important it is to be kind to ourselves and to one another.  

Due to current financial constraints, Affect has returned to operating in  voluntary mode. We truly hope this will be a temporary step while we  continue to seek substantial funding. Please be reassured that we are  actively submitting funding applications, and that this change will not  affect the support families receive. We will also continue to recruit  Telephone Support Workers. At this time, however, we are unable to  expand our services further.  

If you are in a position to do so, we would be deeply grateful if you would  consider making a small regular donation, such as £5 per month, to help  us continue this vital work. Thank you to everyone who has already given  so generously. Your kindness makes a real difference. Please also reach out  if you feel you may be able to support us in any way.  

We are delighted to share that Affect won £234.69 through the My  Favourite Voucher Code Charity Poll for August 2025. Thank you to  everyone who voted and helped raise awareness of our mission.  

We are also very pleased to welcome Felix, a trainee barrister with a strong  passion for advocacy, to our Trust Board. In addition, we are delighted to  introduce two new Telephone Support Workers, Caroline and Tamsin, to  

the Affect team. We hope your time with the organisation is productive  and mutually beneficial. Thank you to Keith for his valued support, and  we wish him every success in the future.  

I would also like to extend heartfelt thanks to the entire Affect team for  pulling together during this challenging time, and for their continued  dedication and compassion.  

Thank you to the families we support for choosing AFFECT to walk  alongside you on your journey. If at any time you would like to be  reassigned to a different Support Worker, please don’t hesitate to get in  touch at affectcharity@outlook.com or call 0300 365 3651. We are  committed to providing person-centred support that is truly tailored to  your individual needs.  

Please note the next Group Gathering will take place via Zoom on  Saturday, 7th March 2026 (invitation only).

Love, Shannel Project Manager

Volunteering Opporunties:

• Treasurer
• Telephone Support Worker

If you are interested in the role or would like to learn more, please email your CV and a supporting statement outlining  your reasons for applying:  

affectcharity@outlook.com

The Guardian view on a new prison drama: Waiting for the  Out speaks quietly but powerfully 

Reported in The Guardian 06.02.2026

This BBC series hasn’t made the same  the splash as Adolescence. But its reflections on men in prison are valuable.  

BBC’s six-part drama Waiting for the Out,  now on iPlayer, explores the hidden role of fear in shaping men’s lives. Written by Ennis Kelly and inspired by Andy West’s memoir The Life Inside, the series follows Dan, a philosophy teacher who takes a job in a prison while struggling with his own past and mental health.

Through quiet, reflective storytelling, the drama examines male anger, shame, addiction, and violence, and how these experiences can lead men into the criminal justice system. It also highlights the importance of education, emotional support, and maintaining relationships between prisoners and their children. 

Although fictional, Waiting for the Out offers a powerful and thoughtful contribution to the national conversation about masculinity, healing, and second chances.

Kelly, who has spoken openly about his  own recovery from alcohol addiction, uses the series to shine a light on issues affecting many men today – including mental health, trauma, and identity.  These themes reflect wider concerns in  society, with growing recognition that  men and boys face unique challenges  that need compassion and understanding.

Prison News

Visits down by 25% in England and Wales

Reported in InsideTime 02.02.26 

A Ministry of Justice study, Social Contact in Prison, shows  that face-to-face prison visits in England and Wales remain  far below pre-pandemic levels. 

In 2019, prisons recorded around 71,000 visits per month. By 2024, two years after restrictions ended, this had fallen  to 53,000 per month a 25% decrease. In Scotland, the drop has been even steeper, at 44% between 2019 and 2024. 

In one month in 2019, 41% of prisoners received at least  one visit. By 2024, this had fallen to 33%. The study  suggests that cost, distance, and the prison environment itself may deter families from visiting. 

The report urges policymakers to expand access to face-to face and video visits, where safe to do so, as many  prisoners still receive no visits at all. 

• • Only 9% of prisoners in England and Wales used video calls in one month in 2024.
  • In Scotland, around one-third of prisoners now use video visits monthly.
  • Phone contact has doubled: from around 3 million calls per month in 2019 to 6 million today, thanks to in-cell telephones.

Lord Farmer, author of a landmark 2017 report, described family relationships as the “golden thread” in reducing reoffending. He stressed that physical visits remain vital  and that both video and in-person visits should work together. However, watchdogs have criticised prisons for limiting video calls to weekdays and office hours. Emma  Wells, founder of Unseen Victims, said families spend an average of £300 per month just to maintain contact, with many falling into debt to stay connected. 

June 2024: 

• 63% of prisoners had at least one face-to-face visit • 31% had only remote contact
• 5% had no recorded contact at all 

High-security prisons had the lowest levels, with 10% of  prisoners having no outside contact. Older prisoners,  especially men, were also more likely to be isolated. Those  on remand received more visits than sentenced prisoners.

Sentencing Act ensuring punishment cuts crime gets  Troyal Assent 

Reported GOV.UK 22.01.26 

The Sentencing Act, which has now received Royal Assent, will grip the prison crisis on the brink of collapse which this government inherited. It will make sure future governments always have the prison places needed to keep people safe, with the most dangerous offenders locked up and tough community restrictions meaning those released from prison  enter a period of supervision tailored to their risk and the type of crime they committed. This includes the biggest  ever expansion in tagging and the use of restriction zones  to better protect victims. 

The measures in the Sentencing Act will not take effect  immediately, giving the probation service and victims support groups the time needed to prepare for the changes coming in. Implementation will be phased over the next  two years, with changes to how long offenders stay in  prison when they are recalled expected to begin in the  coming months, and the earned release model to be rolled  out in the Autumn. 

Key reforms in the Act include:  

• A new “earned progression model” for prisoners serving standard determinate sentences that will see prisoners who behave badly spend longer behind bars.  
• Tougher community punishments such as new powers for judges to bar criminals from pubs, concerts and sports matches, curtailing offenders’ freedoms as  punishment, financial penalties that force offenders to  pay back for their crimes or unpaid work orders that  force offenders to give back to society.  
• New “restriction zones” to restrict offenders to a certain area, allowing victims to travel without fear of seeing them. 
• A judicial finding of domestic abuse in sentencing which will allow criminal justice agencies to identify domestic abusers, ensure they are better monitored, and the right  measures are in place to protect victims. 

For the full article visit: Sentencing Act ensuring  punishment cuts crime gets Royal Assent – GOV.UK

World famous author Lee Child visit HMP  Doncaster as part of prison literacy scheme 

ITV News reports 19.12.25 

World’s best-selling author Lee Child, creator of the Jack Reacher novels (over 100 million copies sold worldwide), has visited prisoners at HMP Doncaster as part of the Prisons Literacy Project. The scheme, which Child personally funds, helps prisoners improve their reading and writing skills. Participants are even able to submit their own writing to him. The project currently operates in five prisons and could expand to 20 more with government support. More than half of adults in UK prisons have a literacy level below that of an 11-year-old.  

Charities warn that poor literacy is linked to lower life chances and higher rates of offending. Child believes many prisoners find it difficult to understand official letters, forms and basic instructions.  

He told ITV News: “There are too many that are here just for that reason. They get a letter about something, they can’t read it so they ignore it, and it spirals out of control so they end up inside. That’s so preventable. Why aren’t we preventing it?” 

John Butler, who has served multiple prison sentences for drug offences, said he never learned to read or write as a child. He is now a mentor with the Prisons Literacy Project, helping other prisoners to learn. “We have some lads here who can’t even do the alphabet. So, it’s good to watch them change.” 

Another prisoner, who cannot be identified, shared how addiction once controlled his life, saying he was selfish and unable to recognise the person he had become. Looking back, he now feels shocked at how far he had fallen. 

Their stories highlight how literacy and support can help people reflect, change, and rebuild their lives. 

Like many prisons across the country, Doncaster is under the intense pressure of overcrowding. Dave Anderson,  deputy director at the prison, said: “Within the prison system it’s very difficult to do anything without being able to  read. As a result of Lee Child’s visits, more prisoners have been signing up for courses and applying for jobs.” 

Prisons Minister, Jake Richards said: ”We’ve got to do better. We have built more prison places than ever before, but  we also need to do more.”

UNGRIPP Art Exhibition  

Reported Insidetime 03.02.26

The exhibition was held in Justice Secretary David Lammy’s constituency at The Trampery in High Road, Tottenham.  

UNGRIPP are a grassroots campagining and awareness group, led by families of people sering the Indetermindate Sentence for Public Protection (IPP) and supported by a wide range of indiviuals and organisations that wish to see change. To enusre the abolished sentence cannot ruin more lives by fighting for people who are serving an IPP sentence to be resentenced.  

UNGRIPP say there are 2,422 still in prison on IPP, 946 of  

whom have never been released, and are painting one red stone for each of them to be laid out where the exhibition appears.  

They say that it is there hope that this exercise will become unnecessary once the Government finally implement the findings of the all-party Commons Justice Committee, or the Howard League report, and end it once and for all.  

The room was packed with families, supporters, and organisations came together to campaign for the abolition of IPP sentences and the introduction of fixed release dates. Speakers included Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife Nazanin was imprisoned in Iran, and Andrea Coomber from the Howard League, highlighting her 2025 report recommending fixed release dates and post-release support for those over tariff.  

Families emphasised the urgent need to end IPP, a sentence that even its creator, Lord Blunkett, has called a  mistake. Prisons Minister Lord Timpson continues to face parliamentary pressure on the issue.  

Adding to the urgency, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has referred five test cases to the Court of  Appeal, and Coroner Sarah Middleton issued a prevention-of-future-deaths notice after Scott Berry, aged 37, died in  HMP Humber in October 2023, citing the damaging impact of IPP on his mental health.  

Home | UNGRIPP – United Group for Reform of IPP 

The Garden Productions

The Garden Productions is making a new documentary series about the modern face of organised crime for Channel 4. The Garden is known more making thoughtful and compelling documentaries about the criminal justice system, such  the BAFTA-winning Gun No.6 (BBC).  

One of the areas the new Channel 4 series will explore the ingress of drugs and other illicit items into prison and how  this can impact the lives of vulnerable people currently incarcerated.  

We are interested in speaking to the family-members and loved ones of those in prison, with a particular interest in  speaking to anyone with experiences of their loved ones amassing debts due to drugs in prison. We are also interested  in speaking to people that have lost partners or family members who were serving a sentence in prison at the time.  

The documentary is still in its early stages and the final content is still to be confirmed. However, our aim is to approach these sensitive issues as empathetically as possible. If you have experiences of the above, we would love to  hear from you. Any conversation at this point will be treated as confidential and off-the-record. Speaking to us does not  oblige you to be a part of any filming, we’d simply like to understand the experience of having loved ones in prison  better.  

If you’d like to learn more, you can reach us on the below contact details:  

07543 189 768  

documentaryteam@thegarden.tv

Data Protection

AFFECT keeps very limited information on our members, name, email, and telephone details. If you would like to be removed from our records, please email affectcharity@outlook.com

DISCLAIMER
From time-to-time, AFFECT is approached by media outlets, asking us to canvas our supporters for help with their studies and or programmes. We may forward their approach, and reasons, to our supporters, but ONLY by blind copy email. We NEVER divulge any contact details of AFFECT supporters. We leave it entirely to the discretion of you, our supporters to contact any such third party. In keeping our distance from those interested in research and or programmes related to our supporters’ concerns, we are drawing on long experience, that an approach initially presented as a genuine inquiry can turn out to be exploitative, and damaging.