Inside this Edition:
Notes from CEO, Meeting with Judge Sarah Munro KC, Independent sentencing Review: May 2025 by Carol, Thank you Affect by Service User, Not My Sentence programme, Law students teach prisoners about parole process, Separation from babies in prison, Gender Dysphoria and Me by Zoe
Notes from the Chair
Dear Ones,
I would like to officially introduce myself as AFFECT’s newly appointed Chief Executive Officer. AFFECT holds a special place in my heart because, I came to AFFECT as a service user seven years ago. As my partner was serving an IPP (In Public Protection) sentence. My amazing Telephone Support Worker assisted me in navigating this challenging time, including support with prison visits, parole hearings, recall and preparing for release. AFFECT showed me that there is light at the end of the darkness and the importance of remembering how to embrace life whilst supporting my partner. I would be lost without the support of AFFECT.
I am excited to share that AFFECT is in the process of enhancing its digital presence and broadening our support outreach; at this time, I would greatly appreciate it if you would assist by providing information that will be sent by questionnaire. The statics gathered will help to secure much needed funding, produce annual case studies, and feature as statics on the AFFECT website. Overall, this data will allow us to assess how well the service is performing and the areas we need to improve.
Information collected will adhere to strict GDPR guidelines. AFFECT will be reintroducing family stories to the
website and newsletters; please email affectcharity@outlook.com if you would like to contribute, stories can be
published anonymously.
AFFECT has also recruited a new Telephone Support Worker, Kathryn, and welcomes Sarah to the Trust Board; We hope your time with the organisation is productive and mutually beneficial.
The AFFECT Team would like to express our gratitude to Mother Mary Joy and the Sisters of Bethany for their donations and support since AFFECT was founded 25 years ago. Thank you for believing in our cause and making such a meaningful donation. Your generosity has helped us to sustain and deliver our mission. We are grateful for the free provision of a safe space and providing refreshments for our Group Gatherings before Covid intervened. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
I would like to thank The Trustees for their dedication and the Voluntary Telephone Support Workers as you are the backbone of AFFECT.
Love,
Shannel Chief Executive Officer
AFFECT needs your support!
I urge you to consider a donation, particularly a regular monthly amount, however small, e.g. £10 or £25.
Your contribution will help our service to continue to run efficiently and help others like you. Thank you for your generosity.
Fundraising meeting with Judge Sarah Munro KC
Photographer Lindley (Treasurer) The Old Bailey, Great Hall
On the 8th April 2025 Affect’s CEO Shannel, Treasurer Lindley and Supervisor Kathy met with Judge Sarah Munro KC at The Old Bailey court, to explore fundraising opportunities. AFFECT would like to thank Judge Sarah Munro KC for her advice, support and time.
Independent Sentencing Review: May 2025
David Gauke
Summary
I have had an opportunity to look at the findings of the Sentencing Review, undertaken by David Gauke (former Conservative Justice Minister), and urgently commissioned by the current Labour Government. This Review is an important one and is entirely relevant to the families who gain support from AFFECT.
The Review follows the new Government’s deep concern about the dangerous overcrowding in England’s Prison population. This concern led to an emergency decision to release some prisoners early, leading to a brief respite, but with recognition that the prison population would continue to increase, thus continuing overcrowding andunacceptable conditions.
The Review noted that the prison population is over 87,000, and costs £54,000 per prisoner per year, and did not fulfil its rehabilitation function.
The Key findings (from AFFECT’s perspective) are:
1. More offenders should receive community-based sentences, and those who need to be imprisoned should receive rehabilitative support within prisons.
2. There should be with more support from Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol treatments.
3. The Probation Service needs to have increased funding to support communities.
4. Technology be introduced to monitor offenders and reduce administrative tasks.
5. Greater transparency in setting out release dates, thus giving greater clarity to prisoners, their families and reassurance to victims.
Although there is considerable mention of communities within the report, there was little recognition of the role of families in reducing recidivism.
Carol
The full report is available at http://bit.ly/3YW6t3n
The Aim of AFFECT is:
“To facilitate growth and movement through a particularly
difficult time in what might be the “darkest hour” for Families Enduring Criminal
Trauma”
Thankyou AFFECT
I cannot thank Affect enough for the understanding and support they gave me during a very unpleasant time in my life when my ex-husband of 30 years had been imprisoned for very serious crimes. The shock to myself and my adult daughter was terrible, and I found not many people wanted to listen to me as their judgement blinded them to our plight. Such words as ‘Get over it! He’s dead as far as we are concerned. And No, I don’t want to go there’ from family members and friends were distressing.
Affect listened and very quickly put me in touch with a Telephone Support Worker and we established a weekly call. I cannot emphasise how much this helped me to get through that awful time. I was listened to
with compassion and respect. During this time of support which was extensive I got to know myself much better and to take away any shame around the situation. I came to have compassion and to choose wisely who I let into my life. Help with my thought processes around boundaries and family expectations brought about peace. I am pleased to say I am in a much better place now. Thank you so much Affect.
By AFFECT Service User
Not My Sentence support programme goes on Reported by Bradley Gerrad, BBC News 31.03.25
Funding to support the “hidden issue” of children in Devon who have a parent in prison is set to continue.
The Not My Sentence support programme was developed in Devon in 2022 with one to-one support delivered from trained youth works for young people with a close family member in prison. According to government data between October 2021 and the same period the following year nationally nearly 200,000 children had a parent in prison.
Topics aimed to help young people understand the justice systems. Local Democracy reporting service said the experience can be “terrifying”.
Devon County Councils community safety and violence prevention lead Julie Richards said the authority was trying to identify children “who have been impacted by parental imprisonment”. Julie Richards said the council’s work with its partners in the Safer Devon Partnership is the “only dedicated offer” and funding will continue in the next financial year.
She said The Not My Sentence programme by Space Education support Services “covers the justice system and what prison is like, focusing on dispelling myths as it has become clear that young people have a very unrealistic view of what life in prison is like”.
One affected young person told the council: “It is terrifying, and I didn’t feel like I was given any information that i could actually understand”. “There is room to improve services for young people who experience a parent or close family member going to prison”.
Thought for the day:
“For every wound, the ointment of time”
AFFECT needs you, could you become a Telephone Support Worker?
You spoke, and we listened, to your feedback about recruiting more TSW with personal experience of the Criminal Justice System. We are looking for friendly volunteers to offer free, confidential and nonjudgemental support to families with a loved one in prison.
If you are interested, please email affectcharity@outlook.com
Could you be an AFFECT Trustee?
Wonder if you might be the next person to step forward? Affect has 8 dedicated Trust Board members, with 2 open vacancies.
What is involved: A commitment to attend the board meetings.
How often are meetings: 6 a year, usually held on the morning of a group gathering by zoom.
Extra work: Trustees may be asked to help occasionally with looking at policies or to help with interviewing.
If you are interested, please e-mail Shannel at affectcharity@outlook.com
Law students teach prisoners about parole process Reported by BBC News, 21.05.25
A team of students from Hertfordshire Law school, visited HMP The Mount in Hemel Hempstead to help 20 male prisoners better understand the parole system.
The prisoners took part in mock oral hearing, so they could see the perspective of the parole board.
“Most prisoners have little knowledge of the parole process despite spending years in prison,” said Zaherah Saghir, senior lecturer at the law school. “There are more than an average proportion of prisoners with learning difficulties such as dyslexia, so they need extra guidance with completing form and understanding their parole dossier”.
The students hope giving prisoners a better understanding of the process could reduce reoffending and ease the overcrowding in prisons.
The students supported prisoners with drafting a written representation on behalf of a fictional prisoner eligible for parole. For the mock hearing they were each assigned a role such as parole board member, probation officer or legal representative. The feedback given to the university said the prisoners gained a better understanding of the parole process. Mr Saghir added: “This exercise has been a significant eye- opener for the prisoners, all of whom expressed that they now feel better informed about the parole process”.
Separation from babies in prison “more painful than giving birth” Reported by Insidetimes 22.05.25
In a report by the Lost Mothers Project women in prison whose babies had been taken away describe the trauma “more painful than giving birth”.
Dr Laura Abbott, the author of the study, found that the impact of seeing their children removed was deeply harmful and affected the mother mentally and physically. She discovered that in some cases babies were removed within four to five days old.
Her research launched at the British Museum in London on 8 May, collaborating with the University of Hertfordshire, the charity Birth Companions and a group of women with lived experience, and took three years.
In England six of the 12 women prisons have Mother and Baby Units (MBUs), which allow new mothers to keep their babies with them in prison. Between 2023 and 2024, 92 women applied to the units and 50 were accepted.
The multidisciplinary boards decide who enters the MBUs, mothers may speak at the meetings, they are not permitted legal support. Dr Abbott says that the units are underused, and that placing the babies in foster care is an overused solution. One woman who had attended a board hearing described the experience as “the scariest, anxious, time of my life”.
The Ministry of Justice responded that the Women’s Justice Board, launched in January, is considering the needs of women in prison in general and of pregnant women in particular. One-third of the 215 pregnant women in prison between 2023 and 2024 were on remand.
Gender Dysphoria and Me
I was the second child out of four – two girls and two boys. So that’s my older sister, me, my brother and last, but not least, my little sister. I always knew that I was different. My older sister would play with Barbies. My brother would play with toy cars. I would want to play with both. Dolls, doing their hair and dressing them, and
with the cars as well. Mum always steered me towards the ‘boy’s toys’ and the ‘blokey things.
Our household was quite traditional. Mum was a stay-at-home mum, and Dad had little input in our upbringing as he was a long-distance lorry driver, so was only home at weekends. It was like having a weekend Dad and we never saw eye-to-eye. He was very blokey, all ‘stiff upper lip’ and ‘men drink beer in a mug’ etc.
At school I was bullied. I was weaker, skinny and a loner. During one long summer holiday when I was eleven, my younger sister wanted to have a teddy bears tea party. We got the fancy dress box out, I put on a pink dress, and we had the party. That was the first time I felt ok with my body.
Then, Mum came in to check on us and was extremely upset to see me in a dress. So, I kept how I felt secret. I ‘borrowed’ clothes from my older sister and at the age of thirteen I had picked the names Zoë for my female side and Zac for my male side. By the age of sixteen, Zoë was going out and enjoying herself with friends. I was still trying to hide this from my Mum and Dad. However, I had to come out as it was only a matter of time before they caught Zoë sneaking back in.
Coming out to my family was very hard as I had to try to explain my gender without having the words, as I was not transgender and had no plans to have gender reassignment. So, at the time I was put down as a transvestite. But it was more than just dressing in the opposite gender’s clothes. For me, it was a split personality; I am both male and female. When I went out, I would get funny looks. People would just walk up to me and ask, ‘Are you a boy or a girl?’ and/or call me names.
One night when Zoë was in a pub, she used the ladies’ toilets and was almost attacked by a man who thought I had gone in there to look at his daughter. After that, Zoë stopped going out for a while. When she went out again, I was very selective about where and when Zoë went out.
Zac met his first boyfriend, and he was okay with Zoë as long as she didn’t go outside. I became a pub landlord in 2009. Zoë spent a lot of time out then. It was a safe place for anyone to be themselves and have fun. Zoë was very happy there. My last boyfriend HATED Zoë – if she came out, he went out. He would say ‘I’m gay, so I want a boyfriend, not a girlfriend’. So, Zoë spent almost ten years in a box.
In 2020 I got so depressed and hated myself, I tried taking my own life. We split up at the end of 2020. I would never date anyone who can’t accept both Zac and Zoë. In the year before I went to prison Zoë had been going out a lot, still getting funny looks and offensive questions like ‘Do you have a ****?’ and ‘You know you’ll never be a real woman’.
In prison, I have found it easier to an extent. I don’t have to worry about being out and sly comments. There is a bit of name calling, like ‘Tranny’, and Zoë has been called a ‘man in a dress’. But most of the inmates are respectful and ask questions to help themselves understand. I don’t think people understand how important a shower is. As a male, it’s a place to clean myself. As a female, it’s a place to clean, self-maintenance, and to make myself feel better.
As someone with gender dysphoria, it helps to swap from male to female and vis-à-vis. So, after I’ve washed and shaved, I can ‘wash away’ a personality and then in the morning I can get up and see who looks back at me in the mirror. I can sideline gender for a while, but it will make me ill.
Is there a difference between Zoë and Zac? Friends call Zoë ‘princess’ because she wants to do it and do it now!
Zac, they call the ‘mayor’ as he will plan things, think, then act. But Zac has more of a temper and Zoë is better at maths. So yes, there is a difference. I feel so much more at ease with all parts of myself. I do believe I would not be whole without Zoë or Zac. I use Mx instead of Mr or Ms as both Zac and Zoë are partners in this body.
By Zoe
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.
Data Protection
AFFECT keeps very limited information on our members, namely name, email, and telephone details. If you would like to be removed from our records, please email affectcharity@outlook.com