A NEW guide, prepared by a group set up to provide information for families who have a relative imprisoned for the first time, has been praised for its practical approach to an area which is badly neglected.
Barnados chief executive Fergus Finlay and Cork Prison governor Jim Collins both paid tribute to the St Nicholas Trust which has published Visiting Cork Prisonin response to the growing numbers of families who find themselves with a relative in jail.
Mr Finlay said it was not often that a publication manages to combine both practical advice and moving stories but the guide achieved that within a few pages by answering the questions anyone with someone in prison would ask, along with detailing some personal experiences.
The families of people sent to jail go through a whole mixture of emotions from regret to blame but it has been shown that prisoners who enjoy the support of their families stand a better chance of not reoffending, he said.
Mr Collins said that the guide answers the questions that his staff are asked by the families of men who have been given jail sentences and are entering Cork Prison for the first time.
Prison school principal Colm O’Herlihy said more men in their 20s and 30s seem to be ending up in prison and that, for both themselves and their families, it’s a shocking new experience.
Mairead Carmody, who works with prisoners, said, “We met the families of people who were in prison for the first time and they were completely traumatised and didn’t know where to get information about basic things like visiting rights. So the group came together to help others avoid the issues that they faced.”