By working alongside courts, prison staff and community professionals, Pact supports whole families, not just individuals, preserving and strengthening vital relationships.
This approach recognises that strong relationships are central to rehabilitation, safer prisons and better outcomes for everyone.
Earlier this year, people with lived experience came together at HMP Swansea with prison leaders, teachers, voluntary sector partners and representatives from the Ministry of Justice, HMPPS and the Welsh Government. Their reflections show how Pact’s Swansea model works in practice — and why it should be expanded.
Support at court: Moira's* story
For families, the court process can feel chaotic and frightening. It is often the first time they encounter the criminal justice system, and they are generally left to cope with both its emotional and logistical challenges without support.
Pact’s court service in Swansea fills this gap. From the earliest moments, Pact staff and volunteers provide practical and emotional support: explaining what is happening, translating legal processes into plain language, and offering reassurance. Crucially, they ensure there is no sudden break in contact when someone is sent to prison. Families are told where their loved one is going, how to get in touch, and how contact can be established immediately.
Because Pact works both in court and inside HMP Swansea, information and relationships are carried across that transition. This continuity helps protect family relationships during the early days in custody — a period recognised as one of the most dangerous for prisoners — and prevents families being left in distressing silence.
Moira experienced this first‑hand when her son was sent to prison. She described arriving at court overwhelmed and distressed, and how meeting Pact staff changed everything.
“Mollie and Tracey were the first contact of kindness I’d had since the whole thing began. I don’t know what I would have done without them. That bit in the very beginning – when it’s all a shock – is when you most need support."
Moira - Family member, Swansea
Moira told us about the devastating impact of the court process and imprisonment for the whole family — the stigma, the exposure, and the sense of no longer belonging anywhere — describing how she felt “not a prisoner myself, but not part of society either”.
Pact’s court work exists to prevent that isolation from taking hold. By intervening early and supporting families as cases move from court to custody, the service closes a gap families often fall through.
Support in prison: Jake* and Luke's stories
Once someone arrives at HMP Swansea, care for the family as a whole continues. Working alongside prison staff as the family services provider, Pact runs the Visitors’ Centre, offers both regular visits and Family Days, delivers targeted interventions designed to build and protect family relationships, and supports prisoners who do not receive visits and are at risk of isolation.
Jake, a father of two young children, described how much his family struggled when he first entered custody. His young daughter was crying every night, missing her dad. Pact staff suggested Storybook Dads — a simple intervention that allowed him to record stories in his own voice for his children to listen to at home. Hearing her dad read to her became, as Jake explained, the first step towards things getting better for his daughter.
His son and daughter began to attend family days and the fortnightly baby toddler group at the prison. Jake contrasted these with standard visits, which he found stressful and unpredictable — sitting still, unable to play. “Pact visits are different. My daughter runs in – she thinks she’s coming to visit daddy in a castle... She’s happy, there’s not much more to say.”
He spoke about the small moments Pact made possible — like changing his son’s nappy for the first time — and the way staff consistently thought about the child’s experience, not just the logistics of the visit.
“At Christmas Pact staff bought presents – but they didn’t just bring them out. They took me outside and gave them to me so my daughter thought I’d got it for her.”
Jake - Service user, Swansea
Luke, recently released, described similar experiences. For him, Pact’s role was about persistence and advocacy: making sure he never missed opportunities to see his children and pushing to make special days possible. Pact staff arranged visits on his son’s birthday and made Christmas contact workable for a large family, splitting visits so all eight of his children could be included.
For Luke’s son with additional learning needs, Pact worked closely with the prison to adapt the visit experience — including allowing early arrival so it felt calm and manageable. Those adjustments meant the difference between a visit that was overwhelming and one that felt safe.
For Jake, the connection he has maintained with his children has had a profound impact on his thinking about the future. Staying present in his children’s lives — even from prison — has shaped his determination not to reoffend. “I’m not coming back.”
Supporting families in the community: Jo and Donna's experience
Pact’s Swansea model recognises that many children affected by imprisonment may never visit a prison at all — and that schools might be the one stable place in their lives.
But many teachers won’t have any existing knowledge of the criminal justice process, making it hard for them to understand what their students are going through. Many will assume that there are not children in their class experiencing this because they are not told – there is currently no process through which schools are consistently informed about parental imprisonment.
Through CPD‑accredited training, Pact equips teachers and other professionals with the understanding, tools and confidence to support children affected by a parent’s imprisonment. The training helps staff understand what court and prison processes are like, what children may be carrying emotionally, and how to support them throughout – including how to open up the conversation in the first place.
Teachers Jo and Donna spoke about their deeply held belief that school should be a place of safety for all children – and how Pact’s training is helping them to make that true for children affected by imprisonment.
One described accompanying a former pupil whose partner was going to court. Young, pregnant and terrified, the woman needed someone who could calmly explain what was happening and what would come next. Because of Pact’s training, the teacher was able to walk her through the process — something she said she would not have felt able to do otherwise.
By connecting schools to courts, prisons and community services, Pact helps ensure children are supported consistently.
From the earliest moments at court, through custody at HMP Swansea, and out into schools and community settings, Pact’s work prevents families from falling into the cracks between systems. It strengthens family relationships, supports children, and contributes to safer prisons and rehabilitation.
Family support is a vital — but often overlooked — part of the rehabilitation system. Swansea shows what’s possible when it is properly valued and resourced.
*Names changed