Prison Advice and Care Trust - First Night in Custody Services

First Night in Custody Services

In 2001, pact set up a pioneering First Night in Custody project at Holloway Prison, offering one-to-one emotional support to anxious people on their first night in jail. A few years later, the project was expanded to HMP Exeter in Devon and HMP Wandsworth in London.

The aims of the First Night in Custody project are: to reduce the likelihood of new prisoners attempting suicide or self-harming during the first 72 hours; and to reduce the anxiety faced by prisoners and their families. First Night in Custody workers and volunteers sit down one-to-one with new prisoners, listen to their concerns, and often contact relatives on their behalf. They provide practical and emotional support.

In 2007, an independent study conducted by the Prison Reform Trust found that "in the prisons working with pact, people tended to experience fewer difficulties and less frustration in making contact with family than those in the comparison prisons... The specific services that pact provides in liaising with families should be replicated more widely and local prisons may wish to draw on pact’s expertise in developing their first night services."