PREPARATION FOR RELEASE AND POST-RELEASE SUPPORT Local NGOs, community leaders, local authorities and former prisoners are well placed to work with families and communities to prepare them, both practically and emotionally, for a prisoner’s return. Public perceptions and media representations of prisoners and prison life can also influence how communities react to released prisoners. Prison authorities themselves can play a key role in improving the way prisoners are represented to society. PROMISING PRACTICE: Working with communities in Malawi The Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (CHREAA)97 in Malawi is an NGO that was set up in 2002 to promote and protect human rights by assisting vulnerable and marginalised people in Malawi to access justice through advocacy, legal advice and assistance. The Centre has several ongoing projects, including the decriminalisation of vagrancy laws, the promotion and protection of the rights of sex workers, a bail project that aims to equip people to apply for bail even if they don’t have a lawyer, and paralegal services for victims of sexual abuse. CHREAA also provides psychosocial counselling and support services for prisoners, including assessments to ensure that prisoners with mental health problems are moved to appropriate institutions for care and treatment, and psychosocial services to help prepare prisoners for release. In parallel to this, CHREAA works with families and community leaders in the months before the release of the prisoner to help prepare them for the prisoner’s return. CHREAA representatives then carry out follow-up visits to check how the former prisoners, families and communities are coping. Post-release support is one of the most crucial aspects of successful reintegration, linking former prisoners with potential work opportunities and providing them with appropriate services in the community, such as mental healthcare, counselling and substance abuse programmes. Any gaps or deficiencies in the care and support available to prisoners after release can contribute to reoffending. There are many models of post-release support. These include ‘halfway houses’, which are places of residence aimed at providing prisoners with the necessary skills to reintegrate into society and to support and care for themselves. Parole is a form of conditional, supervised and supported release from prison which allows prisoners to return to the community before their sentence has expired. Such schemes act as an intermediate stage between prison and independent living in the community. There are also a number of schemes, often run by NGOs, that provide practical support and small loans to released prisoners and their families. This may include help with reuniting families, housing, or employment opportunities. Peer mentoring programmes can provide support so that former prisoners can continue education, training and employment on release. This can also be provided by former prisoners who have successfully reintegrated after leaving prison. When a parent is imprisoned, the dynamics of families change. The remaining parent faces additional pressure to both earn an income and care for their children emotionally. Children with a care-giver in prison are likely to drop out of school. The effect of this increased family stress ranges from emotional distance between children and their parents to actual family separation in more serious cases. Billy Gorter, Director of This Life Cambodia (see Promising Practice on page 39) 38 | Penal Reform International and Thailand Institute of Justice | Guide to the rehabilitation and social reintegration of women prisoners