Advice and Assistance
The following organisations provide advice and/or assistance to prisoners and former prisoners, and their friends and families.
NATIONAL
Prisoner 'Listening' Schemes
The Samaritans provide a support service in six of Dublin’s seven prisons. The Samaritans have also set up listener schemes in three Dublin prisons: Mountjoy, Arbour Hill and Wheatfield. Prisoners who wish to use the listener scheme contact a member of staff between 8pm and 8am. The listener and his fellow prisoner are then brought to a listening suite, a neutral room where they can talk uninterrupted and unsupervised. The system is entirely confidential.
Prisoners’ Families Infoline / www.pfi.ie
Prisoners’ Families Infoline provides a confidential service for anyone who is affected by the imprisonment of a family member, partner or friend, available 11am-2pm, Monday-Friday. Telephone: 1890 25 25 78. A PFI support group meets every Wednesday from 11.30-1pm @ TWS House, 1-2 Main street, Tallaght, Dublin 24.
Probation Service / www.probation.ie
An agency within the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which assesses and assists former offenders in the community and works with offenders in prisons and detention centres. It also provides information for prisoners and their families.
BITCI Linkage / www.bitc.ie
Linkage is the only post-release service available nationally. The service prepares, plans, and implements Training and/or Employment placements for offenders referred to the programme by the Probation Service. Contact details for the 16 Training & Employment Officers based in locations around the country are available here.
DUBLIN AREA
PACE / www.paceorganisation.ie
PACE provides training and accommodation facilities for ex-prisoners, and provides a link between their life in prison and their new life in the wider community. Tel: 01-6602870
CASP / www.casp.ie
CASP (Clondalkin Addiction Support Programme) provides a Community /Prison Liaison Service to people from the Clondalkin area who are 18 years old and upwards, who are drug users currently in Prison or about to be released. The services available include a Community Prison Liaison Worker and a Post-Release Group. Tel: 01-6166750. CASP, in association with 'Changing Ireland', have also produced 11 short videos offering advice for people who have a family member or partner going to prison for the first time.
Merchant’s Quay Ireland / www.mqi.ie
A voluntary organisation providing a wide range of services to people, including former prisoners, who are homeless or are drug users. Tel: 01-5240160
CORK AREA
Cork Alliance Centre
The Cork Alliance Centre supports ex-prisoners to change and progress in their lives and integrate into society; it supports people to make a fresh start in terms of reducing offending and engaging in positive participation in individual, family and community life. The centre is at Robert Scott House, 6, St. Patrick's Quay, Cork; open Mon - Thurs 8.30am - 5.30pm and Fri 8.30am-2pm. Drop-in, phone or contact for an appointment: T: (021) 455 7878, (087) 689 0210 or email: corkalliancecentre@eircom.net
St Nicholas Trust | www.stnicholastrust.ie
Set up in 2008, the St Nicholas Trust offers help and support to anybody affected by imprisonment – in particular the families of prisoners. The group meets in Cork city-centre on a regular basis; they run a Family Support Group where people can come to talk in a safe, confidential, non-judgmental environment to people who have been through the same experience. If it is your first time going to the prison for a visit, a member of the group can accompany you and explain the procedure to you. The Trust has also produced a booklet, Visiting Cork Prison, available from tel: 0861768266 or 0861768267 or email: stnicholastrust@gmail.com
LIMERICK AREA
Bedford Row Project / www.bedfordrow.ie
Based in Limerick, The Bedford Row Family Project supports family members affected by the imprisonment of one or more of the members of the family, and works towards the re-integration of ex-prisoners into their families, their communities, and society in general. Among other activities, Bedford Row staff: are in attendance in the waiting area of Limerick Prison during all visiting times; offer support and counselling services to family members; and work with other agencies to provide all the information that prisoners' families might need. Tel: 061-315332
WATERFORD AREA
U-Casadh Project / www.ucasadh.ie
The U-Casadh Project helps ex-prisoners re-integrate into society, through offering practical support. U-Casadh helps ex-prisoners get access to training, education and development programmes. Tel: 086-7908741
U-Casadh works with ex-prisoners aged over 24 in Waterford; Treo Portlairge supports ex-prisoners aged 16-23.