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Prisoners or ex-offenders

It won’t be easy, but volunteering to improve our criminal justice system will probably be very rewarding. You can make a difference to people in detention, custody or prison, support people when they’re released or help prevent people from getting into trouble in the first place.

Help make sure that the system is fair, effective and that your community is represented:

  • Become a magistrate – and deal with around 95 per cent of criminal cases in England and Wales. You need to be able to commit at least 26 half-days per year to sit in court (sounds a lot, but employers are required by law to grant reasonable time off work for magistrates).
  • Special Constables – once you’ve been trained, you have the same powers as a regular officer and take part in crime prevention initiatives and police major incidents. You have to be able to commit to a minimum of four hours a week. 
  • Youth Offender Panel Members tackle crime in your area. Two volunteers sit alongside a member of the Youth Offending Team to meet with a young person, referred by the court, to talk about the reasons for the offending behaviour and to agree a tailor-made contract aimed at putting things right. Volunteers give about three hours a fortnight and meetings can be arranged around your existing work and other commitments. 
  • Nacro -  volunteer with the most disadvantaged people, offenders and those at risk of offending, to help them find positive alternatives to crime and to achieve their full potential in our society.

Support prisoners:

  • Independent Monitoring Board Member - Inside every prison, immigration removal centre and some short term holding facilities at airports, there is an Independent Monitoring Board made up of volunteers. You have unrestricted access to the local prison or immigration detention centre at any time and can talk to any prisoner or detainee. Volunteer with them and help monitor the day-to-day life in your local prison or removal centre. You need to be able to give 2-3 days a month. 
  • Prison Visitors offer friendship to a prisoner. You visit a prisoner for about two hours a month and have to be over 21.
  • Pact (Prison Advice and Care Trust) Help out at their family-friendly visitors’ centres, children’s play services around the country and provide practical support to prisoners' children and families, and to prisoners themselves. 
  • New Bridge Foundation - befriend a prisoner by writing and visiting them. You promise to maintain contact with the prisoner throughout their sentence, even if they’re moved from prison to prison. New Bridge has 18 active volunteer support groups based in Birmingham, Bristol, Durham, Exeter, Hampshire, Leeds, Liverpool, London (8 groups), Manchester, Weymouth and Wolverhampton. 

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