By Christopher Stacey, Chief Executive of Prisoners Abroad

---

Last March, we announced our new five-year strategy, Support. Action. Hope. In the strategy, we made a commitment to develop our work – looking at where we can do more, where we might work differently, how we maintain quality, develop sustainable capacity, explore collaborations and partnerships, and ultimately be confident that we are having the greatest positive impact.

We also committed to advocating for improvements in policy and practice by amplifying the voices of the people we support to positively influence policy and systems impacting their health, welfare and rights.

A one-year update on our strategic priorities

We have five overarching strategic priorities, and highlighted below are some  of the key areas of progress we have made over the last year:

Prisoners Abroad does not describe itself as a campaigning organisation. However, the very nature of our core day-to-day work supporting people affected by imprisonment abroad means that we are advocating on their behalf. This could be making sure people in prison are treated fairly and that the treatment they receive is in line with their rights, supporting their welfare, and making sure they and their families are informed of their rights, as well as liaising with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service.

We have a strong understanding of the challenges that people are facing, and their experiences need to be heard and understood. We might sometimes be subject to criticism for sharing our opinion, which us based on evidence, but we need to be able to do that, as well as to amplify those voices of those with direct experience.

---

A focus on lived experience

One way in which we have advanced our advocacy work over the last year is through our focus on lived experience, which is one our strategic threads.

In particular, this has included the creation of a Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG) made up of people who have been in prison abroad, who have resettled in the UK after release, and who have dealt with the overseas imprisonment of a relative. We are thrilled that this group is now up and running and will have key input into the development of our overseas, resettlement and family support work. We will be looking for additional members to the group later this year, so keep an eye out for details on that.

---

Developing our advocacy pillars

To compliment our focus on lived experience, we also committed to speaking up, with and for people. We have identified six key areas on which we will focus our advocacy work – our advocacy pillars.

• Supporting a legal right to consular assistance
• Developing a proactive prisoner transfer strategy
• Improved treatment in prison that maintains dignity and prevents deaths
• A right to support when returning to the UK
• Access to suitable accommodation in the community
• Reducing the burden on family members

These pillars will guide our approach to raising awareness of our work, highlight current issues, the work we are doing as an organisation, and what we believe others can do to help. These pillars will be reviewed regularly to determine which themes we can amplify so we can best advocate on behalf of the people we exist for.

You can find out a bit more about each of the pillars here:

Learn more

In the coming months, we will be publishing more details on each of these pillars, as well as more information of the active steps we are taking to make these changes a reality.

If you would like to get in touch about any of these pillars and our work surrounding them, please email [email protected].

---

For Press:

[email protected]

T: +44 (0) 20 7561 6820 (option 5)

 For more information about press enquiries, click here.