Building Bridges to the Community: the Kirkham Family Connectors (KFC) Prison Programme

Abstract

Families represent a form of social capital that can influence effective reintegration depending on the strength of the bond, and the nature of the relationship. An innovative training programme delivered at HMP Kirkham was designed to mobilise the strengths of prisoners, in the period prior to their release, by engaging family members as bridges to community resources and by a shared planning process designed to build stronger bonds between prisoners and their families. The conceptual framework for the Kirkham Family Connectors (KFC) project is based on the principles of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) and Assertive Linkage (assisting individuals in engaging with such assets). The project aimed to build prisoner resettlement capital by identifying what each prisoner's skills and strengths were, what enthused and engaged them, and to create partnerships with family members to establish accessible pathways to related resources in the communities to which they would be returning on their release. Evaluation data show that the programme generated hope and a sense of partnership among participants and key lessons for a strengths‐based intervention to support the prison‐community transition. All three of the participating groups – staff, prisoners, and families – reported positive engagement and an emerging sense of hope, and group cohesion through shared goals. There is considerable scope for both peer and probation staff delivery of the programme in the future, and for extending the scale and the scope of the project.

The bridge between social identity and community capital on the path to recovery and desistance

“…The model that has underpinned this programme of research is that effective community linkage is contingent on first identifying resources in the community (the territory of Asset Based Community Development; Kretzmann and McKnight, 1993), linking these to what the community needs are and the accessibility of identified resources, and then creating the mechanisms for connecting individuals into those relevant groups (McKnight and Block, 2010). This provides a model for building social or recovery capital (in a separate piece – Hall et al, 2018 – we are considering the term ‘resettlement capital’ for those exiting prison) in which assets in the community and mechanisms of bridging to them constitute resources that build capital. What the mapping method outlined above attempts to do is to link the bonding and bridging capacity of existing social networks to a wider process of creating opportunities for assertive linkage to community groups (e.g.…”

Macrocriminology and Freedom

“…Bonding and bridging combine with reciprocity norms to build social cohesion, linking capital that has both communal and economic benefits (Hong 2016). Like the World Bank, I conceive of linking capital here as institutional mechanisms that diffuse trust and dialogue (Leamy et al 2011) and then applied it empirically to recovery from addiction and crime (Best and Laudet 2010;Best et al 2015Best et al , 2018Best 2017;Hall et al 2018). The importance given in the CHIME literature to recovery from problems like alcoholism, drug addiction or a period in prison is also important to restorative capital, as discussed in the next two sections.…”

Justice capital: A model for reconciling structural and agentic determinants of desistance

“…An example of this cultural social contagion is epitomised by the Kirkham Family Connectors training programme, which was designed to help to mobilise the strengths of prisoners in HMP Kirkham, a Category D prison, with the aim of creating individualised resettlement pathways facilitated by families and friends (Best et al, 2018; Hall et al, 2018). Across three workshops, prisoners and their families worked together to plan engagement in positive social groups and activities post-release, with family members engaging with identified assets and making initial contact with them.…”

“…Feedback from another family member also exemplifies the empowerment they experienced feeling ‘like a small cog in the big picture of someone else’s life. Every person counts and has a value’ (Hall et al, 2018: 11).…”

“…It should also be the case that there is a 'social contagion' not only within the prisoner population, but that positive cultural capital should increase the wellbeing of prison and civilian staff and, based on the principles of contagion, visitors, contractors, families and the local community (Christakis and Fowler, 2009). An example of this cultural social contagion is epitomised by the Kirkham Family Connectors training programme, which was designed to help to mobilise the strengths of prisoners in HMP Kirkham, a Category D prison, with the aim of creating individualised resettlement pathways facilitated by families and friends (Best et al, 2018;Hall et al, 2018). Across three workshops, prisoners and their families worked together to plan engagement in positive social groups and activities postrelease, with family members engaging with identified assets and making initial contact with them.…”