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A Year with our Prison Project Team

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In the past year, our Prison Project team have been visiting prisons as far north as Stockton-on-Tees and as far south as Jersey. Having developed the model they have used in the last few years, which is inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola and Ignatian spiritual accompaniment, they are able to adapt this model to different contexts depending on the specific needs of the prison and levels of security in place. For the first time, the team also visited three different prisons in the same week (HMP Guys Marsh, HMP Portland and HMP La Verne, all in Dorset).

Working with chaplains

In advance of their time in the prison, the Prison Project team meet with prison chaplains to consider the best way to work with those participating during the time they are there. Each place the team visits presents different challenges and opportunities. In some, the prisoners may be serving long sentences, unable to really contemplate when they will leave, whereas in others, the prisoners may be preparing for the end of their sentences. The team have worked with people from a variety of ages and backgrounds, in male-only and female-only environments, as well as with vulnerable prisoners. Even the time of year can make a difference, as sometimes retreats in the period approaching Christmas have to be worked around a chaplaincy event like a carol service – although this break from routine is a blessing for the prisoners and the Prison Project team alike, providing an additional sense of hope (and cheer).

A prison chaplain has commented that the way in which the retreat was planned and set out was very helpful, and also mentioned the flexibility shown by the team, who adapted to the circumstances in the prison.

The interaction with participants was outstanding, with deep sharing and responses reflecting genuine interest. Sarah [Young] and Paul’s [Paul Chitnis, one of the team] clarity and compassionate approach earned them praise from both participants and chaplains.

Volunteer chaplains also attended different sessions, enhancing the shared experience and reinforcing the Chaplaincy’s role as a space of value and inclusion.

The Prison Retreat Week offered participants a profound spiritual experience, deepening their awareness in ways many had not encountered before. Some attendees expressed a desire for similar events in the future and continuity in this spiritual approach.

Even after the retreat, they found that the effects continued:

‘Our Weekly Lectio Divina Sessions have taken a more contemplative outlook ever since,’ writes Julio Iglesias, chaplain to HMP High Down, Sutton.

Making good choices

Our Prison Project works well in the culture of rehabilitation. For example, offering a workshop on making good choices helps ‘the choices they make in the detail of their day now, how they respond to the people around them,’ Sarah Young explains. It helps them ‘develop habits that are leading them to forging a better future, and very much forging a pathway to God.’

Meeting them where they are

Part of the team’s process involves helping prisoners feel at ease in a context where they rarely experience this – a context that most of us can barely imagine. They may arrive feeling very uncertain or uncomfortable about being in a room with others or sharing with them, but by the end of the session (or the week) it becomes apparent that they have begun to feel more themselves, to experience more calm, and to have more clarity than they may have done for years.

Sarah and Vron who coordinate our Prison Project, have both been drawn to working in this context from a background of spiritual accompaniment, facilitating groups and individuals in their prayer life. Ignatian accompaniment is a solid grounding for accompanying those who are experiencing difficulties in their life, not least because it is about being with the person in front of you and where they are in their life, spiritually and emotionally. Our team have found this is very helpful when working with those prisoners who have clearly experienced profound traumas before they arrived in prison. In order to deepen their skills with these types of individuals, Sarah and Vron have undertaken professional development in the area of trauma awareness.

They felt they’d been received in a non-judgmental way, that we simply meet them as people, and that they have felt listened to. Often they say that they emerge from the retreats feeling more hopeful, that they can see a way forward, even while they might still have long prison sentences to serve. - Sarah Young

Looking to the future

Much of the day-to-day work of the Jesuit Institute is now done online, and the internet offers a wide range of resources to support prayerful reflection in this way. Those in prison, however, cannot have access to material in this way. As a creative response, the Jesuit Institute team produced a CD with Pray As You Go which makes some of these resources available to prisons. The work which went into producing the CD (‘Be Strong and Take Heart’) which contains prayer resources specifically for prisoners and features art by a prisoner from States of Jersey Prison La Moye on the cover, is now paying off. Provided that the security conditions of the prisons allow it, when the team finish working in a particular prison, they are able to leave some CDs for the prisoners to continue praying in the way they have been taught.

Some prison retreat participants have decided to undertake ongoing spiritual accompaniment following on from a prison retreat. In the spring, the Jesuit Institute are offering On Track with God, an Online Retreat in Daily Life for those who have experienced the criminal justice system and their families).

For others, it may just be that a time of feeling calm and accepted for who they are is transformative in itself:

‘One of the things we are privileged to see as we walk alongside people is seeing what God does when God is given that opportunity to love somebody and for them to receive it,’ Vron says. ‘When people know they are deeply loved by God, something can shift and change within them.’

‘They are often quite bemused that we have chosen to go there,’ says Sarah. ‘They often say, “Why are you here?” and then by the end they are extremely grateful. Their thanks is really quite moving.’

The team are planning more retreats and workshops in prisons for the coming year.

Thank you for supporting our work.

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You can support the Prison Project by:

• Praying for our team, prison chaplains and prisoners themselves, as well as their families

• Making a donation to support our work.

• Raising awareness of the difficulties prisoners face.

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A Prayer For Prisoners

Lord, we bring you the needs of those experiencing imprisonment:

For the prisoners themselves, that you give them your strength to face the daily challenges they encounter;

For their families and friends, that you comfort all those who are missing their loved ones;

For those who work in the prison system, that you grant them compassion and empathy;

For the victims of crime, that they may find whatever help and support they need.

We ask all this in your name.

Amen.

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You can listen to Vron and Sarah’s interview with Vatican Radio for Prisoner’s Sunday here >> Prisoners' Sunday: Jesuits in the UK bringing hope behind bars - Vatican News

The Jesuit Institute appeared on Radio Maria last week, and you can listen to this interview here >> Jesuit Institute: Ministry to Prisoners - Radio Maria England