Author: Anna Powell
11th April 2025
In 2021 we began working with a small group of prisons, setting up free bookshops and allowing prisoners to come and choose books for the children in their lives, write an accompanying letter and have them posted out. These books will be the only thing which a parent can send their child while they are in prison so the importance of them could not be underestimated.
Learnings from these first pilot projects informed our Share a Story programme which has now rolled out across 24 prisons nationwide, permitting children that suffer the social stigma and emotional loss of a parent in prison to receive up to ten books a year, chosen by or together with, that parent.
The programme was developed in conjunction with family liaison teams at HMP Ashfield, HMP Doncaster, HMP Dovegate and HMP Lowdham Grange. It seeks to provide every prisoner with the means to connect, reconnect and build bridges with the children and young people in their family through the powerful medium of stories, illustrations, and imagination. We know that the risk of reoffending is reduced substantially if a parent stays in contact with their family. Despite this, many prisoners dissociate themselves from their families on entering prison, either from a sense of shame or as a coping mechanism. Share a Story provides an accessible, low pressure means of engaging with family members and building / rebuilding relationships.
Children’s books are inherently accessible, inclusive and above all, enjoyable. The gift of a personally selected book from a parent to a child demonstrates a desire to forge a common interest or to reflect an understanding of the recipient’s interests. The child in turn receives a gift from their parent, knows they are thought of and shares common ground.
Quotes from two of our volunteers following a Pop Up Bookshop at HMP Peterborough in March reveal the impact on parents of the opportunity to choose and send books home to their children:
“We love to run our Pop-Up Bookshops in prisons. At our first bookshop today [at the female prison site] you could feel the excitement and buzz in the library as soon as the ladies came in. They hardly believed they could choose from so many beautiful, fun books and send them home to their families. Over one hundred books were sent out to children from the morning session alone. On the male site it was just as celebratory an event with some of the male prisoners worried about joining in at first but then couldn’t help picking up the books!! We sent over one hundred books home to children here too”.
“There were also many poignant moments that remind us how valuable it is to offer prisoners these opportunities to connect with their families and make their day a little better. One young lady began to cry as she picked up the books and told us her kids loved story time with her and simply seeing the children’s books was bringing back happy memories. She told us her daughter would “probably cry at first because I am not present, and she misses me but will be happier after when she realises we can still do what we would do when I am there, which is read together. So she will still feel close to Mummy. Thank you”.