book visit onley prison

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https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2014/09/15/you-can-now-book-a-prison-visit-online/

You can now book a prison visit online

Booking a prison visit should be simple and straightforward. Until now that was far from the case. Booking a visit required both prisoner and visitor to jump through hoops: paper forms and drawn-out phone calls. And if the visit date turned out to be impossible, they had to start all over again.

Now you can book a visit online . It takes about 5 minutes. Before, picking an available date was pot luck. Now there's a date-picker that lets you select 3 possible slots instead of 1. It’s a straight-forward service with user-needs at its heart but, if you get stuck, you can call the prison's visits booking line and someone will help you with the booking.

Here's a very short film we've made about it:

By making it easier to book visits, prisoners will see more of their friends and family. Evidence suggests this will help their rehabilitation. Transformation isn't just about websites.

The service was built by the Ministry of Justice, with a combined team from the National Offender Management Service, HM Prison Service and MoJ Digital Services.

For more of the story behind this service, read Mike Bracken's account of his trip to HMP Rochester or check out the service’s transformation page .

Join the conversation on Twitter , and don't forget to sign up for email alerts .

You may also be interested in:

• Prison visit booking: using digital analytics to inform alpha development
• Making prison visits easier to book
• Meet the Transformation team

Sharing and comments

Share this page, 20 comments.

Comment by Pauline posted on 23 August 2015

How do you find out the prisoners number??? so you can go ahead with online booking of a visit?

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 24 August 2015

You can find a prisoner using this service: https://www.gov.uk/find-prisoner However it will be the prisoner's responsibility to get in touch with you to let you know their prison number etc.

Comment by linda posted on 15 August 2015

This service does not appear to work this is day 2 trying to use it

Comment by Olivia posted on 30 July 2015

Hi, If a visit is booked and someone cant make it, is it possible to change the name of one of the people to someone else?

Comment by Louise Duffy posted on 30 July 2015

It's best to contact the prison directly if this happens. You can find contact details here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/contacts/prison-finder

Thanks, Louise

Comment by Paige posted on 28 July 2015

Hi my partner was sent to nottingham today, I was on his previous list 4 months ago for a visit. Will that still be on the system all will it have to he put through again if so how long does it take to be approved for a visit? Thanks Paige.

Comment by Louise Duffy posted on 29 July 2015

You might want to get in touch with the prison first before booking a visit. You can find the contact details of the prison here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/contacts/prison-finder

Comment by Debs posted on 27 July 2015

Hello Is there a list of prisons where online booking can't be used?

Comment by Louise Duffy posted on 28 July 2015

According to the information on this page: https://www.gov.uk/prison-visits , you can arrange a visit to any prison in England and Wales through this service. If you're visiting someone in Northern Ireland or Scotland you'll need to contact the prison directly.

This link also lists the type of visits that are not covered by the online service: https://www.gov.uk/prison-visits so you need to get in touch with the prison directly.

Hope that's helpful.

Comment by c.steer posted on 26 July 2015

So how do I find the booking form to fill in I am new to computers

Comment by Louise Duffy posted on 27 July 2015

Here's the link to the booking form: https://www.gov.uk/prison-visits

You'll need this information to complete the form:

prisoner number prisoner’s date of birth dates of birth for all visitors coming with you make sure the person you’re visiting has added you to their visitor list

Hope that's useful.

Comment by Shawnaa posted on 09 May 2015

i have a visit booked which i did online but i do not have a visiting order woll the prison let me in?

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 11 May 2015

Your identity will be checked on arrival to make sure you’re on the visitor list.

Comment by jessicca posted on 27 January 2015

What happens after you book the visit and its confirmed by email do you need the visiting order ?

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 29 January 2015

The Visiting Order (VO) number is generated by the booking system, it is included in your confirmation email and you will need this to change or cancel a booking.

However, if you're visiting a prison the guidance is that you only need your ID, not the VO number. If when you visit the prison you are asked for the VO number you should report this via the Contact Us link on the Prison Visits Booking form.

I hope that helps.

Comment by Ilysa Mcnally posted on 18 November 2014

How late in advance can I book e.g. book a visit today (Tuesday) for the Sunday coming???

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 19 November 2014

Hi Ilysa. Thanks for your question. A visit needs to be booked 3 working days in advance. So in this case, the visit request would have to be no later than Tuesday to allow for a visit on Sunday.

Comment by carole posted on 23 October 2014

How far in advance can you book visits

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 23 October 2014

Hi Carole. You can book up to 28 days in advance. Thanks for your question.

Comment by kimberly posted on 16 August 2015

does anyone know how to cancel a visit online?

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Guide to Booking Your First Prison Visit

Visiting a loved one in prison can be an emotionally-wrought experience, especially if this is your first time. It’s normal to feel nervous. Here is a comprehensive guide designed to help ease your concerns and answer your questions about booking your first prison visit in the UK:

The Basic Rules

Every prison in the UK has their own set of rules for visits. Generally, you are allowed a certain number of visits in a specified period.

Booking a Visit

You can’t just show up at the prison; you have to book your visitation in advance. The usual method for booking a visit is through the government’s official Prison Visits Booking website. You need to provide the prisoner’s name and prisoner number, and you would also have to provide your own personal details like your full name, contact number, and date of birth.

Visiting Order (VO)

Before visiting a prison, you need to receive a Visiting Order from the prisoner that you plan to visit. This rule, however, may vary depending on the prison’s individual visitation rules.

Identification

When you visit a prison, you’re required to provide a certain level of identification. This typically involves your passport or driving license and utility bills showing your current address. If you don’t provide the right ID, you may not be allowed to visit.

What You Can Bring

The rules about what you can bring into a prison are rigorous. You’re not expected to bring anything in, but if you do, it’s likely to be thoroughly searched.

Searching Process

When you enter a prison, you’ll be searched. This is an essential part of maintaining the safety and security of everyone involved.

• Physical Search: This involves a metal detector and possibly a pat down.
• Biometric Tests: These include fingerprint scans. Your biometric data gets destroyed after your visit.
• Drug Detection Dogs: You may also be screened by drug detection dogs.

What You Can Expect

During your time in the prison, you can expect to see your loved one in a communal area. Visits are typically supervised, though they try to give you some privacy. There might also be a limit to the physical contact you’re allowed with the prisoner.

Remember, prison visits are all about keeping connected with your loved one and offering them moral support. The rules might seem overwhelmingly strict, but they’re there to protect all parties involved. If you’ve got specific concerns or questions, do seek advice from the prison you’re planning to visit or a support network like the Prison Advice and Care Trust.

What is the cheapest way to call from Prison?

Is it cheaper to call a landline from prison.

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PLEASE NOTE:

During the coronavirus crisis, prisons are having to alter their visit times, procedures and booking facilities. This can be subject to change on a day-to-day basis and we are not able to give exact information. If you are looking for visiting information you should check online or contact the prison directly to see what the current situation is.

New ID requirements for visitors are now in effect. Click Here for full information.

We are NOT  part of the Prison Service. You cannot contact a prison directly, contact a prisoner or book visits through our website or comments.

BOOK YOUR VISIT ONLINE

You don’t need a Visiting Order ( VO ) to book a visit online.

But you will need:

• the prisoner's prison number
• their date of birth
• the dates of birth for all visitors going with you
• to make sure the person you’re visiting has added you to their visitor list

To book your visits online go to:   https://www.gov.uk/prison-visits

Please Note: If you do not know the prisoner's prison number you should write to them and ask, or ask when they phone you.

PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION FOR VISITS: When you visit a prisoner all visitors will need to have personal identification. The rules around acceptable identification have changed. Click Here for full information.

HELP WITH THE COST OF VISITING If you have limited financial means you may be able to get help with the cost of visiting from the Assisted Prison Visits Unit

TRAVEL AND ACCOMMODATION: To help you plan your journey by road or public transport we included a google map of each prison.

FEEDBACK If you visit a prison and have any suggestions or tips for other people visiting that prison you can leave these using the 'Comment' box at the bottom of each prison's listing.

Information is constantly changing and we do all we can to keep information up-to-date. If you do find any information which is incorrect or unclear please email [email protected] . This is especially important for visiting times and transport information.

Visiting somebody in prison is not particularly easy to organise when there are so many varying rules and individual requirements for each establishment. For families and friends visiting prisoners it will already be a stressful and emotional time and avoiding the many pitfalls can help.

There are general rules that apply to visiting most prisons but there are also many local variations and peculiarities. The aim of this service is to provide the details needed to make any visit go as smoothly as possible.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

Many prisons are now resuming Social Visits. Please check with the prison.

During this time prisons are making other arrangements for family contact; for instance putting extra credit onto PIN phones, reducing phone costs or swapping visits for phone credit. Each prison is tackling the problem in the way they think best. During this time you can still write letters or use the Email a Prisoner service.

More information about prisons can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-and-prison s

If you don't have an Email a Prisoner account you can get more information at: https://www.emailaprisoner.com/

You can send money to prisoners electronically via a government website at: https://www.gov.uk/send-prisoner-money

Many prisons are keeping everyone up-to-date via their Twitter account. A list of which can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/t9ovumd

You can also follow the Inside Time Twitter account at: https://twitter.com/InsideTimeUK

Northern Ireland All prisons in Northern Ireland are allowing virtual visits. A virtual visit, lasting up to 20 minutes, can be booked by a family member using a personal computer, ipad or smart phone, and through a secure video-link prisoners and their families are able to see and speak with each other. The prisoner will have been given a booking reference which they will pass on to you before you book the visit by telephoning the prison Visits Booking Office. If you have a reference number and would like to book a virtual visit call:

• Maghaberry Prison                         028 9261 4029
• Magilligan Prison                            028 7772 0449
• Hydebank Wood College                028 9049 4333

The Visiting a Prison gives general guidance but not all prisons operate in the same way. Using the Prison search facility full details of the visiting arrangements each establishment can be found including visit times. Click Here for information about what ID you will require.

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Book a visit to prison

You will need to book a visit if you want to see someone in prison. You can book online to arrange an in person visit or a virtual visit with a prisoner or you can telephone the prison Visits Booking Office.

If you haven't visited a prison before you will need to phone to book your visit. You will be provided with your unique visitor identification number. Once  you have this you can start to book online.

Booking online

To book online for an in person visit or a virtual visit you will need:  

• to have previously booked a visit
• the visit reference number for the prisoner
• the prisoner's number
• your unique visitor identification number
• your date of birth
• your e-mail address and contact number
• the unique visitor identification number and dates of birth for all additional visitors (not needed for a virtual visit)

If you do not have these details, you should phone the relevant booking office.

Booking by telephone

To book a visit by telephone you will need:

• the visit reference number for the prisoner 
• the unique visitor identification number and dates of birth for all additional visitors

If you don't have a unique visitor identification number, you can get one from the booking office which you can use for future visits.

If the person you are visiting has just arrived in prison you will need to ring the booking office and they can arrange a visit.

Virtual visits

A virtual visit can last up to 20 minutes. The visitor can use a personal computer, mobile device or smartphone to have this meeting with the prisoner.

All virtual visits are supervised, if NIPS become aware of any behaviour, language or actions which are considered inappropriate, this will result in the visit ending early and possible removal of the facility in the future.

• Guide to arranging an online visit
• Privacy notice  explaining your rights to privacy when you arrange an online visit

Registering for visits

All visitors need to be registered in the prison they are visiting. When you arrive at Visits Reception you need to be photographed, have a scan taken of your finger and you should bring identification.

• more information about registering for visits

Bringing proof of identification to prison

When you first visit someone in prison, you will need to be registered on the prison system as a visitor. You will need to bring proof of identification with you when you are being registered.

• more information about the types of identification needed

Useful links

• Visiting someone in prison

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Online Prison Visits Booking System

This free online prison visits request system for England and Wales runs along side the prison's own systems and will provide a quicker and easier way of booking visits in the future.

It can be used for public sector male, female and young offender establishments at category B and below (not the private or high security estate). Friends, families and others wishing to make a booking will need to fill in a number of details about the prisoner including their prisoner number, which they can obtain from the prisoner and the dates of birth of each of the visitors.

Applicants will get an email within 3 days confirming their visit time and date.

See gov.uk's prison visits page below for more information.

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Brittney Griner, in new memoir, says Putin weaponized her Blackness

WNBA star and Olympian Brittney Griner writes that she felt she was being used as a “pawn” by Russian President Vladimir Putin when she was arrested and imprisoned just weeks before he invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The Phoenix Mercury star’s memoir “Coming Home,” which debuted Tuesday at No. 1 on Amazon’s best-sellers list, lays out in detail the events leading up to her arrest, the challenges of her nearly 10-month detainment in some of Russia’s most notorious penal colonies, the agony of waiting to be released — and so much more, all in 300 pages. In one section, she describes the experience of being a Black gay woman in a Russian prison under Putin. 

“Black lives matter,” Griner wrote. “We hear that in the streets, but what is a Black life really worth? Judging by our history, it seems not much, and even less if you’re gay. For Putin, my worth was as a pawn. My arrest gave him leverage in his clash with the West. He was well aware of America’s long history of racial tensions, and he knew how to use that to his benefit.”

In February 2022, Griner traveled to Russia to play her eighth season in the country’s women’s basketball league. She was arrested after two vials of cannabis oil, totaling less than a gram, were found in her luggage at the airport in Moscow. She pleaded guilty to drug charges and was sentenced to nine years in prison. 

Griner wrote that she was distressed about having disappointed her closely knit family and Black people in general. 

When the news of her arrest broke, Griner wrote: “I cried because I’d let down my father. The Griner name was now stained around the globe: dopehead, drug dealer, dumb. I hurt because I knew I’d handed the world a weapon. When you’re Black, your behavior is never just about you. It’s about your entire community.” 

Though she said she wears her Blackness with pride, Griner said she felt as though her actions “shamed my people.”

“Blackness doesn’t make you less, but it does frame your life,” she wrote. “When you walk into a room, so does race. Frankly, it shows up before you do. It colors every conversation, shapes how you’re viewed, determines whether you’re even heard. From the day you get here, Blackness hangs over everything, from comments about your hair (‘Can I touch it?’) to mentions that certain Black people are ‘smart’ (’cause it’s assumed we’re idiots). The message comes through loud and clear: You’re not one of us, you’re less.”

It was so bad that Griner said she contemplated suicide in the early days of incarceration. She wrote that she’d spend her nights “listing ways I could end my misery.” She thought better of it. And after many sleepless nights, she stopped caring about the freezing temperatures, that her long legs dangled off the mattress and that the bed springs poked into her body. “I was a legit zombie,” she said.  

By the time Griner was allowed to shower there, she was shocked at the repulsive conditions, but knew she had to get in the water. 

“In the WNBA, my teammates and I joked about the prison showers — a big space with spouts spread around. This was the real thing,” she wrote. “It was nasty, exposed pipes on every wall. Long hair strands all over the tile floor and gathered in the drains. A bloody tampon was tucked between two pipes. As much as I was disgusted by the scene, I was just as repulsed by my stench.”

Correctional Colony No. 1, also known as IK-1, is a former orphanage converted into a prison about 50 miles from Moscow, which would take about two hours to drive in Russia’s notorious traffic. Griner had spent the time being transported there handcuffed, with her 6-foot-9 frame folded in the back of a vehicle not equipped for someone her height. She was also deeply afraid, not knowing what to expect, but knowing that where she was headed was no place anyone would want to be.

When there, she received myriad instructions before making it to the shower. 

“I undressed and found the cleanest part of the floor,” she wrote. “I turned the faucet on, and rusty brown water came spouting out.”

Once she got over the color, “hot water felt so good on my skin. I closed my eyes tight, trying to forget where I was. I thought of Relle [her wife] and home and all I had left behind. Down the water slid from my dreads onto the floor splashing away the hell I endured. I stayed in there a good 30 minutes until I banged on the door for the guard to let me out. That was the nastiest shower I’d ever taken. It was also the best.”

She wrote about her increased fear when transferred to an even more notorious labor camp, Correctional Colony No. 2 or IK-2, 300 miles east of Moscow. It was known for “horrid conditions, hard labor and inmate torture,” Griner wrote. And temperatures that dipped to 5 below zero. 

“When I entered IK-2, I flipped a switch in my head. I was an inmate now , I told myself.”

She worked all day, making military uniforms, shoveling snow, breaking up ice. 

At IK-2, “I had been frozen, sick, got my hair chopped off. The girl I was lay on a heap of dreads on a concrete floor. … At a labor camp in Russia in the dead of winter, I learned how tough I was.”

Tough, but battered. The experience left her with bouts of “depression, with long stretches of silence and heartache.” One thing that helped her push through the depression and realities of incarceration, she said, were the uplifting letters from family and friends, as well as the mail she received from strangers. Now that she’s returned to the U.S., she’s back to playing for the Mercury. She’s also seeing a therapist. 

The Biden administration negotiated a trade for her release in December 2022 : Griner would be released in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death.” Before freedom, she experienced one last humiliation: Russian guards ordering her to strip naked as they took photos. 

“I didn’t cover my privates, nor did I cower or tremble,” she wrote. “I sense they expected me to fall apart. ... I stood tall. . . I felt like weeping, but I had no tears left.” 

She wrote that she keeps one remaining vow: “I will not rest until Paul Whelan is released,” she said of the former Marine who has been detained in Russia since 2018 on accusations of spying. The U.S. denies the charges.

For more from NBC BLK,  sign up for our weekly newsletter .

Curtis Bunn is an Atlanta-based journalist for NBC BLK who writes about race.

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• Crime, justice and law
• Prisons and probation

Elmley Prison

Elmley is one of 3 prisons for men that form the Sheppey Cluster in Kent, the other two being HMP Standford Hill and HMP Swaleside.

Help us to improve this page. Give us your feedback in this 2-minute survey .

Book and plan your visit to Elmley

To visit someone in Elmley you must:

• be on that person’s visitor list
• book your visit in advance
• have the required ID with you when you go

At least one visitor must be 18 or older at every visit.

Prisoners on remand can have a visit every day, if there’s space. Once sentenced, visitors need a visiting order (VO) and will get 2 every 14 days. Prisoners with enhanced privileges will get 2 extra visits a month.

Contact Elmley if you have any questions about visiting.

Help with the cost of your visit

If you get certain benefits or have an NHS health certificate, you might be able to get help with the costs of your visit , including:

• travel to Elmley
• somewhere to stay overnight

How to book family and friends visits

You can book your visit online , by telephone or by email to [email protected] .

Telephone booking line: 03000 606 605 Available Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm Find out about call charges

For visits enquiries you can call, 01795 802195

Visiting times:

• Monday to Sunday: 2pm to 3:30pm

You can book in at the visitor office up to half an hour before your visiting time slot. The office is open 10am to 4pm.

How to book legal and professional visits

Face-to-face legal visits can only be booked by email to, [email protected] .

Legal and professional visiting times:

• Monday to Friday: 9am to 11:30am

How to book video legal visits

You can book legal video visits by telephone, 01795 802 373

Legal video session times (hourly slots):

• Monday to Friday: 9am to 5pm

Getting to Elmley

Find Elmley on a map

When travelling to Elmley, avoid going via Elmley Nature Reserve.

If you are travelling via M2

• leave the motorway at junction five
• join the A249 towards Sheerness/Sheppey
• once over the Sheppey Crossing, follow signs towards Eastchurch and Leysdown
• at Eastchurch follow the local signs to HMP Elmley

The closest railway station is Sheerness. From there you can get a taxi or take the bus,

To plan your journey by public transport use:

• National Rail Enquiries
• Traveline for local bus times

There is a free visitors car park.

Entering Elmley

All visitors, aged 16 or older must prove their identity before entering Elmley Read the list of acceptable forms of ID when visiting a prison .

• all visitors will need to be given a pat-down search, including children
• you may also be sniffed by security dogs
• visitors must adhere to the prison dress code that applies, further details can be requested on your first visit
• there are strict controls on what you can take into Elmley. You will have to leave most of the things you have with you in a locker in the visitors’ centre or in your car
• call the booking line or 01795 802195 if you have any questions about visiting

Visiting facilities

The visitors centre is open from 11am to 4:30pm on weekdays and from 7:30am to 4:30pm on weekends.

There is an unsupervised children’s play area, a snack bar and disabled access to the prison.

Family days

Elmley run 12 family visits a year. Details on how these visits run can be found in the visitor centre or by asking in staff in the visits hall.

Keep in touch with someone at Elmley

There are several ways you can keep in touch with someone during their time at Elmley.

Secure video calls

To have a secure video call with someone in this prison you need to:

• Download the Prison Video app
• Create an account
• Register all visitors
• Add the prisoner to your contact list.

How to book a secure video call

Secure video calls at this prison can be requested by prisoners only.

You will receive a notification if a prisoner has requested a video call with you.

Read more about how it works

Phone calls

Prisoners have phones in their cells but can only make outgoing calls so they will always have to call you. They have to buy phone credits to do this. They can be used between 6am and 10:30pm.

They can phone anyone named on their list of friends and family. This list is checked by security when they first arrive so it may take a few days before they are able to call.

You can also exchange voicemails using the Prison Voicemail service .

Officers may listen to phone calls as a way of preventing crime and helping keep people safe.

You can send emails to someone in Elmley using the Email a Prisoner service .

You might also be able to attach photos and receive replies, depending on the rules at Elmley.

You can write at any time.

Include the person’s name and prisoner number on the envelope.

If you do not know their prisoner number, contact Elmley .

All post, apart from legal letters, will be opened and checked by officers.

Send money and gifts

You can use the free and fast online service to send money to someone in prison .

You can no longer send money by bank transfer, cheque, postal order or send cash by post.

If you cannot use the online service, you may be able to apply for an exemption - for example if you:

• are unable to use a computer, a smart phone or the internet
• do not have a debit card

This will allow you to send money by post.

Gifts and parcels

Books are the only items that can be sent into prison. Make sure to include the person’s name and prisoner number on the parcel. All parcels will be opened and checked by officers.

Friends and families of prisoners are permitted to send books directly to their loved ones, or can order books from approved retailers, which can source and send the books on to prisoners.

For the full list of approved retailers, you can read the HMPPS Incentives Policy, Annex F .

Contact Elmley for more information on what’s allowed.

Life at Elmley

Elmley is committed to providing a safe and educational environment where prisoners can learn new skills to help them on release.

Security and safeguarding

Every person at Elmley has a right to feel safe. The staff are responsible for their safeguarding and welfare at all times.

For further information about what to do when you are worried or concerned about someone in prison visit the Prisoners’ Families helpline website .

Arrival and first night

When someone first arrives at Elmley, they will be able to contact a family member by phone. This could be quite late in the evening, depending on the time they arrive.

They will get to speak to someone who will check how they’re feeling and ask about any immediate health and wellbeing needs.

Each prisoner who arrives at Elmley gets an induction that lasts about a week.

They will be issued with bedding, toiletries and an early days’ welfare pack.

They will also meet professionals who will help them with:

• health and wellbeing, including mental and sexual health
• any substance misuse issues, including drugs and alcohol
• personal development in custody and on release, including skills, education and training
• other support (sometimes called ‘interventions’), such as managing difficult emotions

Everyone also finds out about the rules, fire safety, and how things like calls and visits work.

Accommodation

There are 6 units that hold about 1,150 prisoners.

There are units for vulnerable prisoners, foreign nationals, first night prisoners, drug and alcohol rehabilitation and mixed units.

Education and work

At Elmley, all prisoners must work towards Level 2 English and maths. There are classroom assistants to help with learning.

Alongside this, foreign nationals must try to improve their English. There is ICT, City and Guilds construction certificates, Equality and Diversity qualifications and other industry-based learning.

‘In House Records’ is the first HM Prison record label to encourage prisoners to learn how to play, create, mix and manage music.

First-aid, diet, nutrition and personal training courses are offered in the gym. Prisoners can also train to be a ‘mentor’ so they can take on key peer worker roles. One of the units runs a community art project.

A careers advisor helps with application letters and CVs. Every 3 months, a selection of employers come to the prison to offer job vacancies, apprenticeships and training opportunities to prisoners that are almost ready for release.

Once accredited, the courses in forklift truck driving, streetworks and traffic management guarantee an interview through the Mainstream group .

Daily employment is available in gardening, environmental services, recycling, cleaning, laundry and kitchen work.

Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT) workers offer a wide range of courses to encourage prisoners to make a fresh start, such as victim awareness and empathy, violence reduction, managing worry, understanding triggers for re-offending, mindfulness, communication and financial skills and parenting.

Temporary release

Elmley does not offer release on temporary licence (ROTL) at the moment.

Organisations Elmley works with

Elmley works with The Forward Trust which offers many courses on health, well-being and motivation, as well as drug and alcohol treatment programmes.

There are relationship and ‘thinking’ programmes on offer to prisoners too, as well as help with resettlement issues like accommodation, banking, citizen ID cards, birth certificates and employment from Seetec .

Elmley also works with the charity Spurgeons which helps with family visiting days.

Support for family and friends

Family services at Elmley are provided by PACT.

To contact our head of family provision the Head of Reducing Reoffending at Elmley: [email protected] .

Support at Elmley

Visitor centre staff offer friendly advice and support to all families and can refer them on to other agencies, such as domestic abuse or debt management services.

They also help with applications for family proceedings and have access to Relate, who offer free parental counselling for a prisoner due for release, if he and his partner have children of school age.

Concerns, problems and complaints

In an emergency.

Call 01795 802000 if you think a prisoner is at immediate risk of harm. Ask for the Orderly Officer and explain that your concern is an emergency.

Problems and complaints

If you have a problem contact Elmley .

Inspection reports

HM Prison and Probation Service publishes action plans for Elmley in response to independent inspections.

Contact Elmley

Governor: Andy Davy

Telephone (24 hours): 01795 802 000 Fax: 01795 802 001 Find out about call charges

Email: [email protected]

HMP/YOI Elmley Church Road Eastchurch Sheerness Kent ME12 4DZ

Updated legal/professional and legal video visits information.

Secure video calls update - new phone provider.

Updated Governor

Updated visiting guidance based on 1 April COVID rule changes

Added link to new safer custody information under Security and safeguarding.

Updated visiting information: Reduced visit schedule and testing for visitors aged 12 and over.

Updated visiting information: Testing for visitors aged 12 and over.

Added link to information about testing for physical contact at visits.

New visiting times and booking information added.

Prison moved into National Stage 3 framework and is now preparing to open visits for family, friends and significant others. We will update this page with specific visiting information as soon as possible.

Updated visit info

Updated visiting information in line with new local restriction tiers.

Updated visiting information in line with new national restrictions in England.

Updated visiting information in line with coronavirus restrictions.

Added confirmation of secure video calls being made available at this prison.

Updated safer custody hotline details

added survey link

First published.

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