North Eastern Prison Aftercare Society

Charity Details

Full Name: North Eastern Prison After Care Society
Field: Community Services
Founded: 1882
Headquarters: Durham, DH1 3HW
Charity No: 1088051

History and Activities

The North Eastern Prison Aftercare Society (NEPACS) aims to improve the lives of prisoners and their families and friends across the North East. The charity strives to combat the stigma associated with imprisonment, helping reduce the damage done to lives while decreasing reoffending.

The charity has a long history. It was established in 1882 as the Durham Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society led by the former Chaplin of Durham Prison, George Hans Hamilton. The society offered support to both men and women on leaving prison, a function taken over in the early twentieth century by the probation service. The focus now changed to supporting the families of prisoners, and when various local societies merged in 1962 NEPACS was formed.

The charity provides easily accessible information on prisoner visitations and runs family-friendly visitor centres in six North East prisons. These were used by 137,363 people in 2016/17. The Ministry of Justice states that prisoners are 39% less likely to re-offend if they have had visits throughout their prison sentence, highlighting the importance of the work done by NEPACS.

In recent years the charity has extended its work to lend support to the families and friends of people on trial at North East courts. It also makes small grants to prisoners and their families to help with accommodation, education and employment training. The charity relies on considerable part funding from donations, legacies and tea bar sales. It has a large number of volunteers who enable it to deliver such a range of socially necessary and valuable services. NEPACS' impressive and life-changing work led to its being named Uniquely North East charity of the year in 2015.

Vital Statistics (year to 31/03/2017)

Website
http://www.nepacs.co.uk/

References