Meet us at the prison gates

Our community coaches love being able to meet participants at the prison gates on their day of release, to support them on their first day in the community. Tony takes us through a typical ‘gate meet’.

It is 11:00am and we have been waiting two hours in the morning sun for HMP Wandsworth to release our participant. There are phone calls to prison reception, probation, and the Offender Management Unit (OMU) to find out where he is, and whether this release is going to happen.

A gate meet is simple: it is when Standout coaches attend the release of one of our participants from prison. The whole idea is to offer someone who would have no one waiting for them on release, to have someone there - someone to support them.

So why are gate meets so important? The answer is based in the reality of those getting out of prison, which is far from the liberating event that is so often a feature of crime dramas. Of course, we have all watched a scene on TV when someone walks out of a huge gate to a beautiful view that they then walk into to reclaim their life. The reality is, however, quite different. 

Many individuals released from prison are immediately faced with the issues that bought them to prison in the first place. Whether substance misuse, homelessness, mental health, exploitation, or family problems, these challenges are waiting at the gate to meet them. The period immediately after release is a high-risk time for people leaving prison, and so, it is important for us to get things right. But what does “getting it right,” mean?

It means taking full advantage of this important window to offer immediate support on release. That support might include travelling with the participant to their probation meeting, putting them in touch with substance misuse workers, or arranging emergency accommodation if they have been released homeless. Sometimes, coaches will also bring with them to the gate a ‘release pack’ of essentials such as clothing, toiletries, and a phone.

Almost seven hours after the planned release time, we are still waiting for our participant. At this point, one of us has even drawn keys and spoken to him at his cell. He seems to have retained the upbeat and relaxed attitude that left me several hours ago. Now every time the gate opens, we look in the reception area in the hope of seeing our participant, but time after time the gate closes and we are still waiting. The extent of how frustrating this process can be is really apparent.

Then, as the gate opens to let out a van that is carrying men back from court, suddenly, we are face to face with our participant. The smile on his face instantly dissolves the hours of waiting into an incidental memory. As we all walk away from the prison, talk is positive, and we are ringing his probation to replace his meeting in person with a FaceTime. After we buy him a coffee, we help him set up a meeting with his substance misuse worker.

Our real problem, though, is accommodation. Our solution is to travel with him to Croydon, where he wishes to settle. On the way, we look for a hotel to put him up in over the weekend. After tubes and trains, we arrive in Croydon, and we buy him his first meal out of prison. We help him settle into the hotel we have booked for his first few nights out of prison and set up our follow-up meeting - it is time to wish him all the best.

As we walk back to the station to go home, we do so in the knowledge our participant has had someone to meet him, and this has made him feel important - because he is. He is somewhere safe, rather than in a shop doorway in the city, and so for now he doesn’t have to come face-to-face with all the negatives that a life sleeping on the streets would bring.

Being realistic, a gate meet cannot fix everything, but that was not the point. Today was a successful day; and, as I think our process here at Standout is fought one day at a time, I know that everyone won today.