The Golden Thread: Building Family Bonds and Parenting Skills as a Means to Reduce Recidivism in European Prisons

<< Background >>Across the EU, where nearly half a million people are incarcerated, rehabilitation has become a key focus. International law emphasizes that imprisonment should support reintegration and reduce recidivism. While education and vocational training are vital, strong familial relationships also play a critical role in lowering reoffending rates.Families offer emotional and financial stability, moral guidance, and a supportive environment for reintegration. As highlighted in the Farmer Review, healthy relationships are “utterly indispensable” for rehabilitation. Families’ support represents an untapped resource that can significantly enhance reform efforts.Prisons must prioritize family ties as part of their rehabilitation strategy, as these connections benefit prisoners, their families, and society by breaking cycles of intergenerational offending.The Golden Thread project addresses this by offering a family learning and support program to maintain connections, develop parenting skills, and reshape negative interaction patterns. It provides a sustainable framework for familial growth, supporting reform and reintegration while preventing intergenerational offending behaviors.<< Objectives >>The Golden Thread project aimed to strengthen prisoners’ familial bonds and support their families, fostering care and mutual support. Combining Family Learning Workshops for inmates and Prisoners’ Families Support Groups for loved ones, the project provided a practical framework to leverage family connections for reintegration and reduced recidivism. Its overarching goal was to equip prisons and communities with tools to harness the positive impact of family relationships on rehabilitation.Key objectives included:[A] Developing a Family Learning Curriculum to equip prisoners with essential skills to build and sustain meaningful family relationships during incarceration. This holistic approach aimed to foster personal growth, confidence, and resilience among all family members, creating “hooks for change” to support reintegration.[B] Establishing Prisoners’ Families Support Groups to address the stigma, emotional strain, and financial challenges faced by families. These groups empowered families to share experiences and maintain or repair relationships with inmates, contributing to the rehabilitation process.[C] Creating the Prison Family Learning Guide, a replicable resource to implement family learning and support programs.<< Implementation >>The Golden Thread project involved a series of interconnected activities designed to strengthen familial bonds among prisoners and provide support for their families. These activities were implemented as follows:Research Activities:Project partners conducted comprehensive desk research to analyze existing family learning programs and prisoner family support structures within the penitentiary context. In total, 20 national, European, and international initiatives were identified and critically assessed. The review included an examination of these programs’ strengths and weaknesses in order to identify areas for possible improvement in the quality of the Golden Thread project’s future activities. Additionally, 351 questionnaires were distributed among male and female inmates (97 in Greek, 103 in Polish, 100 in Portuguese and 51 in Cypriot prison), and 60 in-depth interviews were conducted: 20 with former or current prisoners, 20 with prison professionals, and 20 with prisoners’ families (5 interviews with each group per partner country). This research provided valuable insights into the social, emotional, and parenting skills prisoners lack, as well as the impact of incarceration and distance parenting on their families. The conclusions of the analyses were presented in the form of a Research Report “Review on Missing Social, Emotional and Parenting Skills of Prisoners and the Impact of Incarceration and Distance Parenting on Their Families”.Development of Educational and Support Materials:A key focus of the project was the creation of educational resources to support prisoners and their families. Partners developed the Family Learning Curriculum, consisting of 10 practical modules (20 lessons) designed for male and female inmates to develop their socio-emotional skills aimed at their successful re-entry, building and maintaining romantic relationships and relationships with family members, as well as parenting skills. This curriculum was accompanied by a Students’ Handbook and supplementary teaching and learning materials to facilitate the Family Learning Workshops. Additionally, two foundational documents - The Methodological and Operational Framework and The Manual for Practitioners - were created to guide the establishment and conducting of the Family Support Groups.Educational Activities:Nine (9) Family Learning Workshops were held in penitentiary institutions across the partner countries: 3 in Cyprus, 2 in Greece, 2 in Poland, 2 in Portugal. These workshops enabled prisoners to acquire the skills and competencies necessary to build and maintain strong familial relationships, fostering deeper bonds with their loved ones.Training Activities:A joint staff training program was organized for prison educators, trainers and support groups’ facilitators. The training was held by the Theological School of the Church of Cyprus in Nicosia in November 2023. This training equipped professionals with the skills to implement the Family Learning Methodology, effectively delivering workshops and support groups for prisoners and their families.Prisoners’ Family Support Activities:Using the guidance provided by the Methodological and Operational Framework and the Manual for Practitioners, three (3) Family Support Groups were established: one in Greece, one in Portugal, one in Poland. These groups, facilitated by trained professionals, provided a safe and supportive environment for families to address challenges, strengthen relationships, and contribute to the prisoner’s rehabilitation and reintegration journey.Policy Recommendation Activities:The project culminated in the development of the Prison Family Learning Guide, a comprehensive resource designed to enable the replication and transfer of the project’s methodologies to other prison systems across Europe. This guide includes policy recommendations to institutionalize family learning and support methodologies within penitentiary systems, ensuring the sustainability of the project’s approach. All these materials were developed in English and translated to Polish, Portuguese and Greek. << Results >>The Golden Thread project successfully introduced a family learning and support program which included 4 key outputs and results freely available at the project website: https://golden-thread.eu/?page_id=43. [1] Review on Missing Social, Emotional and Parenting Skills of Prisoners and the Impact of Incarceration and Distance Parenting on their FamiliesThe Partnership conducted a thorough - desk, quantitative and qualitative - research in order to effectively and adequately address the needs of inmates as parents, partners and family members. [2] Development of the Family Learning CurriculumBased on the Review the Partnership developed a comprehensive Family Learning Curriculum to rebuild and sustain strong family relationships among male and female inmates. The Curriculum consists of 10 practical modules (20 lessons) aimed at helping prisoners maintain meaningful connections with their families during incarceration. Accompanying the curriculum are a Students’ Handbook for individual use by inmates, and supplementary Teaching and Learning Materials addressed for trainers. The curriculum was implemented through Family Learning Workshops, delivered in penitentiary institutions in four partner countries: Poland, Portugal, Greece, and Cyprus. Each country hosted two workshops (with the exception of Cyprus where three groups were conducted), reaching a total of 117 prisoners. Each workshop comprised ten or more (10) two-hour sessions, amounting to 20 hours or more per workshop. In Portugal, two workshops were conducted in Tires Prison. The first started with 13 participants, of which 7 concluded the workshop, and it had 22 sessions of 60 minutes each; the second started with 16 participants, of which 10 concluded the workshop, and it had 22 sessions of 90 minutes each. In total, 29 mothers in prison were involved in Portugal. In Poland the workshops were conducted in Lodz No. 1 Prison. These amounted to a total of 40 hours (2 groups x 20 hours) and involved a total 19 female prisoners, 18 of whom completed the program. In Cyprus, the workshops were held at Nicosia Prison, with a total of 35 participants (10 females and 25 males) completing the program. The lessons were held once weekly, in three groups, amounting to a total of 60 hours (3 groups x 20 hours). In Greece, the workshops were conducted in two correctional facilities: Malandrino Prison and Chania Prison. Initially, 34 male participants joined, with 29 completing the program. These two workshops amounted to 40 hours of training (2 groups x 20 hours). These workshops equipped participants with essential skills for building stronger familial bonds and fostering healthier relationships.[3] Development of the Prisoners’ Families Support Group MethodologyThe Prisoners’ Families Support Group Methodology was designed to help families maintain or repair relationships with incarcerated family members while also addressing their own emotional and social needs. The methodology included two key documents: The Methodological and Operational Framework and The Manual for Practitioners. Family Support Groups were established in three of the participating countries (exception being Cyprus where the number of workshop groups was raised from 2 to 3 instead). All partners found obstacles and challenges in organizing and implementing the support groups with family members affected by incarceration. In total 27 family members in all participating countries participated in the support groups: 10 in Greece, 7 in Portugal, 10 in Poland. [4] Creation of the Prison Family Learning GuideThe project’s flagship output, the Prison Family Learning Guide, provides a detailed and comprehensive strategy for replicating the program’s success in other prisons in the partner countries as well as across other penitentiary systems in Europe. This guide offers a step-by-step framework for implementing family learning and support programs, including methodology, action plans, and capacity-building activities. The guide represents an effort to institutionalize family learning and support practices as a permanent feature of the European penal system.