RESTORE 50plus – supporting older people in prison and on release in the community

Footprints House

3 North Square

Dorchester, Dorset DT1 1HY

Email: stuartware @btinternet.com                                                               Phone: 0774 237 7744

Contact: Dr Stuart Ware                                                                 

INFORMATION FOR STATUTORY AND VOLUNTARY SECTOR AGENCIES

• Restore is a peer-mentoring and support network founded in 1996 by a group of older people serving sentences in Bedford, Lincoln and The Mount prisons

• It has since worked with over 350 older serving and former prisoners

• Restore is moving toward becoming a registered charity and membership body for all older people currently serving, or having served a prison sentence – regardless of their disability, race, faith or non-faith, sex, or sexual orientation

• Restore is non-judgmental regarding previous offences. The only conditions for those who wish to be involved with Restore are firstly, they will not re-offend and secondly, having left crime behind they will make a positive contribution to supporting their local communities

• Feedback from its over 60s membership reveals just under 80% are ex-service personnel and Restore is seeking to collaborate with veteran agencies

• Restore offers advice and information, and one-to-one befriending and mentoring for older people released from prison. It also works with service commissioners and providers to encourage the delivery of care and support services of older people who have committed offences. This includes NOMS (Prison and Probation), local Primary Care Trusts and Local Authorities, faith groups, Prison Reform Trust, Age UK and other VCS agencies. For example:

• Restore helped to establish Age Concern Older Offenders Project (ACOOP) in 2007 through a partnership agreement in four prisons in the SW (Channings Wood, Dartmoor, Shepton Mallet and LeyhilI) and piloted a Lifer pre-release mentoring programme in HMP Leyhill

• Restore has a partnership agreement with the Footprints project for a Through the Gate mentoring pilot for released older prisoners

• Stuart Ware is currently advising the DH older prisoners CAF pilot in HMP IOW on care and resettlement services and to obtain user perspectives. This includes monitoring the delivery of care and resettlement services of a cohort group returning to reside in the SE

• Stuart Ware is an ex-prisoner who co-founded Restore. He obtained his PhD from the University of Sheffield in 2007 (‘Theology of the Incarcerated: Views from the underside’). He is a consultant to the Dept of Health Older Prisoners Action Group on the development of ‘Pathway to Care for Older Offenders’. Stuart is a member of the British Society of Criminology. He is security cleared/vetted to work with older people in prison and community.

• His recent publications include co-authoring ‘Doing Time: the experiences of older people in prison’ (Prison Reform Trust, 2008) and ‘The Development of Care Services for Older People in Prison’ (Journal of Care Services Management, Vol.3 No.4, 2009)