what happens to prisoners after they are released
Every day behind bars is 1 day closer to when a prisoner hopes they may exist released from jail.
For some the thought of that moment they walk through the gates to become a free person once again, is the just thing that keeps them going.
But how, after years of being mostly confined to the four walls of a jail cell, does a prisoner begin to even commencement once again and reintegrate with society?
We spoke to one former prisoner who spent nearly 11 years backside bars at HMP Styal about the harsh reality of being released from prison.
She was handed a 20-year sentence for a conviction she is still fighting to this day and asked not to exist named to protect her family unit'south privacy.
*For this article her name has been changed to Emerge Lundon to protect her identity*
On the day she was to exist released she said she was "up and set" at 6am - to beat the queue of other prisoners who were besides leaving.
She said: "Yous say your goodbyes the night earlier because the morn of you lot just want to get up and go.
"There are usually a few people going on the same day so you don't want to be at the back of the queue."
Prisoners are then taken to reception where they will get through a discharge procedure, which includes having the items confiscated from them on arrival - returned.
She said: "When you arrive at prison you become a property menu and then that when you exit they can check yous have all your ain belongings.
"I wasn't strip searched, I was patted down and so a senior officeholder reads you your licence conditions which you then have to sign.
"And then you lot walk out the gates and for a lot of prisoners no-one is at that place and you have no-where to go."
Sally said she was lucky that on her release from prison she was able to stay with her daughter.
However she said for many the reality of being dorsum on the outside is a "big disappointment".
She added: "I did a long time but I was lucky because I had family and when I came out I stayed with my daughter.
"But really it is quite hard to come out of prison house and that is why a lot of people re-offend.
"If yous come out and you take nowhere to live, that means you don't have an address, so and then you can't get a depository financial institution account and you won't have whatever credit records, so you can't rent because a landlord won't accept yous.
"It is a vicious bike really.
"I had chance to sort myself out - I was one of the lucky ones.
"But if y'all don't accept that back up, you are basically on a one way street dorsum to prison, because at least there you had a roof over your head."
Emerge said the first solar day on the outside is "a serial of appointments" to accommodate benefits and to run into a probation officer.
Prisoners are given £46 prison discharge which is supposed to concluding until their benefits are paid.
Sally said: "If you are a long timer yous are commonly sent out to a hostel and given three months stay there.
"However if y'all are non, merely y'all are in longer than three months, even one day over, you lose your benefits and give up your tennancy.
"If you are in three months or less your benefits will pay your rent while you are away.
"But one day over and you potentially lose everything.
"Because there is nowhere for all your possessions to be stored, so you are coming out basically with nothing and having to start all over over again."
Sally said some of the women she met in prison linked up with agencies on the outside, who came in to prison to visit, or church organisations, who helped them find accomodation.
Still she said for a lot of prisoners the harsh reality is they will potentially end up homeless.
She said: "Probation tin can only help with so much, it is pretty much up to yourself to find a place to live.
"If you don't have anywhere to go and y'all are homeless you tin can become to a hostel, even so there used to exist such a thing as being 'intentionally homeless' which is what you were classed as if you had been in prison, and then they didn't have to give y'all somewhere to stay
"I don't know if that is the instance anymore.
"But there are issues with staying in a hostel anyhow, considering you may have been a drug user before going into prison and while in prison you lot became clean.
"And and so yous come up out and are sent to a hostel around drug users once again - which is difficult."
Sally said when she was behind confined getting out of prison was "all everyone talks nigh".
She said: "You count downward the days until you are free and until you tin can run across your family unit once more.
"Simply then in some cases there is this big disappointment, yous are gratuitous, but it is just non what they idea it would exist.
"Many people walk out the gates and in that location is no-one there and yous have nowhere to go.
"There isn't a taxi waiting to pick you upward, you are given a travel warrant to get the railroad train or bus."
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Emerge said another huge shock later on a stretch within is how much the earth on the exterior has inverse.
She added: "The biggest change I institute was technology.
"When I went into prison house in that location were no Iphones, information technology is like coming out to a totally new earth.
"You are not used to the traffic, you are not used to crowds, y'all are coming out and starting again.
"You lot feel similar a kid again learning new things.
"Some girls in there are doing 20 years and will come up out and be similar 'a contactless card - what is that?' It is just mad."
Sally said while she does think the belch process from prison is improving, she believes more should be done to help those reintegrating back into guild.
She added: "The bottom line is without support y'all are non going to be able to exercise it.
"There needs to be more than duty of care and the procedure of coming out of prison needs to be seamless.
"There never used to be anything in place and so it is improving but I still don't remember information technology is perfect.
"Yous nearly need to be paw held through the gates.
"If you don't take that support coming out of prison, it will only experience like a punishment later a punishment."
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "Everyone leaving prison house should accept a condom and suitable home to go to on release, our reforms to probation are designed to encourage long-term rehabilitation and ultimately reduce offending.
"We're improving support for offenders leaving prison with a £22 meg investment in through-the-gate services which will help strengthen ties with key partners, including the third sector, local government and the police.
"At the same time nosotros are investing £6m as part of the Regime's Rough Sleeping Strategy in pilot schemes bringing together prisons, local authorities, probation providers and others to plan, secure and sustain accommodation for offenders on their release."
Source: https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/what-happens-youre-released-prison-15573321
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