Supporting grief behind bars
Prison Fellowship has been working in partnership with AtaLoss to pilot The Bereavement Journey® in prisons across England — and the results are encouraging.
AtaLoss has published findings from the 2025 pilot, which was delivered across seven prisons in England and Scotland. In England, the programme was delivered in partnership with Prison Fellowship; in Scotland, with prison chaplaincy teams. The findings indicate that the programme can offer people in prison a safe and constructive way to process loss, potentially supporting relational stability, custodial progression and factors associated with desistance from crime.
Bereavement is a significant yet often hidden challenge in prisons. Those who enter custody are disproportionately likely to have experienced parental loss, traumatic bereavements and disrupted family networks — and many are bereaved again while serving their sentence, with limited privacy and separation from support. Without the chance to grieve constructively, unresolved loss can contribute to emotional distress and destructive behaviour.
The Bereavement Journey® addresses this gap. The seven-session programme of films and discussion groups gives participants the opportunity to explore their bereavement alongside others and begin to understand how it has shaped their lives. 94% of pilot participants reported coping with grief significantly or moderately better.
Stephen Hawkins, our Operations Manager, said:
“Our volunteers see every day the complex personal histories that many people in prison carry with them. The Bereavement Journey® offers a constructive way for people to address unresolved grief and begin to move forward. It is encouraging to see how well this model can work within the prison environment.”
Following these encouraging results, a further ten prisons will trial the programme this summer, with hopes to expand The Bereavement Journey® across prison estates in England, Wales and Scotland from Autumn 2026. We are proud to be part of that expansion.
