The Croft Visitor Centre

Full member

The Croft is a non-statutory, not for profit organisation - independent of the prison we work alongside (HMP Barlinnie). HMP Barlinnie is a national prison, the Croft supports people impacted from across Scotland - in the main the families we support come from Glasgow and the surrounding areas. We have been supporting people since 2012 and exist to achieve positive outcomes for prisoners’ families and friends (those impacted by the imprisonment of someone they care about) by fulfilling our three core functions: i. Improving the visits experience for people visiting their family member or loved ones in prison. ii. Allowing families to access independent and impartial advice, information, and support, which meets their needs. iii. Voicing the needs of families affected by imprisonment to the prison we work alongside - HMP Barlinnie. The service we provide is accessible to all family members and visitors to the prison. Many of the people that the Croft supports have never been in a prison environment before and are often in shock about their situation. People can be apprehensive about accessing support both due to stigma around having someone in prison and potentially having had previous poor experiences with agencies. The Croft staff work to build relationships with visitors to allow them to feel comfortable accessing support.