THE QUAKER SERVICE CALLS ON JUSTICE MINISTER TO ENSURE PRISONERS ARE EMPOWERED

Her call comes after Prime Minister David Cameron announced major prison reform in the Queen’s Speech and Ms Sugden, an independent unionist, was appointed as new Northern Ireland Justice Minister.

Ms McKnight, who is the guest editor of VIEW magazine ‘Prisons and Justice’ edition, said: “We are working not so much to turn lives around but to empower people to turn them around for themselves.  What would our justice sector look like if those values pervaded it?

The Quaker Service was “reaching out and supporting those who are the most forgotten, unpopular or sometimes viewed as “undeserved” and was “looking to the future by asking how we can innovate and grow, how we can continue to reach to the margin and keep making love visible in practical action,” she said.

The Quaker Service began providing practical support to families visiting internees at the Maze Prison more than 40 years ago and this support grew into the first family prison visitors’ centre in the UK.

“By delivering practical, social and emotional support services that value and empower people just where they are, we play our part in reducing violence, suffering and disadvantage” she said in VIEW magazine. 

The Quakers maintained the visitors' centre at Maghaberry for 26 years. They were praised by successive prison inspectors.

Quakers provided services to the families of prisoners during Northern Ireland's Troubles including the period covering the republican hunger strikes and prison protests.

A private company took over the running of the visitor and family facilities at Maghaberry late last year.

Nick Hardwick, the former Chief Inspector of Prisons in England and Wales, described Maghaberry Prison in 2015 as the "most dangerous prison" he had ever been in during his time as a chief inspector.

Print copies of VIEW magazine will be available at a public launch of this edition at Friends Meeting House, Frederick Street, Belfast on Tuesday June 14 from 1pm to 2pm.