Barry Cambrensis Archbishop of Wales

One of the most difficult things we can humanly do is to stand alongside someone in different circumstances to ourselves.
Few of us can understand the isolation, loneliness and hopelessness of prison. And this not only affects those within the prison system but their families, their victims, and those who work there. Judges and police too, often work alone and the responsibilities of directly and justly deciding the future of another human being must weigh heavily on them. Christians rejoice that Jesus himself shares that same sense of imprisonment, and that he walks alongside all who live in loneliness. This Prisons Week is a chance to identify in prayer with those who need compassion and understanding, those whose lives have been broken through their own mistakes and the deeds of others. I commend this Week in a spirit of freedom, recalling always that Jesus came to proclaim liberty to the captive and freedom to those imprisoned.