What Were the Processes and Outcomes of Offering Shared Reading as an Intervention for Veterans in Prison?

The charity Reading Force encourages Forces families to read together in order to build social, emotional, and mental well-being and offset the impact of the changes and separations routine in military life. They distribute reading scrapbooks and free books and encourage families to work on them together. It was suggested that a version of the project might usefully be developed for veterans in prison, whose families experience many of the same issues. Scrapbook Dads was developed for veterans housed in the Endeavour Wing at Parc Prison, South Wales. The materials were adapted for use by prisoners and their families. They had just been distributed when the pandemic struck, visiting and social/educational activities were cancelled, and the prison went into lockdown. With the materials readily available, the project was heavily used by prison staff to seek to maintain prisoner morale and support family connectivity. This paper charts the process, comments on what was learned, and makes recommendations for how shared reading can be used in prisons in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]