Buckley Hall prison - story-time fathers

Date published: 10 November 2006

There’s nothing strange about a father reading a bedtime story to his child – unless the father happens to be in prison. But that is what is happening at Buckley Hall prison in Rochdale through a voluntary scheme that helps prisoners to select a suitable book, record their reading of it and send the audio tape home. Prisoners who have participated have had very positive responses from their children. Some of them are asking to record another story in time for Christmas.

In September the two volunteers who run the project through the prison’s chaplaincy, Sybil and Marion, spoke at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Rochdale. They explained how they would like to enhance the project by having the story-time fathers read to their children on DVD instead of just on audio tape.

Rotary Club of Rochdale President Dean Sherriff said: "On 19 October the Club presented the prison with £500 to meet the cost of purchasing a DVD camcorder. We were very impressed with the contribution which the project makes to keeping families together at difficult times."