Families with a member in prison are often vulnerable and isolated, while visiting a prison can be torturous. Prisoners in contact with their families are better able to cope with life behind bars, and less likely to re-offend having maintained reasons to want to be in the outside world. Children with access to their mother or father stay more engaged with their education. In turn, with over 83,000 prisoners in the UK, by improving visits for families a negative chain reaction will be broken, benefiting our whole society.

VisitingPrisons* was born when Social Innovation Camp brought together web developers with designers and entrepreneurs for one weekend. The aim was to find ways that easy-to-build web 2.0 tools could be used to develop solutions for social challenges. One of 8 projects, VisitingPrisons claimed second prize, impressing the judges with its simple, user-centred approach to tackling an often over-looked, yet important social challenge.Consisting of a rich group of developers, creatives, social entreprenuers, and a leading prison charity, PACT - the weekend resulted in the formation of a solid team with the necessary skills and support to tackle a real social issue at the heart of the UK community.

There is strong evidence that the facilitation of positive family ties and relationships has a beneficial effect on outcomes for accommodation and education, training and employment (ETE).

The Home Office survey in 2005 found that prisoners who had at least one visit from family or partners were twice as likely to have an employment, education or training place arranged on release and three times more likely to have accommodation arranged as those who did not have any visits.

It is accepted by government, academia and practitioners that accommodation and ETE outcomes have a direct bearing on re-offending rates. This means making prison visits easier will not only help prisoners return to their normal life after release and their families get over the difficult time, but also have positive impact to our society.

If just a few people with almost no prior knowledge of a problem, can be brought together for two days and still reveal just how possible it was to make a difference, who knows what could happen with a little push. VisitingPrisons* is a catalyst, by bringing fresh perspective to a neglected, but very important issue, just a small amount of focussed energy has the potential to initiate dramatic change. The basic pieces are in place; a team, a prototype and a big idea - now all it needs is a little push.