Members provide support to prisoners by writing letters, to which prisoners can reply, and visiting for regular face to face conversations in a private room.

 

Members form a 1:1 friendship with each prisoner, many of which last for years.​ Members may talk or write with prisoners about any topic* and this provides a trusted relationship where the prisoner may relax and share their feelings, hopes and frustrations. 

 

Members may at their discretion provide approved hand-in articles in line with CSD rules and sometimes pass on concerns or observations to the prison welfare officers.

 

Once the prisoner is released the relationship ends.​

 

PFA members are not counsellors, advisors or advocates. But their role in a prisoner’s life brings comfort, encouragement, connection to the outside world, and a sense that society still cares for them and wants them to thrive in the future.

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Soon after PFA was established, T.G Garner, Commissioner of the Correctional Services Department, affirmed this mission as follows:

​“To give a service of friendship to prisoners and their families by providing regular visits, correspondence and meeting legitimate needs. By this means our aim is to help the prisoners and their families to cope with the imprisonment and to work towards rehabilitation and adjustment to society afterwards, and thus to contribute to a reduction in crime.”

 

“Many prisoners with no relatives or friends require a great deal of help in settling down and facing up to the reality of their sentence. Through regular visits, they are not only kept in touch with happenings in the world outside, they are also given hope for the future for by your actions it shows that the community, or at least some persons within the community, do care what happens to them.”

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*PFA members operate under the supervision of the CSD and agree to abide by prison rules and by the laws of Hong Kong at all times.