Building Futures: Giving a voice to long-term prisoners

What does it really mean to serve 10, 15, or 20 years in prison? Too often, decisions about prison policy and conditions are made without hearing from the people who live with them every day.

Following the conclusion of the Prison Reform Trust’s Building Futures programme, we have released a new short film alongside our final evaluation report.

The film explores the human realities of long-term imprisonment and highlights why the insights of people serving long sentences must be central to driving system change. Alongside it, the final evaluation report provides a comprehensive review of the programme’s achievements in participatory research, policy engagement, and fostering hope, while examining the ongoing challenges facing long-term prisoners today.

To protect participant privacy, the accounts in the film are portrayed by actors who have themselves served long-term sentences, drawing on composite stories shared by Building Futures participants.