The care and support provided by the Prison Advice and Care Trust has been praised in a new report from the Prison Reform Trust.

PACT was formed in 2001 from a merger of the Catholic organisation Bourne Trust with the Prisoners' Wives and Families Society, and maintains strong links with Catholic churches and parishes across the UK.

The organisation's specialised First Night in Custody scheme was launched at Holloway Prison in 2000 and was so successful that it was later rolled out to prisons in Exeter and Wandsworth.

Suicide risk is greatest in the first 72 hours and PACT workers provide reassurance, emotional support and a listening ear to new inmates on their first night to help them overcome feelings of anxiety and distress.

The Prison Reform Trust's 'There when you need them most' report found that of the 91 prisoners interviewed across six prisons, those who had benefited from PACT's First Night in Custody services "tended to experience fewer difficulties and less frustration in making contact with family than those in the comparison prisons".

PACT Director, Andy Keen-Downs, said, "This report offers us real cause for hope. It provides independent evidence that a human, family-focused approach to the treatment of prisoners on their first night in custody can make all the difference to reducing the risk of prisoner suicide.

"I hope that more prisons will be encouraged to work in partnership with the voluntary sector to develop similar schemes, and that the government will provide the necessary funding and support to make this sustainable."