Long-term Prisoners/Convicts and the Use of Social Support

The purpose of this paper was to review prisoners ’use of social supports from literature and data collected by interviewing the prisoners in Tamil Nadu Prisons in order to determine what facilitates and frustrates prisoners ’access to social supports. This review examined both informal (family and friends outside of prison, other prisoners) and formal sources of support (professional support services, peer support prisoners, prison officers). These sources of support are discussed from a system perspective (the prison) and an individual perspective (prisoners). The conclusion that was drawn from this study is amongst the difficulties the prisoners are benefited from the social support. So further research is conducted to understand how prisoners perceive and evaluate social support so that services can be directed to meet/fulfil the needs of the prisoners.