Men in five Serco-run prisons can now text a 24/7 mental health service from their cells and receive replies from trained volunteers.
The Shout service began as a trial at HMP Thameside in 2023. It has since expanded to Dovegate, Doncaster, Fosse Way and Ashfield. Thousands of conversations have taken place so far.
Prisoners send their messages anonymously, using secure in-cell electronic devices that the prisons provide. Volunteers at Mental Health Innovations, the charity behind Shout, reply to them. The service also operates in the community, but messages from prisons carry a flag so that volunteers can tailor their advice.
According to Serco, volunteers use real-time conversations to calm crises, help with emotional regulation and build safety plans. They also guide people towards further support. Where a conversation reveals imminent risk, the Shout team works directly with prison staff to keep the person safe.
A safeguarding team and a clinical team oversee and support the volunteers. The clinical team includes qualified counsellors, therapists and mental health professionals.
What prisoners raise
In the past four months alone, prisoners and volunteers held around 1,300 text conversations.
A survey of prisoners who had used Shout found that a third of conversations involved stress or worry. Low mood or sadness featured in 27 per cent, while 18 per cent included disclosures of suicidal thoughts.
Specific issues included fear of a ‘grass’ label, physical health worries and strained relationships. Some people also raised anxiety about an upcoming release.
Two-thirds of users, 67 per cent, found their conversation helpful, and 41 per cent felt calmer afterwards. A further 31 per cent felt better able to work through their problems.
One user said: “I use it rather than burdening my family, especially if they don’t understand about court or prison.”
Reaching younger prisoners
Hayley Peek, Integrated Services Director at Serco, led the 2023 pilot with Mental Health Innovations. She said many prisons offer listening schemes and in-person support from groups such as the Samaritans. Even so, her team saw a gap.
That gap, she said, lay in reaching people who may prefer to open up by text rather than face to face or by phone. She said this applied particularly to those under 35.
She described the aim of the project: “Our goal was simple yet ambitious: to offer people in prison a lifeline in a format they trust and can access safely.”
Ms Peek added that the experiences of users had shaped the service. “Prisoners told us that the privacy of texting felt safer than talking, especially in shared cells,” she said.
The need is significant. In a 2025 report, HM Inspectorate of Prisons recorded that 56 per cent of prisoners reported a mental health problem. Suicide is four times as likely among men in prison as among men in the community.
