Prisons Week aims to encourage prayer and awareness of the needs of prisoners and their families, victims of offenders, prisons staff and all those who care.
Sunday 12 October – Saturday 18 October 2025
Prisons Week celebrates its 50th year by remembering once again that, no matter what your circumstances, or the place in which you stand, God’s word is not chained.
for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!
2 Timothy 2:9
*ESV CE used for this webpage – supplied resources use NIV
Many things in life can bind us, fear, anger, abuse, rejection or shame. And this is as true for those held in prison as those who are not. And unless that bondage is addressed the consequences of this can be very dark. Hopelessness and helplessness can overwhelm, destructive behaviour continues unchecked – an imprisonment of body and soul.
But we believe that God desires to break those chains and to set people free. To restore in them the image of God. And he does this through his Living Word, Jesus. As we celebrate this truth for Prisons Week 2025, we are delighted to offer the testimony to God’s power from a number of people who have worked in or been caught up in the justice system. Their experience of having chains broken by God’s grace is an encouragement not to give up. To know we are loved by God and restored to those who love us and the communities we live in. So, join us in prayer, give thanks for God’s grace and mercy and share God’s work of release in your own life.
Prisons Week was founded by Bishop Victor Guazzelli in 1975. Since then, the Prisons Week group has prepared resources to enable the Christian community to pray for the needs of all those affected by imprisonment.
For nearly fifty years now, Prisons Week has prepared prayer literature to enable the Christian community, through individuals and churches, to pray for the needs of all those affected by prisons: prisoners and their families, victims of crime and their communities, those working in the criminal justice system and the many people who are involved in caring for those affected by crime on the inside and outside of our prisons.
Prisons Week raises awareness and generates prayer. It motivates volunteers to step forward and give their time and gifts, in prisons and in their own communities. It provides an annual focus and reason for Christians to work together, building capacity and motivation to make a difference for people who are out of sight and often out of mind.
Prisons Sunday – the second Sunday in October – marks the beginning of the week of prayer each year, running through until the following Saturday.
Prisoners’ Sunday marks the first day of the ecumenical Prisons Week, a week of prayer which raises awareness of issues faced by those affected by the criminal justice system.
Each day of the week, a new prayer brings into focus a different group affected by prison or criminal justice.
