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, 11 October – Saturday, 17 October 2026
This year’s campaign takes it’s inspiration from Matthew 22:1-14:
the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests
Matthew 22:1-14
The message at the heart of this parable of Jesus and of Prisons Week 2026 is beautifully captured by N.T. Wright:
“Jesus’ love reaches us wherever we are but refuses to leave us as we are.”
God’s desire is that all would respond to his invitation, both good and bad. Both good and bad require God’s clothes of righteousness. None is worthy.
God seeks us out despite our behaviour and calls us to be changed; to take off the old and to put on the new.
And so, we invite you to respond to God’s invitation, maybe for the first time, maybe with renewed insight.
Join us in prayer this Prisons Week, praying for those across the criminal justice system:
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.
*ESV CE used for this webpage – supplied resources use NIV
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.
