APPG Meeting on Re-Offending and Unresolved Grief Reveals Important Insights
Author: Deborah Auty
Date: 22nd May, 2026
Overview: The 20th May APPG meeting on Grief Support and the Impact of Death on Society revealed important insights on unsupported and unresolved grief relating to crime and re-offending.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Grief Support and the Impact of Death on Society held an important and informative meeting on 20th May in which parliamentarians, researchers and sector leaders explored the relationship between grief, prisons, and offending behaviour.
Psychologist and PhD Researcher Mandy Gosling presented on bereavement support as crime prevention, outlining how loss in childhood and adolescence can shape later life outcomes when support is absent, and highlighted how 91% of young men in custody have experienced bereavement, with 41% of them the death of a parent.
Dr Nina Vaswani of the University of Strathclyde, then outlined evidence showing that many people in custody experience multiple and traumatic losses before entering prison, while others are bereaved during their sentence, drawing attention to how in prison environments grief can become more complex, with insufficient support.
Drawing on research collected through Cruse, Dr Marion Wilson spoke about ‘grief overload’ for prisoners with four key themes: systemic disenfranchisement, demand for support outweighing resources, the importance of educating staff and how bereavement support provided a positive impact. She cited examples of offending also having occurred in the immediate aftermath of a death due to grief, and said that criminal justice systems have focused on offending behaviours, overlooking grief overload as needing a rehabilitative response. She noted how acknowledgment of traumatic grief and unresolved loss as part of prisoner rehabilitation may help reduce rates of recidivism.
Dr Dawn Hobson, on behalf of Revd Nicky Grey, AtaLoss’ Prison Ambassador and Chaplain at HMP Foston Hall, then shared findings from AtaLoss’ new The Bereavement Journey® pilot in seven prisons, - a resource providing holistic, scalable peer group support which focuses on past as well as current losses. Early findings show the resource, which aligns with recognised desistance-support mechanisms, offers prisoners a safe and constructive way to process loss within the chaplaincy context, and indicates that "alongside other programmes, The Bereavement Journey® could support relational stability, custodial progression, and desistance from crime.”
Together, the presentations underscored the complexities of grief experienced before and within prison settings, where loss is often compounded by trauma, isolation, shame and separation from family and support networks. Speakers called for:
Loss and bereavement awareness training for prison staff and for people in prison;
Bereavement screening and bereavement supports to be made available in the community and in prison;
The establishment of a rehabilitative mandate that elevates bereavement support to a level of parity with substance use disorder (SUD) and alcoholism treatments, recognising that unresolved grief can be a contributory factor to offending behaviour and that grief overload compromises societal and institutional safety and successful rehabilitation
Funding for roll-out and longitudinal evaluation for The Bereavement Journey® in prisons.
The APPG on Grief Support and the Impact of Death on Society continues to advocate for greater awareness across Parliament of the impact of bereavement on adults and children, and for the recognition of bereavement as a public health issue.
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AtaLoss is a UK wide charity helping bereaved people find support and wellbeing by raising awareness about the impact of bereavement; directing to help through the signposting website ataloss.org; and training and equipping community support, including through The Bereavement Journey® programme. It is Secretariat to the APPG on Grief Support and the Impact of Death on Society.
Media interviews on AtaLoss’ The Bereavement Journey®’s prison pilot can be arranged via WhatsApp message to Adam May on 07736 949869 or press@ataloss.org
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