Prisoners and prison staff will now be able to leave prayer requests to a Christian charity via a free phone line. 

They will also get access to the Church of England's 'Daily Hope' line which provides hymns, devotionals and church services. 

The Prison Fellowship have set up the prayer line and CEO Peter Holloway told Premier how it works: "Anybody who's in prison, whether they're a prisoner or a staff member, can pick up the phone, call an 0800 number completely free and they come through to us and they leave a recorded message with a prayer request. 

"From that, we send them out to intercessors across the whole of the country to pray with and alongside those prisoners, to pray with them about the issues that they're experiencing in prison."

Ven. James Ridge, chaplain general at HMPPS said: "Prisoners can know that their concerns are being shared safely and confidentially by faithful, prayerful Christians. This is a wonderful facility that will remind prisoners that they are loved by God and that His Church is praying with them and for them."

The Daily Hope line offers music, prayers and reflections as well as full worship services from the Church of England. It was originally launched in April 2020 for those unable to join online church services during the lockdown. Now that phone line is being made available inside prisons too.

The expectation is that both of these will strengthen the work of prison chaplains caring for the spiritual and pastoral needs of those in prison.

Peter Holloway said it is the perfect solution to the problems lockdown has caused: "A lot of our work that we'd normally do in going in and being physically present with prisoners is very difficult. So, this is particularly exciting because we're able to run this right across the whole of the 120 prisons in England and Wales and enable people to receive prayer on a daily basis and we will commit to pray for them that very day and then we'll pray for them across the whole of the next month."