Issuu 37 view

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

Page 2

VIEW: Why we need real solutions www.viewdigital.org

T

he prison, as the US political activist, academic and author Angela Davis once observed, “becomes a way of disappearing people in the false hope of disappearing the underlying social problems they represent”. I would argue that prison, reformed or unreformed, is not the solution to homelessness, mental illness, educational disadvantage or learning difficulties. The real solutions to social problems surely lie outside the criminal justice system.

And as the new Justice Minister Claire Sugden takes up her post, she, like her predecessors in the same position, will be confronted by the same question. Do we continue to lock more people up or do we, as a society, try to tackle the underlying problems?

In this issue on prisons and justice, I am delighted to have the director of the Quaker Service Janette McKnight as our guest editor.

The Quakers, along with the Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NIACRO), have quietly and efficiently carried out vital work in our prisons for many years.

They provided services to the families

By Brian Pelan co-founder,VIEWdigital

of prisoners for decades throughout the bleakest years of the Troubles.

However, both of them lost out on a contract earlier this year to a private firm.

The Northern Ireland Probation Board has had to reduce its funding to the voluntary sector from £1 million to

£100,000 in the last two years due to its own budget being cut.

And yet all the experts and research maintain that early intervention is key to a reduction in the levels of crime and the numbers of people going to jail.

If we also step back and identify the main social problems we soon recognise that much more effective remedies are to be found outside of the prison system.

The education disadvantage suffered by those imprisoned – who have often experienced the school to prison pipeline – requires radical changes to our overall education system rather than the provision of more educational opportunities in prison.

The high levels of mental health issues in our jails requires investment in community services and not a seemingly endless round of cuts A number of organisations, profiled in this issue of VIEW, carry out sterling work in our prisons.

But in order to grow and flourish they need significant funding.

Is there the political will to support and fund them?

We shall soon find out.

VIEWdigital hosts ‘open’ public courses and tailored in-house media training by industry experts. Our experienced training associates have worked for major newspapers and broadcasting organisations.

This year we have worked with 3rd sector & Public sector organisations including: • Law Centre NI • Housing Executive • Equality Commission • VOYPIC We can help improve your skills to get you to tell your story.

Contact Una Murphy e: unamurphy@viewdigital.org for more details and sign up on the VIEWdigital website for our training ezines.

Mike Boorman: SEO copy writer, blog poster, transcriber and general man of communication.

Contact mike@kahuamusic.com for a quote for your project

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

Editorial

www.viewdigital.org

Page 3

VIEW, an independent social magazine in Northern Ireland

“

Y

ou made me realise my self-worth – that I was worth something and someone can change. I realise there is more to life than breaking the law – it cleansed my soul.”

These words were spoken by a highly vulnerable man in prison befriended by one of our volunteers. It’s something we hear over and over again in different words by people who are supported by Quaker Service, and it goes right to the centre of our purpose. Friends, or Quakers, believe that there is “that of God,” “light” or “goodness” in every person. That fundamental belief underpins everything we do and leads us to value the equal worth, unique nature and potential for greatness in everyone regardless of the choices they may have made.

Before I had ever heard of Quaker Service I had become somewhat disenchanted by the way society judged and punished people who had made bad choices. There seemed to be little understanding or interest in what might have led to a crime or a problem. Back in 2005 when I joined Quaker Service, I found an organisation that had been translating Quaker values of peace, equality, truth and simplicity into action since the early 1970s. I found a group of people who accepted people where they were, who genuinely loved and cared for people and families in crisis, people who had often been cast aside by society as hopeless or unworthy. I felt I had come home.

Quaker Service emerged when Friends starting providing practical support to families visiting internees at the Maze.

That grew into the first family prison visitors’ centre in the UK and a series of other projects reaching out and supporting those who are the most forgotten, unpopular or sometimes viewed as “undeserved”. By delivering practical, social and emotional support services that

‘’

By guest editor Janette McKnight Director, Quaker Service Northern Ireland

I found a group of people who cared. I felt I had come home value and empower people just where they are, we play our part in reducing violence, suffering and disadvantage.

Quaker Cottage, a cross-community family centre, has been delivering a range of therapeutic services for mothers, children and teenagers in some of the most disadvantaged areas in Belfast for over 25 years. Each year, over 100 mums and children referred as those most “in need” or “at risk” by social and health care professionals are supported at Quaker Cottage.

Grant McCullough, our Centre Manager, said: “Many of the mothers are at a desperate low in their lives and looking for a way to escape from the feeling of being trapped by circumstances.

“At the Cottage we have a reputation for helping mothers on their journey to turn their lives around and we value the opportunity to become involved in their lives and to be able to accept, direct and support them.

“Often we are humbled by some of the battles these woman have had to overcome themselves using their own

resources – and often the learning is a two way process.”

Our Teen project at Quaker Cottage provides support for 100 young people each year in three different age groups.

The young people pick most of the modules themselves based on their own needs, but all start off with a storytelling project which bonds each group at the earliest stage. One young man who had the opportunity to tell his story whilst in custody said: “Looking back on my story, I feel bad. I regret all the things I’ve done. I would like other young people to read my story and think about what they’re doing with their life. This could be you.”

Our other key service, Quaker Connections, is a volunteer programme supporting people in custody through befriending and practical support. Since the inception of Quaker Connections in 2011, we have befriended over 120 isolated men in prison. The simplicity of a volunteer – there because they choose to be – visiting someone who has lost their family contact can have outstanding results.

To me, and to Quaker Service, rehabilitation is more than stopping reoffending or helping families out of crisis so they are no longer a risk or drain on services. It is about finding that Divine Spark in them and helping them realise their own value and worth.

We are working not so much to turn lives around, but to empower people to turn them around for themselves. What would our justice sector look like if those values pervaded it?

It is a time of great change and challenge for the justice sector, in the community sector, and Quaker Service is not immune.

We are looking to the future by asking how we can innovate and grow, how we can continue to reach to the margins and keep making love visible in practical action.

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Page 4

the BIG interview A

‘’

VIEW editor Brian Pelan talks to Linda Moore, left, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Ulster University, about a range of issues concerning prisons in Northern Ireland, including the situation for women inmates at Hydebank Wood and what should be at the top of the in-box for the Minister for Justice Claire Sugden

midst the noise and the hustle and bustle in the cafe at the Mac theatre in Belfast, I listened as Senior Lecturer Linda Moore spoke passionately and knowledgeably about the situation facing women prisoners in Northern Ireland and why we need reform and accountability in the penal system.

I started off by asking Linda had the situation changed for women prisoners since she and Professor Phil Scraton brought out their book, ‘The Incarceration of Women: Punishing Bodies, Breaking Spirits’, in 2014?

“In our book we documented the really serious human rights abuses for women in prison in Northern Ireland,” replied Linda. “And we documented their marginalisation by them being placed in a male young offenders centre.

Fundamentally, that situation remains the same. The women's prison unit in Northern Ireland in Ash House still remains situated in Hydebank Wood – a young male offenders centre. That is absolutely shocking.”

I asked her what type of offences are women being held for and what are the current numbers?

“Women represent a very small proportion of the prison population.

Presently there are about 55 women being held. When we started our research in 2004 there were on average between 24 and 25 women being held. In the space of a decade that number has more than doubled. We are seeing a worrying rise in the numbers of women being held.

“They are being held for a mixture of offences. Some are serving life sentences but too many women are serving short sentences for relatively minor offences such as property offences and non-violent offences. I understand that women are still coming into the prison for fines offences.

“We know short sentences don’t work,” said Linda. “The research is quite clear on this. What we argued in our book

We are seeing a worrying rise in the number of women prisoners being held. We should be looking instead at trying to reduce those numbers

was that women shouldn't be there for fine default, they shouldn't be there on short sentences, they shouldn't be there on remand, except in very exceptional circumstances, they shouldn’t be there if they have very serious mental ill health issues.

“If you take those women out of the system then you are left with a very small number of women in prison. What we have also argued is that when you are going to rebuild the women's unit outside of the young male offenders centre it should house no more than 25 to 30 women. And yet the Department of Justice have plans to build a 94-bed women's prison. They should be looking instead to reduce the number of women being held.

“There have been some changes for women in Hydebank Wood. There has been the development of a step down unit called Murray House which is a six-bed

unit for women about to leave jail. There is also now more of a range of work opportunities for women than there was in the past. So there has been some small changes, but it's still an absolutely unacceptable situation to still have women placed in a male offenders centre.

I also wanted to know her views on the type of issues which should be at the top of the in-box for the new Minister for Justice Claire Sugden.

Linda said: “The recommendations of the Prison Review Team, led by Anne Owers, in 2011, are still an issue. The Prison Review Team Oversight body said that most of Ms Owers' recommendations have been signed off, but I don’t understand that. The report in 2015 from the Chief Inspector of Prisons in England and Wales Nick Hardwick and Brendan McGuigan, chief inspector of Criminal Justice NI, described Maghaberry as “the most dangerous prison ever inspected”.

“This was absolutely shocking and an embarrassment to any prison service. To my mind what was said in the prison review team report in 2011 still hasn’t been implemented in spirit and in practice.

“I would suggest that the new Justice Minister Claire Sugden needs to look again at the Prison Review Team's recommendations. They should also talk to the organisations on the ground, talk to the families, talk to prisoners and find out how they are experiencing the situation.

“We need a change in culture. So far, that has not happened. We need to have deincarceration instead. Prison numbers have unacceptably risen. We know that prison is expensive and we know that it doesn’t work. She should focus on what we can do instead to assist people from offending.”

Prime Minister David Cameron has recently outlined a series of proposals to reform the prison system in England and Wales, such as schemes to reduce offending, changing the criteria in which

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

‘’

Page 5

Above: Front cover of the book by Linda Moore and Phil Scraton, and the women’s jail at Hydebank Wood

former prisoners have to declare their convictions when applying for a job, more releases into community schemes, league tables and more autonomy for prison governors.

I was interested to hear whether she believed that these proposals should also be implemented in Northern Ireland.

“We have tended in Northern Ireland to basically replicate a watered down version of what is suggested in England and Wales,” replied Linda. “I do believe, though, that the Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NIACRO) has done fantastic work around tackling the stigma around employment for former offenders.

“I think the new Justice Minister should talk to NIACRO about their ideas.

We need more employment support for prisoners when they are released. I definitely don't want to see prison league tables being introduced here. It didn't work for schools, why would it work for prisons? League tables just become a box ticking exercise. What we want is support for people and organisations who are trying to work with prisoners.

“Also prison governors in Northern Ireland do not have a great record. All you have to do is look back at our research or inspectors' reports to see that we should not be looking at giving them any more autonomy. We need better leadership and we need accountability.

“I find it absolutely shocking that you can have over a decade of inspection reports, independent research reports and the Human Rights Commission saying that

School league tables didn’t work for us, so why should having league tables for prisons do any better?

things are disastrous in prisons in Northern Ireland.

“And yet no one is ever held accountable, no one gets sacked. People get shifted around the system or they get moved on. We need proper accountability.

“We understand from all the research that prison is an expensive failure. The money that is currently being spent on prisons could be put to a better use.

“We have a fantastic voluntary sector here and we are aware that they are doing amazing work around prisons.

“They include NIACRO, the Quakers, Include Youth and the Children’s Law Centre. If that money was invested into

those organisations and the women’s sector, we would have a better outcome.

People often say ‘what is your alternative to prisons’? I would say instead let us reinvest in things that work.”

I asked Linda about the high proportion of people from a working-class socio-economic background who are held in our jails.

“We know that young people and children who come from marginalised or economic disadvantaged communities are more likely not to get support in schools, to be put out of school and to get into trouble on the street and to come to the attention of the police.

“Why is it the case that more children in care end up in trouble? It’s not they are worse kids. It is that they are not given adequate support. It’s terribly sad as a prison researcher to go around jails and to see prisoners who have had a really rotten start in life and who then end up in jail.

“It really hit me once when we interviewed a woman in jail who had been abused as a child.

“She said that when she went to her cell at night it reminded her of when she was a child in her bedroom and waiting for her abuser to come up to her room. I just thought, as a society, is this how we are responding to people who have suffered childhood abuse? Is there not a better way?”

• The Incarceration of Women: Punishing Bodies, Breaking Minds

by Linda Moore and Phil Scraton – Palgrave Macmillan Publishers

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Page 6

Together: Sunny Jacobs and Peter Pringle

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Page 7

Sunny Jacobs and Peter Pringle are a very loving couple with a rare common bond. Each spent years on death row for murder – she in the US, he in Ireland – before winning their freedom back. They now campaign for abolition of the death penalty and prison reform

By Brian Pelan VIEW editor

T

he story of Sunny Jacobs and Peter Pringle is compelling and life-affirming. A true tale of surviving against all the odds.

In 1976, Sunny was placed on death row in Florida for the murder of two police officers. Four years later, in Dublin, Peter was sentenced to death for the murder of two officers of the Garda Síochána.

He always denied any involvement in the crime and his conviction was overturned by the Republic’s High Court in 1995. Peter was one of the last people in Ireland to be sentenced to death in 1980. Capital punishment was abolished in 1990, with a constitutional ban on the death penalty introduced in 2002.

Sunny was 28 when her life changed.

She was travelling with her boyfriend, Jesse Tafero, and her two children, Eric, nine, and Christina, 10 months. Their car had broken down in Florida and they were trying to get home to North Carolina.

Someone Jesse knew, Walter Rhodes, agreed to drive them. Sunny thought Rhodes was “creepy”. She fell asleep with the children in the back seat, but was startled awake by a policeman knocking on the window. The next thing she knew, chaos ensued and gunfire opened. She was arrested. Her children were taken away.

Rhodes negotiated a plea bargain with the state, claiming Jesse and Sunny had pulled the triggers, in exchange for a life sentence. Sunny was put in solitary confinement for five years, awaiting execution. Her cell was minuscule at 6ft by 9ft, and she spent days pacing back and forth. She began to practise yoga.

Her sentence was eventually reduced to life, but Jesse was executed in horrific circumstances in 1990. The electric chair malfunctioned and it took him 13 and a half minutes to die.

After Jesse’s execution, Rhodes confessed he had fired the fatal shots;

The day that I spoke to Sunny was the 26th anniversary of the execution of her former boyfriend Jessie. Sunny said: “My daughter Christina still acknowledges the day and how she misses her dad and she does it on Facebook every year so that everyone can read it.”

Watch Sunny talk about her experiences in prison at http://bit.ly/1XoHSxM

confirming both Jesse's and Sunny's longmaintained innocence. Sunny was freed in 1992.

Sunny (now aged 68) and 77-year-old Peter met in 1998 when Sunny, who started campaigning against the death penalty soon after she was released, travelled to Ireland to speak at Amnesty International events. Peter went to one of her talks in a pub in Galway. He was moved by her suffering, but also by the realisation that here was someone else who knew what it was like to be sentenced to death for something they hadn’t done.

The couple started to see each other on a regular basis and were eventually married in New York in 2011.

I spoke to Sunny and Peter, who live in a cottage in the Republic, about their lives now and how they are doing. “In one word, wonderful,” said Peter.

Sunny said: “It’s mystical where we live

and when the sun is out it’s magical.”

They regularly travel to give talks about the death penalty, social justice and human rights. “We’ve recently been to Pennsylvania and Texas. And before that it was London, Birmingham, Bristol and Italy,” said Peter. He believes that the present prison system in many countries is deeply flawed. “Scandinavian countries have the best of the prison systems that I know off, in that when a person is sent to prison the aim is rehabilitation not punishment, and the aim is to minimise the time a person spends in prison, not maximise it.

“So people, when they go to prison, they’re given the opportunity to work within the prison at normal working hours.

“They’re paid the same amount of money they would receive in the outside world, and then if they have dependents, the money is taken out of the wages to maintain their dependents.

“They’re treated as human beings and not as pariahs, and if the prisoner is prepared to make the effort then the authorities facilitate that and aim towards rehabilitating that person back into society at the earliest possible stage,” adds Peter.

I asked Sunny was she still angry about her conviction.

“I’m not angry any more,” she replied.

“I thought I wasn’t angry when I first got out because I was so happy to get out, but I saw a video of myself speaking and it was of an angry woman. But I’ve left that anger behind because it doesn’t serve me, and it takes up a space inside me that could be filled with happiness, because there’s a choice that we make – we always have a choice – it’s important to get that across to everyone. When people are going into prison you have a choice always, so my choice was to replace anger with hope.”

• For more information about Sunny and Peter’s work, visit their website at www.sunnyandpeter.com, their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/sunnyandpeter/ or the Sunny Centre at www.thesunnycenter.com

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Page 8

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Page 9

Inside and outside: The Quaker Cottage, which is situated on the Black Mountain overlooking Belfast

Images: Hannah Mitchell

T

By Brian Pelan

he Quaker Service, who have been working in Northern Ireland’s jails and providing support for prisoners and their families for a number of years, also run a facility overlooking the city of Belfast.

Quaker Cottage is nestled amongst the mountain above Ballygomartin. From the veranda of the cottage, you can see the various walls far below which divide communities.

Youth worker Rory Doherty, who manages the teenager project within the family support centre at Quaker Cottage, said: “In the morning we have four mothers from north Belfast and four mothers from west Belfast and their children who come to the cottage. It’s an even mix of Catholics and Protestants. We wanted to create a safe environment where they can learn from each other.

“Those who come here can be suffering from a range of issues and problems, including trauma, abuse, domestic violence, alcohol and bereavement.

“We also provide a space for teenagers to come and talk about their lives and problems they may be trying to deal with.”

The mums and children group come to the cottage for one year. “They are always a bit sad when it’s coming to an end,” said Rory.

Quaker Cottage has been providing an invaluable service since the early 1980s.

Long may it continue.

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

Page 10

www.viewdigital.org

Breaking the chains of alcoholism VIEW talks to former prisoner ‘John’ who is a recovering alcoholic. He now visits jails in his role as an AA volunteer to speak to inmates about his battle to overcome his addiction and to try and help others who are suffering from the disease

J

By Brian Pelan

ohn Jones (not his real name) is about to turn 60 but he looks much younger.

He is a volunteer with Alcoholics Anonymous and he visits jails on a regular basis.

He is from Belfast and he spent around 14 years in a number of prisons for a variety of offences, including assault, shoplifting, fraud and forgery. John first went to jail when he was 22 years of age.

His last time inside was at the age of 36.

“I can say without doubt that it was the bottle that led me into crime. I started drinking at 17 years of age and I believe I was an alcoholic from the word go. My whole family, apart from my mother, were alcoholics. There were seven of us, including my parents, in the family. I was the second oldest. My eldest brother died at 29 years of age from alcoholism. He also spent time in prison.”

I asked John how he coped with the pressures of being in prison. “You just try and keep your head down.You learn how to cope in jail. There’s a language, there’s a code, there’s a currency in how to act.You roll with the punches, you do what you have to do to survive.

“I haven’t reoffended since I was last in prison and that’s as a direct result of stopping drinking.

“I found AA through my father who was an alcoholic. He stopped drinking about seven years before I did.

He’s still alive and he has been off drink nearly 30 years now. The whole family had been split up through alcoholism. We’ve all managed at the end of the day to stop drinking through the help of the AA. “It was a long process to get me cleared so I could visit jails as an AA volunteer because of my prison record.

“It was a weird experience. I had spent a long time wanting to be out of prison and now I was applying to go back in. The first group of prisoners I spoke to was at Maghaberry jail. They were in prison because of drinking, or had found themselves in jail because of the consequences of their drinking.

“AA can’t get anybody sober. All AA can do is plant the seed. In prisons, at present, there is too much access to drugs.

So if you’ve got an alcoholic in there who is dependent on something to take himself out of his own reality, he will take the drug, whatever the consequences. We are now finding that many people coming out of

prisons are dual addicted. They went into prison as an alcoholic, but when they’re released they now also have a drug problem.

“There are no prison guards in the room when I visit the jails – just me and another member of the AA. I tell the prisoners I was a former inmate. I give them my life story. I tell them I was 18 years living on the street as a tramp and a down-and-out. The whole idea of me going in there and doing that is to try and give empathy. So they get some connection with it and maybe get a realisation of just where the drink is taking them.

“Alcoholics are in complete denial.

They see alcohol as the answer, not the problem.”

As our interview came to an end, John made a passionate plea for more meaningful engagement from the authorities when it comes to rehabilitation and alcohol awareness programmes.

“They’re not putting in the resources that should be put in. At times it feels just like a box-ticking exercise.”

• Alcoholics Anonymous Northern Ireland can be contacted at 028 9043 4848.

My prison experience altered the way I view everything VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Page 11

Journalist Debbie Orme talks to economist Vicky Pryce who was jailed in 2013 after she pleaded guilty to accepting speeding points on her driving licence for her ex-husband, former Cabinet minister Chris Huhne

E

Vicky Pryce, right, and the cover of her book, Prisonomics

very night, the last things Greek-born economist,Vicky Pryce sees beside her bed are a red and white dotty tissue box and a bottle of aspirin: two ‘souvenirs’ that she brought home from her time in prison. While many would regard imprisonment as an experience to be quickly forgotten, Pryce is, however, keen to retain memories of this period of her life.

“The box and aspirin are definite reminders for me of a part of my life, which was a very important time,” she says. “I still keep in touch with some of the women I met while I was there, and I certainly don’t believe in simply closing that chapter. It shaped me and is now very much part of me.”

When it comes to turning a negative into a positive, it would be difficult to surpass Vicky Pryce. In March 2013 she was sentenced to eight months in prison for accepting her ex-husband’s penalty points on her driving licence some 10 years earlier. After a very public trial, she was sent first to Holloway and then to East Sutton Park, an open prison in Kent. Faced with the realities of life behind bars, Pryce began to research the injustices she found within the prison system and she documented them on her release in ‘Prisonomics: Behind Bars in Britain’s Failing Prisons’.

Royalties go to Working Change, a charity that finds quality work for women ex-offenders.

There’s no doubt that the period has had a dramatic impact on her.

“I think that what surprised me most was that I discovered how easily your life can be turned upside down,’ she says. “It also however reinforced my belief that, while we all make mistakes, if you have the right frame of mind, then you can survive.

My time in prison also seriously widened my perspective on life – particularly about women’s vulnerability – and encouraged a rethink on my part. I realised that I had a unique opportunity to look at first hand at the evidence of what’s happening to women if they are sent to prison.”

It is that ‘first-hand’ take on life behind bars that has strengthened Pryce’s view on the poor outcomes of incarceration for the women involved, and for society as a whole.

“Prison is not a deterrent for crime,” she says adamantly. “In fact, statistics show that 49 per cent of women who were sent to prison over a 12-month period reoffended within a year of their release.”

So what does she suggest as an alternative?

“There are various models out there that have proved more successful than the

UK approach. In Italy, for example, very few women are put into prison because the authorities believe that they shouldn’t be separated from their children and they’re placed under a form of ‘house arrest’. Similarly, in the Netherlands, they use the ‘weekend imprisonment’ model, which avoids disrupting employment. The UK, however, remains unenthusiastic about this idea due to the administrative costs of managing a Friday arrival and a Sunday departure.

“I have gone back to work as an economist, but I’m still involved in the economics of prison reform. I am convinced that one way of reducing reoffending and further costs to society is through education and employment. In prison I saw the desire of girls to educate themselves and witnessed the difference in mental attitude and ambition for the future that acquiring a job while in prison made.

“My prison experience certainly altered the way I view everything. I’m very fortunate in that I have got my life back and I have my children who love me.

“It made me appreciate, however, how much other people are at a disadvantage after such an experience.

“This period of my life made me realise what really matters and what doesn’t.”

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

Page 12

www.viewdigital.org

Helping to turn lives around

Positive: Ryan, left, with Andy, Robert and Gareth, who all praised the Together For You scheme

I

By Caroline McCoubrey Together For You

n 2013 a partnership of nine leading mental health organisations, led by Action Mental Health, succeeded in winning an award of £3 million of funding for three years from the Big Lottery Fund NI to deliver mental health services to people of all ages across Northern Ireland.

This included particularly marginalised groups like prisoners, whose mental health “is remarkably worse than that of the general population” (Light et al, 2013:18; Bromley Briefings, 2015).

Four of the nine partner organisations have been supporting the mental health of prisoners. These include Relate NI, who have offered one-to-one and partner counselling sessions to more than 50 prisoners and their families; MindWise, who have trained and supported volunteers to work in the prisons to support the education needs of prisoners and CAUSE, where the funding gave the organisation the opportunity to provide practical and emotional support to individuals and their families to reduce feelings of isolation and stigma that can be associated with not only mental health, but involvement with the criminal justice system also.

Over the course of the project, they have provided one to one support to more than 60 carers in this situation.

Finally, since January 2014, Action Mental Health’s MensSana team have been involved in delivering OCN-accredited health and wellbeing and personal development courses in Maghaberry Prison and Hydebank Wood College, along with resilience workshops and mental health awareness sessions. To date, more than 180 men and women across both facilities have completed OCN courses in a range of topics including Understanding Stress, Understanding Feelings and Emotions, Understanding Risk and Understanding Motivation.

Geraldine Keenan, Head of Pastoral Care in Hydebank Wood College, said: “These courses are vital. We can help

‘The courses have changed me’ Some of the young men from Hydebank Wood College were willing to be interviewed by Together For You, something in itself that many of the young men said they wouldn’t have had the confidence or motivation to do prior to taking part in the courses.

Ryan told Together For You: “I was always on edge, all over the place, an angry person. Once I did the course, I realised that there was different ways of dealing with stress and emotions and emotional wellbeing. I have goals now, which I didn’t have before.”

Andy said: “I wasn’t progressing or engaging before the courses so ended up on the Willow landing where I was just locked up all the time, not interested in doing anything. It was there I met Geraldine from Action Mental prisoners to improve their education, and to get a job when they leave, but we also need to tackle the underlying issues that people have. We need to have a holistic approach, otherwise nothing is going to change.

Geraldine Kelly, Project Worker for Action Mental Health, said: “We work with offenders who are the most removed from engagement in Hydebank Wood College, and those with a diagnosed mental health illness in Maghaberry Prison, helping to settle them and working on their coping strategies. We talk through their behaviours and why they may be happening. We show them that as well as working on their mental health, they can also get a qualification through OCN. The final goal is to get them engaged with the other prison programmes and health and social care support, so we continue to im-

Health. I initially thought that I didn’t need the courses, but once I started it I realised how much I was learning about myself, my self-esteem, dealing with emotions…lots of things you wouldn’t have thought of.”

Robert said: “Before the courses I was always getting restrained and being dragged back to the block, always messing around. The courses have just changed me.”

Gareth said: “The courses I have done have given me confidence, and helped me control my emotions. If you are willing to take part, and not be back in places like this, then you need to get involved, get an education and work. Before coming to prison I had no interest in getting a job or working, and now I can’t see myself not getting full-time work when I’m out.”

prove their mental health and ultimately reduce reoffending. These courses act as a catalyst for this, allowing them to go out into the mainstream prison, and continue to improve.”

The Together For You project has now come to an end, however many of these vital services mentioned above hope to continue, depending on funding.

They have been vital in turning round the lives of Ryan, Andy, Robert, Gareth and many more men and women from the prisons by improving their mental health and self-esteem, and reducing their chances of reoffending once they have been released.

• For further information on Together For You or to watch the full video interviews, visit www.togetherforyou.org.uk

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Page 13

A NIACRO initiative to support resettlement was proven to reduce reoffending rates in our jails. But it was drastically cut due to a lack of funding. A former prisoner and volunteer mentor tells journalist Debbie Orme about his vital work

W

hen Micky (not his real name) was released from a short spell in prison a few years ago, he knew immediately that he wanted to give something back to society. And, more importantly, he knew exactly what form that would take.

“While I was in prison,” Micky tells me, “I quickly realised that some of the men I was with, who, on the outside were as hard as nails, couldn’t even write their own name.

“The ‘rehabilitation’ wasn’t working and, when they got out, these men had no option but to carry on where they’d left off. I knew that this was where I wanted to help.”

Following his release Micky signed up as a volunteer for the Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NIACRO) Jobtrack mentoring team. This initiative, which had been running for more than two decades, worked to increase the employability of people who had offended and had been in contact with the Prison Service and Probation Board. Jobtrack aimed to reduce the risk of reoffending, based on evidence that links unemployment to offending behaviour.

The fact that he was educated meant that Micky was in an ideal position to

teach English and maths to people who had often been told they would never amount to anything.

“All that most of these people wanted to do was to improve themselves,” said Micky. “They just needed someone to help them. I worked with each of them on a one-to-one basis, and I think it was this aspect of my mentoring role that really helped them to express themselves.

“In society, men have to put on this ‘big front’ that makes them look and sound threatening. But when you’re with them on a one-to-one basis, there’s an air of vulnerability about them, especially as they talk about their own shortcomings.

“One guy I was teaching, for example, had had serious drink and drug problems, and a judge had told him that he wouldn’t see his daughter if he didn’t get his act together. Within one year, the guy had not only passed his driving test, but had also passed exams in English and maths, and subsequently regained access to his child.

Where, a year or two previously, he’d been an absolute wreck, he’d now completely turned his life around – and so much for the better.

“I also mentored a girl, who thought that she actually needed to go to prison to ‘get clean’. Can you imagine that? Her ‘exit strategy’ was prison?

“I discovered that she had an interest in football and in coaching, so I got her involved in reading about football clubs.

“Over the next few months you could just see her confidence growing and she actually participated in an IFA course where she was described as ‘super confident’. “Sadly, for everyone involved, the funding for the Jobtrack initiative was drastically reduced in March of last year and all that’s available now is a one-day a week ‘drop-in’ project, which is entirely reliant on volunteers.

“The really frustrating thing,” said NIACRO Senior Practitioner Gareth Eannetta, who manages resettlement programmes including peer mentoring, “is that just a few weeks after the funding was cut, research carried out by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency showed that the Jobtrack project to support resettlement actually reduced reoffending by up to 24 per cent. In fact, indications showed that, even partially completing the project reduced the one-year reoffending rate by between two and 18 per cent.

Sadly, Micky is reduced to helping people a one day a week at a drop-in centre. It's not enough for him. And it’s certainly not enough for those who need his help.

On the road to reform VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Page 14

VIEW put a series of questions about rehabilitaion strategies in our jails to Brian McCaughey, the Director of Rehabilitation in the Northern Ireland Prison Service, and his Deputy Director Louise Cooper

Q: Can you outline your views on rehabilitation strategies in our prisons?

A: Brian McCaughey: “The history of our prisons in Northern Ireland, probably because of the conflict in Northern Ireland, has been that prisons have had an emphasis on security and keeping people within the walls. Rehabilitation needs to be in the centre of our prisons and that we need to work it out and challenge people’s attitudes and behaviours and release them better prepared to avoid reoffending. In terms of putting prisoners at the centre of our work, we have introduced an assessment of risks, needs and strengths for each individual prisoner and the prisoner participates fully in that.”

Louise Cooper: “Prisoners are asked a range of questions, about accommodation, their family, about the circumstances surrounding their offending. That’s designed to build up a picture of all the risks and strengths of this individual person so we

can tailor a plan to help them address their needs and to help address the risks that they actually pose, and also to help them make that transition back out into the community.”

Q: What sort of schemes are in place to make sure that prisoners keep in contact with their families. Would you ever consider a scheme whereby partners and children can stay overnight or longer?

A: BMcC. “There are no models in Northern Ireland prisons where families can stay overnight, not at the present time. There are models where the families and their children can come in where the prisoner has participated in a special programme – a ‘families matter’ programme – and they’re allowed special visits with their children through their participation in those programmes. Those happen in Maghaberry, in Hydebank and Magilligan, and we’re looking to see how to

develop that further. Research tells us that families are the most significant change agent in helping people desist, and we’re all about desistance. I want to get the family visits and the parenting as a central provision in all our establishments before I go on to try and push the boundaries to overnights.”

Q: What are your views on what prisons should be and what role prisons should fulfill in the community?

A:BMcC: “Historically in Northern Ireland our prisons were somewhat separate from the community, and the community was separate from the prisons. And what I always said was that prisons need to be central to community and community central to prisons. If we have 1,800 prisoners we have a workforce of 1,800, and what can they deliver for the rest of society?

“What contribution can they make by way of reparation and making good for the harm they’ve done. How could they help

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

‘’

Page 15

Aims outlined: Brian McCaughey and Louise Cooper

Rehabilitation needs to be at the centre of our prisons

our hospitals? How could they help our hospices? How could they help our childrens’ homes?

“What is the purpose of a prison?

How can we purposefully engage people whilst in custody, and then how can we integrate people by phasing them into employment after they are released.”

Q: What are your views on the families of prisoners and how they are treated by society?

A: BMcC: “Families of prisoners are sometimes regarded as if they’re extensions of the prisoner, as if they’re an extension of the offending.

“And don’t forget that by and large it is the females that remain at home.

“Our prison population is mainly male so those individuals are left to rear children, to school them and to feed them.

“They’re serving a sentence in their own right and are deserving of a service in their own right – a social service in their own right.”

Q: Do you look at rehabilitation models in other countries?

A: BMcC: “You’ll find examples of best practice drawn from all of the other jurisdictions and we have drawn from that in turn in developing our own prisoner arrangements.”

Q: What are your views on the recent news announcement that the Quaker Service and NIACRO had lost funding contracts they had in the prisons?

A: BMcC: “Those services continue through a different provider. I was not involved in that competitive tendering process, I was not part of the decision-making.

“What I am at pains to ensure is that we continue to have service provision for prisoners’ families and children, and we have managed to do that and maintain our service.

Q: How have funding cuts affected rehabilitation services in our jails?

A: BMcC: “We currently have somewhere in the region of 40 providers working with us from the voluntary community and statutory sector helping us deliver rehabilitation in prisons.

“There is less money available.

“It’s about doing things differently with less.”

Are you interested in the idea of having league tables for prisons in Northern Ireland? (In the recent Queen’s Speech in Britain, it was announced that reoffending leagues tables will be published for jails in England and Wales). Do you think that they would work here?

A: BMcC: “As we only have three establishments in Northern Ireland, a league table doesn’t grip me.

“I’m more interested in establishing what is the the purpose of each of these establishments and how can we maximise delivery against that purpose.”

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Page 16

Helping hand

VIEW talks to Bill Osborne, right, director of the VSB Foundation, about its ongoing work of supporting groups who work in the criminal justice sector

T

he organisation Voluntary Services Belfast Foundation (VSB Foundation) has been supporting a number of projects in the community/voluntary sector for a number of years, including work in the prison sector.

VIEW asked Bill Osborne, director of VSB Foundation, to explain its interest in prison justice issues.

“It comes from our organisation and trustees having two interests; one is promoting civil society through voluntary effort, and the second is to do that through a means of collaboration.

“For a number of years we’ve had a relationship with the Pilgrim Trust in the UK. We ran a small grants programme and we’ve followed their direction of priorities. One of those was engagement with women offenders and looking at the issues around women offenders to see if there were ways in which you could mitigate offending and also offer support for offenders.

“Off the back of that we then ran a small grants programme in Northern Ireland. Our funding programme has run between seven and eight years.

It's about £30,000 per year “The issue around women offenders came about because of the Corston Report (a review published in 2007 by Jean Corston which looked at women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system in England).”

Bill said: “That was followed by reports in Northern Ireland that said the same issues were coming forward. There was some anecdotal evidence that women were being sentenced for offences that were different to what men were being sentenced for; such as non payment of fines, non payment of TV licences and minor shoplifting. Some women would be sent to prison for some of those offences. Also the background to women committing offences was that they had much more serious and complex issues, such as mental health problems, drug abuse and sexual and violent abuse from their partners.

“The other issue that gave concern was that quite a number of women would also have family commitments and therefore it was not just a punishment of the women if she was in prison, but

also on the family because quite often kids would have to be taken into care.

“We are not experts in criminal justice but we want to support sector organisations who work in the area, such as NIACRO, the Prison Fellowship, the Quaker Service and the Prison Arts Foundation.

“This issue around women is probably a solvable problem in the sense that the number of women going into prison is a small cohort, and in Northern Ireland it’s even smaller than in the rest of the UK. So if you can actually put resources in, when you’ve identified what the problems are, can you solve the problem?

“This doesn't mean that you are not going to have women offenders. Prison is legitimate in a number of cases when it involves individuals who are going to commit harm.

“But can we be effective for other women in trying to help them by offering support services?” Bill added: “We have to have a justice system that is fit for purpose. And a justice system that is fit for purpose requires us to have a range of interventions.”

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

‘’

www.viewdigital.org

Many women in custody are vulnerable with experiences of domestic violence, trauma, bereavement and sexual violence

By Kate Campbell Freelance consultant and researcher working on social justice, youth, health and women’s issues

O

ffending Costs! was the title of a symposium held recently by the Pilgrim Trust and VSB Foundation in Belfast.

These two organisations had launched a recent research study looking at ‘The Current Landscape of Support for Women who Offend in Northern Ireland’. These organisations have provided funding support to encourage local community interventions to address the underlying causes contributing to female offending and offer practical support for women caught in the criminal justice system to prevent offending.

I was keen to carry out this research as I was aware of how the media often sensationalised and negatively portrayed a minority of women who committed very serious offences, compared to men who committed similar crimes. I was interested to explore what differences there might be for women because of their life experiences and, given the very much smaller prison population, the impact that prison has on them.

The research findings supported the fact that women’s pathways in to and out of offending are often complex and are recognised as different to those for men.

Women in prison represent around three per cent of the prison population and the majority of women who offend are older, low risk and with combinations of vulnerabilities such as domestic, personal and socio-economic factors that could often trigger a crisis point in women’s lives.

Whilst there are crimes for which custody is necessary and appropriate, it appears that many women are frequently sentenced for short periods of time for fairly minor offences resulting in significant disruption in their lives and those of their families.

The research found that many women in custody are vulnerable with experiences of domestic violence, trauma, bereavement, sexual violence and used alcohol/illicit or prescription drugs as coping mechanisms in order to contend with ‘fluid’ and ‘chaotic family’ circumstances These women have low self-confidence, little self-belief and their entry into the criminal justice system heightens feelings of guilt and shame, leaving many worse off as a result of their prison experience.

Only 25 per cent of the women could count on their partners looking after their

Page 17

children, whereas nine out of 10 men had partners looking after their children. The effect on children is huge and often generational.

The research has demonstrated that the money spent on prisons could be more effectively used with better short and longer-term results through gender specific approaches such as the Inspire programme (www.pbni.org.uk/what-wedo/video-gallery/inspire-womens-project/); keeping and strengthening family contact so that women can retain their role as a mother; resources offering a ‘wrap around’ support for women transitioning back into the community; interagency and health support for those with mental ill-health and addictions difficulties; an exploration of justice reinvestment and identifying, where appropriate, restorative practices and community based alternatives rather than custodial sentencing.

Finally, the proposed increase in size, by 2020, for the new women’s prison should be re-examined as this proposal appears not only to fly in the face of the earlier recommendation of a small discrete unit (25-30 places), but also compromises the policy to reduce offending for women.

• Kate Campbell’s full report is available at http://bit.ly/1U95tNB

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Tackling reoffending

VIEW talks to Cheryl Lamont, right, the Acting Director of the Probation Board of Northern Ireland, about the challenges facing her organisation

By Brian Pelan VIEW editor

M

ost academics and researchers who look at the prison system will argue that early intervention is critical in efforts to reduce reoffending and stop people entering the prison system.

Cheryl Lamont, Acting Director of the Probation Board of Northern Ireland, agrees that early intervention is vital.

“Thirty seven per cent of the people we work with have mental health issues; 72 per cent have drug and alcohol issues.

Prisons and police cells are not the place for dealing with mental health issues – there has to be earlier interventions. We can't sentence our way out of reducing reoffending. We need to work with the health system and the new Department of Communities in terms of employment.”

I asked how does her organisation effectively manages responsibilities in the wake of recent cuts in its budget and where does it leave an early intervention strategy which costs money?

“Over the last three years our budget has been cut by 15 per cent. We’ve had to reduce our workforce by 14 per cent. On the ground we have less probation staff and heightened caseloads.

“I had to take tough decisions about making cuts to the partnership we had with the voluntary and community sector.

“We have just 1.6 per cent of the criminal justice budget. The rest of the budget is spent on prisons, the police and the court system. By far the biggest

spend is on the police. Our budget for the community/voluntary sector in the last couple of years has gone down from around £1m to about £100,000.

“The onus is on us to deliver things differently. In partnership with NIACRO we launched the Reset programme. (Reset is an intensive rehabilitation and resettlement project to support people in the community following release from prison. It aims to reduce the number of people recalled to prison after release.)

“One of the things that we sought to ensure that wouldn’t be affected was our partnership work with the PSNI and prison colleagues in public protection arrangements, which is a set of arrangements that mandate us to work in a collaborative way with sex offenders and domestic violence perpetrators.”

Ms Lamont was adamant that around 20 per cent of the prison population, who are serving sentences of a year or less, could be dealt with more effectively through community order schemes.

She said: “This is not a criticism of the Prison Service, but those people who are in and out – the revolving door syndrome – all they do is take up the time of the prison administrative service. The issues that need to be dealt with to ensure they don't go back are not having any traction. Things like dealing with addiction or mental health problems are not sufficiently dealt with.

“Interestingly, last year the Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan said that he and his colleagues felt that short sentences were not making any real impact.

“In response to that, the Probation Board developed a pilot scheme which aims to divert offenders from short–term custodial sentences by offering judges a more intensive community order with a focus on rehabilitation, reparation, restorative practice and desistance. The new order is called an Enhanced Combination Order.

“Part of the programme is that offenders have to complete a parenting programme with Barnardo’s.

“We are piloting the Enhanced Combination Order programme for 18 months. It started last October. It finishes in March 2017. The Enhanced Combination Order is being piloted in the court divisions of Armagh and South Down and Ards.

“So far around 50 people have gone through this scheme, aged from 18 to the their mid-30s, mostly men, with offences including burglarly, theft offences and serious disorder “People who come out of prison, without supervision are more likely to reoffend by 50 per cent, but for those under probation supervision it's around 31 per cent. If you are under community service, it goes down to 25 per cent. I'm not sure that prison has to be the starting point and I say that to many people who work in the criminal justice system. There are better outcomes to be had in community sentencing.”

As the budget for the Probation Board has been reduced from £20m to £16m, Ms Lamont’s organisation has its work cut out for it.

COMMENT

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

‘’

We need to cut reoffending

M

Page 19

Charlie Mack, Chief Executive of social justice charity Extern, urges the Government and the Opposition to give urgent attention to the issues around justice, including prisons

eaningful reintegration into society is a key challenge for all of us working in the justice arena.

At Extern we believe in providing exoffenders with a second chance. We believe that having somewhere to live and having something to do are two crucial issues for prisoners leaving our three prisons.

That’s why Extern has been providing housing and routes to employment for medium to high risk offenders since 1974.

We also provide floating support, dedicated expertise and vocational training.

There are many challenges and issues facing Extern and other providers in this area to ensure we focus on changing the lives of people and families within the justice system – those facing prison, in prison, on remand, or returning to society following a prison sentence.

There is a pressing need, and opportunity, to improve the current outcomes against a background of huge budgetary and resource pressures, and the ongoing pressures facing those working in prisons too. Without doubt, it is important that the focus is on the individual in the justice system and that we also focus on ensuring communities are safer as a result of how we integrate an ex-offender back into society.

Well-structured rehabilitation is critical. There is also a need to reduce recall rates for young men, and maintain family relationships throughout the custody period – focusing on these areas, through dedicated programmes will support those in need of help.

Extern works across many agencies receiving referrals from the Probation Board for Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Prison Service, the PSNI, Social Services, other Extern services, voluntary organisations and self-referrals. On leaving jail many prisoners face huge uncertainty, due to broken relationships and loss of family support, and face the daunting prospect of ‘where next?’ – in terms of a home, support, and a life. The number of cases presenting to Extern’s ‘Communities’ team citing homelessness following prison is a concern.

We are acutely aware of the prisoner

There is a pressing need to improve the current outcomes against a background of huge budgetary and resource pressures

journey, so ensuring the right, and best, seamless support systems are in place is the best way to ease the anxiety on the individual.

Successfully managed collaborations is a huge benefit to prisoners settling into society. On a weekly basis our homeless support service responds to the needs of former prisoners, with over 200 presenting last year alone. We are better at preparing for the release of individuals back into society if we collaborate, and plan together – it will ease the burden on everyone, save time, and avoid duplication of resources already under pressure.

Every day Extern engages with individuals who, following a term in prison, are on release and in need of support.

Our work engages with the challenging combination of people who are at risk to others and at the same time are vulnerable in their own right. Extern’s Floating Support Project is led by a social work team that gives priority to clients with complex needs who present with a medium to high risk of offending and who have previously committed serious offences. The success of the project has meant that demand has far outstripped capacity – we have supported more than 130 vulnerable clients every year and have a growing waiting list of more than 40.

Extern also provides a regional service outside Belfast, supporting more than 60 people across the region. The role of Extern’s work in Floating Support was fully endorsed in the Supporting People Review report (November 2015) by the then Minister for Social Development, Mervyn Storey. The report identified Floating Support as “a particularly cost-effective way of delivering preventative benefits”, with users of Extern’s services being three times less likely to reoffend that those who are not supported in the community.

Political parties gave scant focus on ‘offender reintegration’ in their manifestos, with Alliance providing most confidence in the rehabilitation of offenders area. I implore Government and those in opposition to give more than scant consideration to the issues around justice, including prisons – otherwise we are walking into bigger, more complex issues on the road ahead.

REVIEW VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

I

By Brian Pelan

can vividly recall the first time I read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was in the late 1970s during a bad time in my life. I was living in a squat in London and I was unemployed. It was not the best time to be reading this classic novel.

Devouring copious amounts of beans and toast, I hurtled through this dark and compelling tale, unable to put it down.

Erwin James in his biography, ‘Redeemable: A Memoir of Darkness and Hope’, recounts reading the same book in his prison cell. “A dark, gripping story that haunted me for a long time and made me think deeply about the motivations behind every criminal action I ever made . . . Until then I had only considered the damage my crimes had caused others.This book made me aware of how badly crime damages the perpetrator...”

Erwin spent 20 years in prison after being convicted, along with his co-accused William Ross, for the murder of the two men – theatrical agent Greville Hallam and solicitor Angus Cochran – in 1982, He was released in 2004.

The concept that everyone can be redeemable is explored fully in this book.

Readers can decide whether they agree or not.

The language and narrative style chosen by Erwin is brutally frank and honest. He never once implores the reader

www.viewdigital.org

to forgive him. Instead he recounts his life and what led him to commit two murders.

It is a tale of harrowing misery, a descent into a life on the streets as a vagrant, sleeping rough and solely existing for the next random opportunity to commit a robbery in order to feed his addiction for alcohol.

He lost his mother at the age of seven after she died in a car crash. “Nobody told me my mother was dead. No one talked to me about the crash. But in the days afterwards I listened in carefully on adult conversations until I knew for sure.”

What follows is unrelenting darkness as a young child, who needed support and love, is plunged instead into a catastrophic existence. From a young age he witnessed regular violence as his alcoholic father unleashed brutal assaults on his Aunt Stella and others.

Life became a series of house moves with each event gradually destroying any chance of a ‘normal’ upbringing.

As in the case of many prisoners, Erwin, the child victim, becomes Erwin the criminal. It was a meeting with psychologist Joan Branton, when he was being held in Wakefield Prison, that was to result in Erwin examining his actions and the terrible harm that he had inflicted on many people.

He describes his first encounter with her. “The gentleness in her voice was a surprise, as was the hint of a sympathetic smile on her face when she looked at me. It

Page 20

felt good to be in the company of a woman again, even one whose job was to assess my dangerousness. Her manner gave me the impression she was kind and considerate – everything I and the hard prison environment were not.”

The fact that she believed he was redeemable, notwithstanding his crimes, was a catalyst for Erwin to radically change his thinking about himself.

I first came across the author when I read his regular prison columns in The Guardian newspaper. His writing style was all the more raw and effective because he was in jail. It reminded me of another classic book, ‘The Soledad Brother:The Prison Letters of George Jackson’.

Erwin writes about his first visit to the Guardian offices in London in 2004: “As I drew closer to the Guardian building at 119 Farrington Road recognition of the area dawned on me. I nipped up a side street and emerged onto Leather Lane.Twenty two years earlier this was a place I slept rough... a dangerous drunken tramp with no hope and no life...I continued up to the Guardian building and as I walked through the doors and into the reception I could barely take in the journey I had made to get there.”

‘Redeemable’ is a powerful book. I urge you to read it.

• Redeemable: A Memoir of Darkness and Hope is published

by Bloomsbury Circus; priced £16.99

INTERVIEW

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

“

T

here’s always waiting in jail. Ninetynine per cent of the time that’s what jail is – waiting around bored out of your fucking mind. The other one per cent is just stupid, vicious bollocks.”

Writer Carlo Gébler tells it from the prisoner’s point of view in ‘The Wing Orderly’s Tales’, a fictional account based on his experience working in Northern Ireland’s jails with the Prison Arts Foundation.

He has helped prisoners write letters for Parole and Life Sentence Review expressing their remorse and apologising for their crimes.

His book is written in the voice of Chalkie, a prisoner who is is starting a 12-year stretch in a fictional jail called Loanend (the end of the line?) John Lonergan, former governor of Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, described Gebler’s book as “very close to the bone”.

Gebler’s ear for a story is second to none and in his years spent in jails teaching writing he has come to understand that stories about prisoners told by other prisoners is part of the underground

www.viewdigital.org

Page 21

Una Murphy talks to Carlo Gébler, above, about his new book, which is set in a fictional jail in Northern Ireland

currency. Some prisoners find it difficult to put their thoughts on paper but everyone ‘inside’ knows how to tell a story, he said.

“The book is in the voice of a fictional prisoner. Not someone that I know.

While working in prisons I have frequently had the experience of being there when someone said ‘Did you hear what happened to ...’ and they would tell a story.

“In prison there is no Facebook and none of the things associated with modernity so narrative as it is talked is all they have for social interaction and it becomes much more important inside the four walls of a prison.”

Gébler is now working in Hydebank with the Prison Arts Foundation but he also worked in the Maze and Maghaberry Prisons. He feels the media and politicians need to start talking about jails differently and mentions the Conservative Government’s commitment to penal reform in the recent Programme for Government. In his book the Sunday Muck, a fictional newspaper like the fictional jail, gets frequent mentions.

“The politicians and the media are not encouraging the public to understand but instead they encourage a punitive, closed, negative attitude”, Gébler told VIEW magazine.

Far from talking to liberal Guardian readers (like himself), he wants to reach out to those people who believe that the only penal system worth having is to lock prisoners up and throw away the key.

It costs more to keep a prisoner in jail than to educate a boy at Eton College, England’s elite public school which the present British Prime Minister David Cameron and many of his political contemporaries attended, Gebler points out “Why are we spending so much money when the results are so bad?” he asked.

“In Scandanavian countries there are a lot less people in prison, and a much lower recidivist rate. We don’t appear to have the courage to follow that route.”

• The Wing Orderly’s Tales by Carlo Gébler. Published by New Island: http://newisland.ie/product/the-wing-orderlys-tales/

COMMENT

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

Page 22

www.viewdigital.org

‘’

A home ‘Beyond the Gate’

H

Jim O'Callaghan, Head of Operations with Housing Rights, explains the background to a groundbreaking initiative which is aimed at securing accommodation for vulnerable prisoners

ousing Rights believes that everyone should have a home. We have been helping prisoners with the support of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, the Northern Ireland Prison Service, the Probation Board Northern Ireland and NIACRO since 2006.

Over time we have seen a pattern of repeat offending amongst some of our more vulnerable clients. This was most apparent in those who have a history of homelessness and complex needs. We successfully secured funding and co-operation to allow us to pilot a ‘Beyond the Gate’ service. This is a groundbreaking initiative for Housing Rights and moves way beyond our traditional advice service.

‘Beyond the Gate’ aims to prevent homelessness and sustain accommodation for the most vulnerable clients leaving prison. The initiative is about bridging, bonding and linking the most vulnerable and challenging clients to their accommodation as well as their relevant support services.

We hope to change our clients’ direction of travel, to help them successfully reintegrate. We hope by doing that to not only improve their lives but also the lives of others.

At a strategic level ‘Beyond the Gate’ seeks to deliver on our funding partner, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive’s, key strategic objectives as set out in ‘The Homelessness Strategy 2012-2017 (NIHE)’ It also aims to complement other statutory/public sector agencies whose policies likewise acknowledge the relationship between homelessness, offending/reoffending behaviour, and the importance of inter-agency working to break this cycle.

All ‘Beyond the Gate’ clients have: • A history of repeat offending • Not traditionally engaged with support services • Mental health and/or addiction issues • Complex needs • Challenging behaviour Our Beyond the Gate team consists of two Housing Rights Development

Before our input they would have been in the community for one to two days before returning to prison. We think that speaks volumes

workers, Caoimhe and Siobhan who have managerial and admin support. Their relationship with clients starts before their release.

They are then picked up at the prison gate and taken to their new home. It’s more than just getting accommodation; the team work intensively with the clients after release to connect them with the relevant counselling, benefit, addiction or medical services they need.

Our approach is unconditional. It is also delivered at the pace of the client. This is often the first time that the clients will have someone take the time to get to know them, to scratch below the service and understand their issues.

As these clients don’t traditionally engage with service providers, on release we collect them at the gate. We bridge the gap where, without our support, clients would not engage with services.

William, one of the team’s clients, sums up its impact: “If it hadn’t been for ‘Beyond the Gate’ I would have ended up back on the streets.”

The ‘Beyond the Gate’ team relish working with clients with complex needs and challenging behaviours. They are particularly proud of the impact their work had on Barry (not his real name) a particularly vulnerable young client.

Barry is 19 and has Asperger’s and epilepsy. Over 18 months, he was in and out of custody on a number of occasions.

Before his most recent release he was referred to ‘Beyond the Gate’.

With nurturing, patience and support the team have worked through Barry’s very challenging behaviours. They have built his confidence to the point where he has been able to live in the community for more than six months.

Barry is just one of the extremely vulnerable clients the ‘Beyond the Gate’ team work with every day. Many of these clients have been living in the community for several months now. Before our input they would have been in the community for one to two days before returning to prison. We think that speaks volumes.

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Page 23

Some of the art work made by Travellers in Wheatfield Prison in Dublin

Support for Travellers behind bars

A charity foundation in Dublin tells VIEW of a scheme it has backed which tries to meet the needs of Travellers who are being held in the prison system in the Republic

W

hile there aren’t official statistics on the numbers of Travellers in prison, it is recognised that Travellers are significantly over-represented within the prison system – although Travellers only account for 0.6 per cent of the overall population in the Republic of Ireland The Republic’s Prison Service estimate that Travellers account for 22 per cent of the female prison population and 15 per cent of the male prison population.

The disproportionate representation of Travellers in the penal system is not a situation that is unique to the Republic: the same trend can be found in other countries with an indigenous minority ethnic population.

The Travellers in Prison Initiative (TPI) was developed in 2014 by the St Stephen's Green Trust, a small grant-giving charitable foundation in Dublin. It is a response to the particular needs and circumstances of Travellers within the 14 prisons in the Republic. The background to the TPI can be traced back to the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) research report on ‘Travellers in the Irish Prison System’ produced in May 2014.

This research clearly documents the challenges and difficulties being experienced by Travellers within Irish prisons.

A priority for the TPI is to embed positive and sustainable change in policy and practice. Results and learning from pilot actions will be documented and used to inform the development of longer-term, sustainable cross-prison initiatives.

The TPI proposes to focus its efforts on the following five action areas.

1. Building a knowledge base about Travellers in prison The existing data collection

mechanisms are not producing accurate counts of the number of Travellers in prison. The TPI is supporting a pilot project on ethnic data collection in one prison and to deliver training and supports to relevant prison staff as well as awareness raising amongst Travellers.

2. Increasing and improving access to prison-based services for Travellers While there hasn’t been any research conducted into the uptake of services by Travellers, the barriers to access and the outcomes, the anecdotal evidence indicates that many Travellers are not benefiting from those services. The TPI strategy to increase Traveller participation in prisonbased services has three primary strands: Encouraging Travellers to want to participate Creating an atmosphere in prison in which participation is both normal and positive Providing suitable services in prison.

3. Strengthening supports for families of Travellers in prison, and post-release, using a multi-agency approach Family support is considered to be a particularly important factor in improving outcomes for Travellers in prison and their families and ultimately reducing recidivism.

The TPI plans to research the key issues for Traveller families and to develop resources to enable the provision of appropriate supports 4. Strengthening self-identity and selfadvocacy for Travellers in prison by mainstreaming a peer-support model Feedback from Traveller organisations refers to the isolation and loneliness experienced by Traveller prisoners particularly for the disproportionately high number of Travellers in protection wings.

The TPI is committed to supporting the establishment of Traveller peer support groups in prison and has developed a quarterly newsletter specifically for Travellers in prison. Travellers in prison have been facilitated to write articles for inclusion in the newsletter. The TPI also facilitates Traveller organisations working with Travellers in prison or their families to access and share knowledge and experience through their participation in regular Traveller Network meetings.

5. Increasing awareness and capacity through training and learning programmes to Prison Service and Probation Service Staff and community based organisations There has been a tendency by service providers to provide generic offender based services designed for men from the majority population. There is a growing realisation that a ‘one size fits all’ model of service delivery does not meet the needs of all service users. The TPI plans to develop and deliver training on Traveller inclusion to prison and probation staff and community based organisations.

A steering group has been established to oversee the development and progression of the TPI. Current steering group members include representatives from the Irish Prison Service, Probation Service, HSE, National Traveller organisations and the Irish Penal Reform Trust.

• Further information about the Travellers in Prison Initiative can be accessed at: http://www.ssgt.ie Anne Costello who co-ordinates the project can be contacted at anne@ssgt.ie

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

Page 24

www.viewdigital.org

Celebrating 10 years of Listening The Samaritans have a 24/7 access to their phone service within Maghaberry Prison

T

he Samaritans are celebrating 10 years of their award winning prison peer-support programme, the ‘Listeners’, in Maghaberry this year.

Samaritans have been providing emotional support to prisoners for 25 years, recognising that they are one of the groups in society most vulnerable to suicide.

The Samaritans support prisoners through a number of methods: 24/7 access to their phone service within the prison, providing emotional support on the wings of prisons, and setting up and running the Listener support scheme.

This entails Samaritan volunteers recruiting and training prisoners to be Listeners in the prison.

Currently, Samaritans have three Listener schemes running in Northern Ireland; the Belfast branch runs two listener schemes in Maghaberry Prison and the Coleraine branch, supported by Derry, have been running a scheme in Magilligan Prison since 2002.

Belfast and Bangor branches also work together to provide emotional support to young offenders and women at Hydebank Secure College and prison.

We asked Gillian McNaull, Samaritans Regional Prison Support Officer, why they support prisoners.

“Well, we recognise that prisoners are one of the most vulnerable groups in terms of suicide risks. A prisoner is eight to 10 times more likely to take their own lives than a member of the general population and 46 per cent of female prisoners and 21 per cent of male prisoners have attempted suicide prior to imprisonment.

“We know that the entry period of committal to prison is the most high-risk time for prisoners, so we have Listeners giving inductions to all prisoners that enter the prison, and we know from our statistics that the most Listener call-outs come from the committal houses of the prison.

“We are delighted to be marking 10 years of the well established scheme in Maghaberry.

“The Listener training team of Belfast branch have received a certificate of achievement from the Lord Mayor’s charity awards and the Northern Ireland Probation Board partnership was the

recipient of the 2014 Charity Times Award for cross-sector partnership of the year.

“Celebrating 10 years in Maghaberry will allow us to highlight not just that partnership, but also the great work of the Listeners who provide a supportive ear to those most in need in difficult conditions.

“Not only do they help others, participating in the Listener scheme, it’s a process of training and reflection that can bring about great personal change for Listeners. As one of our prison listeners has said: ‘Because of the Listener scheme, the prison service has at its disposal an incredible tool that can and does, make a difference for those contemplating suicide and self-harm in prison.’

“To empower prisoners to do something good in a place they have been sent to for doing something bad – now that is a great gift.”

• For more information on the Listener scheme, go to http://www.samaritans.org/yourcommunity/our-work-prisons/listener-scheme

COMMENT

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

‘’

Page 25

End the detention scandal

H

Heiko Topp, who lives in Northern Ireland and has campaigned on refugee issues for a number of years, says we need to start a debate on the role of detention centres for immigrants

idden away behind the police station in Larne is a ‘facility’ of a special kind.

People that the Home Office deems to be illegally staying in the UK are detained here. They are made up of refused asylum seekers, people who overstayed their visa or other foreign nationals the Home Office intends to deport for various reasons.

‘Larne House’, as it is known, is a Short Term Holding Facility (STHF). Up to 19 people can be detained in the former prison cells of the police station. Despite being renovated the feel and atmosphere is still very much that of a prison including very similar security installations. Prior to this facility being established the Home Office used prisons in Northern Ireland for immigration detention.

Every year thousands of people, including children, are locked up in prison-like conditions in the UK without a time limit, lack of judicial oversight, inadequate access to legal advice and poor healthcare. Their ‘crime’ is being a migrant or asylum seeker.

The Home Office detains pregnant women, children and survivors of torture.

The increased use of immigration detention across the UK is extremely concerning: Home Office figures show that 32,446 people entered detention in 2015, a seven per cent rise over the previous year, while the number of detainees who are subsequently removed from the UK following detention continues to decrease: down from 64 per cent in 2011 to 45 per cent in 2015. It appears that detention is increasingly being used as routine practice.

This is wholly contrary to UNHRC’s guidelines, which state that detention should be used as an exceptional

Every year thousands of people, including children, are locked up in prison-like conditions in the UK without a time limit, lack of judicial oversight, and inadequate access to legal advice

measure only. The criminal justice system, while far from perfect, contains two important safeguards: • Imprisonment is imposed by a court.

• Generally, imprisonment is for a specified period.

Despite not being convicted of any crime, immigration detainees are not awarded these simple assurances.

In contrast, immigration detention can be ordered by an immigration officer, meaning no court involvement and it can be indefinite.

Immigration detention is extremely disorientating for individuals. The mental and physical state of detainees (as experienced by visitors to detention centres) is alarming. From January 2007 until the end of 2015 there have been 2,230 attempted suicides across the UK detention estate and more than 16,786 persons were on suicide watch.

The detention estate in the UK has been expanding for many years, often run by private companies such as G4S, Serco, Mitie and GEO, who profit from the imprisonment of innocent people considered to be ‘illegal’ by the government.

Throughout the UK many visitor groups and human rights advocates try to actively assist people in detention and lobby to try and change public perception of migrants and refugees.

They are often the only link to the outside world for detainees and offer support, practical guidance and friendship.

Larne House Visitors Group is a local volunteer group which visits detainees in Larne House.

If you would like more information or to get involved, contact larne@blue-i.co.uk.

COMMENT VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

‘’

www.viewdigital.org

Page 26

When words can do damage

T

Visiting research fellow Dr Faith Gordon argues that negative media portrayals of children and young people typically results in the creation of a one-sided narrative

he murder of toddler, James Bulger by two 10-year-old boys in Liverpool represented a turning point in youth justice. It clearly demonstrated the fundamental effect that one case can have on the justice system.

The media frenzy that ensued provided the climate for what has been described as ‘vitriolic’ reporting. The Daily Star tabloid published images of the boys and ran the headline: ‘How Do You Feel Now You Little Bastards?’

(November 25, 1993).

Reflective of the language employed by the trial judge in his summing up, other labels present in media coverage referred to the boys as: ‘evil’, ‘cunning’ and ‘wicked’, demanding that they ‘rot in jail’.

This is one case which clearly demonstrates how the responses of the media, the public and the government, collectively were detrimental to children’s rights. Research I have conducted in Northern Ireland over the last decade demonstrates that the media apply similar labels to describe children’s and young people’s perceived involvement in ‘anti-social’ behaviour and crime.

Labels such as: ‘sickos’; ‘evil’; ‘teen thugs’; ‘unruly’; ‘disaffected’; ‘out-of-control’; ‘hoods’; ‘tearaway’; ‘feral’; ‘immoral’; ‘scumbags’, have typically been employed by journalists as part of headlines, or present in quotations from local politicians.

The committed and vibrant children’s and youth sector organisations have long highlighted the impact of this use of language. They have argued that negative media portrayals impact on the lives and experiences of children and young people, as well as on public perceptions of their service provision.

This concern has been echoed at national and international levels also, in particular by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, who have raised significant concerns about the impact of ‘naming and shaming’.

‘Naming and shaming’, labelling and the subsequent stigmatisation can have long-lasting consequences, resulting in difficulties with forming relationships, seeking employment and accessing services. During research workshops I

One young man described how the local media had first labelled him as a ‘scumbag’ and it had then become a label employed by his ‘ma and granda’

conducted in Woodlands Juvenile Justice Centre along with Mat Crozier from Include Youth, children and young people in custody discussed how negative labels are often internalised.

When asked directly how they felt about media reports, young people expressed concern about the impact of negative reporting on their relationships.

How they would be viewed and responded to by family and/or friends when they left custody was one of their major concerns.

One young man described how the local media had first labelled him as a “scumbag” and it had become a label then employed by his “ma and granda”.

Young people also stated that the media never contextualise young people’s behaviour and that important background information was rarely included in news items: “If your Ma doesn’t love you, you are gonna wreck home, do drugs, drink… but they [the newspaper] are sayin’ it’s all the young person’s fault.”

Clearly the question of why a young person becomes involved in certain activities or behaviours is rarely asked. The lack of context, coupled with the marginalisation of the voices of children’s and young people’s advocates, typically results in the creation and maintenance of a one-sided narrative.

Applying labels and ‘naming and shaming’ of children and young people has an added dimension and severe consequences in a post-conflict society. My research documented young people’s experiences of punishment attacks following production of their own forms of media to challenge negative stereotypes.

Reflecting on several of their front-page news items, a number of editors interviewed admitted to “amplifying tensions” in local communities.

Unless children and young people’s voices are central, unless the labels imposed by those in power are challenged and the larger questions are asked, we face the prospect of continuing to live in a contemporary society where the marginalisation of young people continues to produce a social group who are relegated to the margins and routinely experience the effects of breaches of their rights.

A pointed exercise in relaxation behind bars VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Page 27

A

By Brian Pelan

nxiety and tension levels are both high in our jails as prisoners try to cope with the environment and the length of their sentence.

Start360, who deliver a treament service in the prisons for inmates with drug and alcohol problems, now also run an acupuncture clinic.

I visited Maghaberry Prison recently to observe the scheme at first-hand. For those people who have never seen the inside of a jail, nothing prepares you for the environment that you enter. In the midst of beautiful countryside, high walls surround you and you immediately feel as if you’ve entered an ‘alien’ world.

Two members of the Start360 team at the jail took me to a room where the clinic takes place. We sat in the room waiting for the prisoners to arrive.

Four young men, serving sentences, joined the acupuncture session. All three looked tense and were willing to try it to see if it helped them. None of them had tried it before. It was a surreal experience as all three inmates allowed the needles to be inserted in their ears and tried to relax.

The curtains in the rooms were pulled over. Silence descended on all of us as

The acupuncture session at Maghaberry lasts for about an hour

meditation music was played for nearly an hour. I’m not sure what the prisoners got out of the experience, but it was certainly not a negative one. At the very least, it allowed time out for a short while from the tension of the prison.

I was very impressed with the gentleness and professionalism of the Start360 team at the jail. All of them are

very dedicated to their work and are good at what they do.

Giving the high number of prisoners who are dealing with mental health issues and drug and addiction problems, an hour in the acupuncture clinic will not solve their problems, but it definitely offers them a brief moment in time to close their eyes and dream.

COMMENT VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Page 28

Target must be zero suicide

O

‘’

Fergus Cumiskey, Chief Executive of the counselling service Contact, says we have known for decades that victims and perpetrators of crime suffer heightened suicide rates

ctober 2016 will see the 10th anniversary of the NI Protect Life Suicide Prevention strategy. Lifeline, the regional crisis counselling helpline, a core strand in the suicide prevention strategy, led by Contact since establishing the pilot service for North and West Belfast in 2006, rolled out regionally since 2008.

More than 50,000 people have accessed Lifeline support through more than 90,000 annual crisis calls. Lifeline callers suffer great personal suicidal distress and most achieve full recovery.

Sadly, more than 150 callers lost their lives to suicide over the decade, more than 30 last year alone.You can immediately appreciate our ambition to eliminate suicide for people in our care.

The Contact vision aspires to ‘society free from suicide’. We have built upon the WHO declaration that suicide is preventable, co-signing the March 2016 Atlanta Zero Suicide Declaration.

The zero suicide approach, successfully proven by Henry Ford Health Care, pilot projects across dozens of UK and US test sites, regards every suicide as preventable until the last moment of life.

Recent research dissolves the myth that people who ‘decide’ to die by suicide can’t be helped. Top studies dissolve pervasive suicide myths with the fact that suicidal people are ambivalent about living and dying until the last moment of life.

From thousands of Lifeline case examples we know that carefully negotiated blended care interventions save lives.

The zero suicide approach demands commitment to major service quality improvement from NI health and justice systems. A complete rethink on how to eliminate suicide as a preventable harm. To have a fighting chance incremental change formulas must go, setting ambitious goals that stretch everyone towards service excellence.

We have known for decades that victims and perpetrators of crime suffer heightened suicide rates, yet emergency services have no formal links with health care systems to facilitate reciprocal risk management information sharing at times

People who come to the attention of police, prison and probation services require systematic networked support, especially in preparation for release from custody

of crisis. This has to change. This gap represents enduring silo based limitation to safe crisis care for people at increased risk of suicide.

People who come to the attention of police, prison and probation services require systematic networked support, especially in preparation for release from custody.

This means formal agreement by a Memorandum of Understanding between health and justice providers to guarantee integrated support at traditional high-risk crunch points where client isolation prevails, nowhere more acutely experienced than release from prison, police cells and secure psychiatric hospitals.

Reliance on incremental improvement will never deliver the ambitious zero suicide goal that perfect crisis care demands. For health and justice systems to accept suicide as a preventable harm, leaders must be prepared to design ‘stretch goals’, never settling for minimum standards set by commissioners.

Zero suicide and perfect crisis care require a work culture of zero blame where immediate learning from honest mistakes are celebrated as opportunities to achieve continuous service quality improvement.

Zero suicide for people in our care is the only target to aim for. Embedding this bold commitment requires visible, trusted leadership champions.

• “Zero Suicide – An entire system approach” – presentation from Joe Rafferty CEO of Mersey Care NHS Trust https://vimeo.com/148789208

• Zero Suicide Atlanta International Declaration – what does it mean for Northern Ireland? http://www.contactni.com/ZeroSuicide-Declaration-and-CrisisNow.php Twitter: @ContactNI

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Page 29

Why funding is key if Relate’s vital service is to flourish ...

Relate NI team: Senior Counsellor Vincent O’Rourke, Project Co-ordinator for the Together For You project Peter Topping and Professional Services Manager Lorraine Robinson

R

By Brian Pelan

elate NI have been providing relationship counselling to a number of prisoners in Maghaberry Prison for more than seven years. Also for nearly two years now they have also been working in the young offenders centre Hydebank Wood.

I called into their offices in Glengall Street, Belfast, and spoke to three of their staff members – Senior Counsellor Vincent O’Rourke, Professional Services Manager Lorraine Robinson and Project Co-ordinator for the Together For You project Peter Topping – about their counselling work in Northern Ireland’s prisons Mr O’Rourke said: “My main focus in the Prison Service is working with the men in Maghaberry in terms of their relationships. We as an organisation have a particular philosophy about relationships, and we see relationships as being the most important thing that people have in their lives. Regardless of why the person is there, we explore with them what effect their prison sentence is having on them and their network of relationships.

Ms Robinson added: “In time past we did actually have what we called a Healthy Relationship programme but that is no longer available because there isn’t funding for it. It’s very much individual counselling.

It’s through a family support team within the Prison Service who are the team that

co-ordinate referrals into Relate. But we get also referrals from word of mouth, from the Probation Service and from the panels that sit within the prison.”

Mr Topping said: “I manage a project that allows councilors to go into Maghaberry and Hydebank.

“We offer sessions on Tuesday morning at Hydebank. Four prisoners will get individual counselling for an hour, and then on a Wednesday, we offer another three sessions. They are all completely full.”

Ms Robinson said: “We would like to be seeing more prisoners but it’s a question of resources and funding.

“Presently, there’s very little resource for us to grow, although as Vince and Peter have said, the uptake of sessions are full all the time and we have waiting lists. The impact of the counselling is really positive.

The prisoners are obviously telling their peers that it’s really, really good – it helps them.”

I talked to all three about all the research which shows that maintaining a relationship with loved ones outside is key for the prisoner if he or she is to undergo a rehabilitation process.

Vince said: “I think what is distinctive about what Relate has to offer amongst all the other professionals that are working in the prisons that we focus on the client as they experience their life here and now, so we’re not particularly focused on the reason why they’re there.

“Very often the prisoners will be

talking about things that are happening on the outside that they are aware of that they can’t influence, and that is very frustrating for them.

I asked Vince are the counselling sessions just a chance for the prisoners to vent their frustration or is it more than that?

Vince said: “There is an element of expressing very difficult feelings, but we have a therapeutic role and therefore our therapeutic conversations are conversations that are different from simply letting off steam.”

Vince, Peter and Lorraine all agreed that only a small number of prisoners were able to access their counselling services. In order to grow, more long-term funding would need to be secured.

Lorraine added: “I’m not sure who would provide the funding. Presently, the core grants are going in the voluntary sector and the Department of Justice grants have been reduced significantly.

“Longer term funding would really help in terms of good outcomes and people not returning to prison.”

Peter also said that funding for the Together For You scheme was ending.

“We’re now back into the cycle of trying to find more funding,” he added.

• Relate NI are based at 3 Glengall Street, Belfast, phone: 028 9032 3454; email: office@relateni.org

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

www.viewdigital.org

Page 30

Tony enjoying his new-found freedom at the Trough of Bowland in Lancashire

Recently retired tutor Tony Pelan looks back on more than 20 years of teaching in a British jail

I

spent more than 20 years teaching in a category B prison in Britain for men. I happily took early retirement last year at the age of 59, along with six others teachers. It was our release from a penal system which had, especially in the last 10 years or so, slowly sucked the creativity and energy out us.

I first got the idea of working in a prison from a friend who was teaching in a local jail. I was in my late 30s and taught history and English at a further education college.

I applied at a nearby jail and was rewarded with a position to teach English at a variety of levels. The jail housed category B prisoners serving four years or more. My first few months there were awful. I dreaded going into the place. There was no discipline in the class – they knew I was a rookie and I had to battle hard to win them over.

This was achieved with a mixture of teaching strategies (vary the curriculum, valuing their input and just listening and getting to know them) but above all with the help and advice from some of my colleagues.

Without their help I probably wouldn’t have lasted. It didn’t always work, but finding that teaching balance was the strategy that that I used throughout my prison career.

Prisoners’ attitudes and behaviours on arrival in the classroom ranged from outright in your face abuse to complete indifference on the one side, to men who wanted to learn.

I was faced with individuals with a whole swathe of issues and complex backgrounds, age differences, drug abusers, mental health problems, self-harmers and bullies. Therein lies the challenge for teachers – bringing them together as a group (from prisoners to students) and trying to make their time productive.

When I first came into prison education the curriculum was extremely varied for students wishing to rehabilitate.

From O and A level history, English and general studies, art, creative writing, French, German, adult basic education, Mmusic and Open University. There was an opportunity to progress.

The choice was theirs – induction then was more about informing potential students as to why education could give you qualifications and alternatives, whereas today men are placed on classes when available and often against their wishes.

Education ranges from entry level English and maths to Level 2 (equivalent to O level GCSE) where progression ends.

The onus is now on the individual to win funding for the Open University if they want to advance.

Today's curriculum has now reduced to three subjects: maths English and art.

And continued reduction in funding has led to classes and curriculum shrinking dramatically, especially in the last couple of years.

The demands on teachers to deliver morning and afternoon three-hour sessions daily without a break was a real strain.

The constant conflict between education and prison was regularly under review about when and what classes should run. Ofsted and internal inspection were dreaded even more. Longer classes, petty, needless paperwork and continual daily assessments had to be recorded in minute detail. Teachers were working harder and longer outside class trying to keep up. Sickness leave and departures increased.

The seven of us met recently to swap stories about some of the people we had taught, from the funny and decent to the dangerous and devious.

We had some brilliant and surreal times to recount, but were unanimous that getting out was for the best.

If prisoners are to reform then the onus is increasingly on them, and sadly, rising reoffending on release is a real indictment on the whole penal system.

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

‘’

www.viewdigital.org

Page 31

And now for another thing

Our columnist John Higgins tells of his childhood love affair with Ronnie Barker and hit TV show Porridge and how it once attracted him to the idea of going to prison

I saw big, clever kids outwitting the authorities, watching all the telly they wanted and gorging themselves on sweet, sweet fruit.

W

hen I was young I really, really wanted to go to prison. You can blame two things for this: Ronnie Barker and readily available citrus fruit.

I was an inveterate Beano reader as a child and ‘Porridge’ was basically ‘The Bash Street Kids’ with grown-ups: the screws were benevolent and feeble teachers whom Fletch and Godber could run rings around through a mixture of guile and cheek.

Even Mr. Mackay, very much the “wire mother” of the set-up, proved his true character in the Christmas episode: imagining he had finally foiled one of Fletch’s schemes, he turned up, shiny cheeked and wreathed in smiles, dispensing Christmas cheer in the form of a contraband bottle of Scotch.

It was a lovely, safe, consequence-free environment, where nobody was actually bad, where there was telly in the rec room, cushy jobs to be had in the library and garden, and gullible figures of authority to be made fools of.

And then there were the

tangerines. When Fletch wasn’t darning a sock or drooling over one of Pan’s People in his cell, he was peeling a bit of fruit. There’s an ongoing joke in The Comic Strip’s excellent ‘The Strike’, where Meryl Streep (played by Jennifer Saunders) is always pulling focus from the other actors in any scene by busily peeling an orange in the background.

In my mind Ronnie Barker as Fletch spent the entire series like Jack Horner, thumb deep in a satsuma, the forbidden fruit.

And it was forbidden in my house. My parents raised four hungry and deeply unimaginative children in the 1970s.

Whenever fruit was brought into the home, if child one went for an orange, children two, three and four would form an orderly crocodile behind him. We were like a swarm of fruitarian locusts, the fruit bowl a desert by the time my mother had turned round from putting the rest of the shopping away.

Fruit was ultimately “for best or for guests”. We grew up bow-legged and riddled with

scurvy while these fleeting visitors shone with rude good health. So when I watched Porridge, I was green with envy (though it was also my natural pallor): I saw big, clever kids outwitting the authorities, watching all the telly they wanted and gorging themselves on sweet, sweet fruit. So I really wanted to go to prison. But I’m very glad I didn’t. Prison, it turns out, is no fun, especially for the young.

More than double the number of children are affected by parental imprisonment than by divorce in the family. Around 200,000 children in England and Wales had a parent in prison at some point in 2009. Looked after children make up 33 per cent of boys and 61 per cent of girls in custody, despite fewer than one per cent of all children in England being in care. Over two-thirds (68 per cent) of under 18-year-olds are reconvicted within a year of release.

So I consider myself very, very fortunate that I never achieved my goal. Oranges are not the only fruit and porridge doesn’t count as one of your five a day.

Perfecting the digital/print experience

We can produce a quality magazine for you Contact Brian Pelan at brianpelan@viewdigital.org for a quote