VIEW – 50th issue by brian pelan

An independent social affairs magazine

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Issue 50, 2018

ÂŁ2.95

Crime and Justice

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50th issue of VIEW looks at crime and justice ngela Davis, the US political activist and academic, said in her book Are Prisons Obsolete: “On the whole, people tend to take prisons for granted. It is difficult to imagine life without them. At the same time, there is reluctance to face the realities hidden within them, a fear of thinking about what happens inside them.Thus, the prison is present in our lives and, at the same time, it is absent from our lives......The most difficult and urgent challenge today is that of creatively exploring new terrains of justice, where the prison no longer serves as our major anchor.” This is the second time that VIEW has examined this issue. Firstly though, I want to pay specific praise to guest editor Sid McDowell and NIACRO (formerly Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders). Without their invaluable support this issue of VIEW would not have seen the light of day. I have tried to provide a broad range of voices that look at crime and justice

By Brian Pelan VIEW editor brianpelan@viewdigital.org issues, including alternatives to imprisonment, rehabilitation initiatives; measures to try and assist victims of crime, and lastly but not least, the voices of some former prisoners on what life has been like for them since being released from custody.

I am particularly delighted to have secured an interview (pages four and five) with Professor Phil Scraton from Queen’s University. Prof Scraton’s research includes the investigation of and inquiry into controversial deaths, most notably the Hillsborough disaster on April 15, 1989, in which 96 Liverpool football fans were crushed to death. His views on justice, rehabilitation and prisons deserve to be widely read and shared. This issue of VIEW is a milestone as we have now created 50 issues of the magazine. It has been a fascinating journey as we have attempted to shed a light on a wide range of social affairs issue. I will end with a quote from the journalist Glenn Greenwald: “A key purpose of journalism is to provide an adversarial check on those who wield the greatest power by shining a light on what they do in the dark, and informing the public about those acts.”

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VIEW, Issue 50, 2018

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Editorial

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VIEW, an independent social affairs magazine in Northern Ireland

By guest editor Sid McDowell, Chair of NIACRO eading through previous editions of VIEW, I am struck by the increasing importance of partnerships for the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sectors. Partnerships amongst themselves and partnerships with local and central government. It seems that, in this vindictive age of austerity, and in the face of the pressures associated with competitiveness and the requirement to demonstrate value for money, partnerships can and do help to improve the effectiveness of service delivery and to build organisational resilience. We face a period in our history in which societal needs are increasing at a seemingly alarming rate; poverty is deepening, homelessness becoming more prevalent, and our education and health services appear to be entering a kind of free fall. Against that background, one major worry is the propensity for government to continue to cut funding available to the VCSE sectors, even when they are increasingly reliant on these sectors to deliver frontline services. Hitting the VCSE sectors with ongoing cuts appears to demonstrate a lack of understanding about the valuable support they are providing to the most vulnerable in our society. It causes one to question whether many in the political world still harbour the impression that the VCSE sectors can be ‘turned on and off like a tap’ and will always ‘bounce back’ when they are deemed by government to be needed. When we consider the ability of the VCSE sectors to deliver locally sensitive, cost-effective services at the point of need there is an unquestionable business case for investing in new strategic partnerships with government. Partnerships in which the VCSE sectors are recognised as valued, strategic partners with government in the delivery of a better life for all, particularly but not exclusively the most vulnerable.

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We face a period in our history in which societal needs are increasing at a seemingly alarming rate; poverty is deepening, homelessness becoming more prevalent, and our education and health services appear to be entering a kind of free fall

This requires government initiatives to embed the VCSE sectors’ contribution and necessary resources at the design stage and to adopt a joint approach to delivering solutions to civic society problems. Initiatives must also be underpinned by extensive, genuine public consultation to help secure the contribution and ‘buy-in’ of all sectors:VCSE; local and national government; and the business community. John McMullan, lately of the Bryson Charitable Group, has to be acknowledged for championing efforts pointing towards a new, changed form of partnership working. Working towards change is a challenge for everyone, at the individual and organisational level. Innovation is (and always will be) a challenge for VCSE sector organisations, as they strive to adapt to changing needs and circumstances. But the challenge to change and innovate is not solely for the VCSE sectors but must be embraced by those responsible for the delivery of public services too. Criminal Justice statutory agencies rightly challenges those it cares for to be responsive to change. I am encouraged that it is also working to create real partnerships that will help to support this process of change. The crying need though is for wider public sector innovation which displays rather more imagination than casual resort to competition and tendering. As NIACRO embarks on a new Corporate Plan 2018-2023, the organisation’s long experience assures us of the ongoing need for the services that NIACRO provides. It also evidences the resilience of the organisation; its ability to come through difficult times and confirms the support that NIACRO’s mission attracts from a wide range of stakeholders. As you read this edition of VIEW, I trust that you too will be encouraged by some of the innovations on display. Our hope must be that those responsible for the future direction of the interface between government and the VCSE sectors will take note.

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the BIG interview Professor Phil Scraton, left, from the School of Law, Queen’s University, Belfast, answers questions from VIEW editor Brian Pelan about his views on prison reform in Northern Ireland uestion: What should the balance be between retribution, rehabilitation and protection of the public when it comes to the purpose of prisons?

Answer: These are very different objectives reflecting very different interpretations of what constitutes ‘crime’ and who we define as ‘criminals’. While it is self-evident that a crime is committed when a law is breached – something we all do – what we are focusing on is loss of liberty. Prison is the most severe punishment administered in states that don’t have the death penalty. Reformists have always proposed that prison as punishment should be a last resort. In theory the judiciary and magistracy calibrate the punishment to the ‘crime’. But they are influenced by the media, politicians and public opprobrium and associated moral panics about the extent, seriousness and perceived ‘threat’ of crime. So imprisonment is used more readily, old condemned prisons are retained and new mega-prisons (Titan) are built. Remarkably, significant reduction in crime has been matched by significant increase in prison sentences. Thus retributive responses have negated the rhetoric of reform and rehabilitation. With people leaving prisons, having served short but repeat sentences, experiencing no demonstrable change in their personal circumstances, prison gates have become revolving doors. Inside, tension prevails: the control priorities are set against care imperatives; imposed security set against freedom of movement and association; institutional priorities elevated above personal needs and development. Q: Does prison rehabilitate or does it contribute to further offending? A: Punishment, in whatever form, is popularly represented as ‘payback’ through community service, fines or imprisonment. Loss of freedom proportionate loss to others of the crime committed. To what end? In popular discourse the prison

sentence combines punishment of the individual with the objective of deterring others. Historically, that crude use of imprisonment was tempered by reformist intent – meaningful support, services, education and work opportunities provided to help people turn their lives around. It doesn’t work like that. Prisons are overcrowded, landings often dangerous places, guards untrained to meet complex literacy and mental health needs, 23-hour lockdowns a regular occurrence. Historically, harsh conditions were calibrated to reflect public admonition and encourage crime prevention while providing regimes based on personal reflection, generating mindful restoration and enabling the prisoner’s eventual reintegration into ‘society’. Always in permanent tension the ideals of reform have been lost in institutions that are often little more than human warehousing. Q: What are effective alternatives to imprisonment? A: Only the most serious cases where a person is so damaged they pose a consistent threat to themselves or others should result in longer-term deprivation of liberty. They constitute a small number of those men, women and children incarcerated. For all others there has to be a creative alternative to imprisonment. As Angela Davis states, what is necessary is a ‘constellation of strategies and institutions’ including the ‘revitalisation of education at all levels, a health system that provides appropriate physical and mental health care to all, and a justice system based on reparation and reconciliation rather than retribution and vengeance’.

marginalised population now live. Poverty is woven into the very fabric of our social and community lives. In the North of Ireland, where I live and work, a third of all children live on or below the poverty line, many excluded from school and often caring for a parent incapacitated by severe mental and/or physical ill-health. Whatever the official denials, those of us committed to working and researching in the most economically marginalised communities bear witness to the correlation between poverty and mental ill-health and the school-to-prison pipeline. Q: Are there links between poverty, mental health issues and drug addiction in terms of the prison population in the UK? A: From our work we know only too well the dynamic and destructive interrelationships between poverty, mental ill-health – including state-sponsored drug dependence, and the use of ‘illicit’ and prescribed drugs – and addiction. Those who manage their lives without alcohol or drug dependency, who escape the ravages of mental and physical ill-health and provide the backbone to their communities, do so despite their situation. However, the relationships between poverty, mental ill-health and drugs/ alcohol dependency are self-evident both inside and outside the prison walls. Q: Are prisoners who are released equipped with the necessary skills to re-engage with the community?

Q: How do you respond to the notion of 'revolving door' regarding prisoners who reoffend?

A: No, rarely does a person leave prison either with appropriate skills to find a job. For the majority of prisoners there is minimal provision or opportunity for the necessary development of social, life or material skills.

A: The so-called revolving door is the clearest manifestation of the state’s abject failure to provide constructive and creative responses to the material conditions in which an increasingly economically

Q: What are your views about the numbers of prisoners in Northern Ireland who have taken their own lives whilst inside or soon after release?

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Prof Phil Scraton’s research includes the investigation of and inquiry into controversial deaths, most notably the Hillsborough football disaster on April 15, 1989, when 96 Liverpool fans were fatally injured A: Deaths in custody, near deaths and severe self-harm together with deaths soon after release provide the clearest evidence that prisons are not appropriate places for troubled people. I am a founder member of INQUEST, the organisation dedicated to supporting families whose loved ones take their own lives while in the care of the state. These lonely deaths are a constant reminder of the failure to respond to the complex needs of those incarcerated in our name. Q: Should the internal Joint Review (not yet published) from the Department of Justice and the Department of Health in Northern Ireland be open to scrutiny? A: Of course, transparency is an essential element of democratic government. However, I consider the Joint Review, still unpublished two years after its commissioning, to be flawed in its inception. It is internal and conducted under the direction of two Stormont departments whose policies and implementation require open, detailed scrutiny. An independent panel of inquiry is required whose constitution has the breadth and depth of experience to scrutinise thoroughly the NIPS’ operation since publication of the highly critical Owers Report and the subsequent scathing independent inspection reports. Q: Would you support calls for an independent review of penal reform in Northern Ireland? A:Yes. The Owers Review was both independent and comprehensive. Ostensibly it initiated significant changes in penal policy and practice in Northern Ireland’s prisons. In reality, however, much has remained unchanged – as subsequent inspections have demonstrated. A further independent review is now necessary focusing on: healthcare provision and delivery, specifically on mental ill-health and the pressing need for adequate on-site

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Whatever the official denials, those of us committed to working and researching in the most economically marginalised communities bear witness to the correlation between poverty and mental ill-health and the school-to-prison pipeline care; time out of cell; work, education and skills opportunities. It would also consider the unacceptable lack of progress in implementing Owers, not least the failure to provide gender-appropriate accommodation and regime for women – an issue our research highlighted over a decade ago.

since then have maintained contact with prisoners’ writing. My co-authored book Prisons Under Protest has remarkable written contributions on the abject conditions in Peterhead in the 1980s/1990s. The international Journal by Prisoners on Prisons is exceptional and currently I am working with a prisoner poet in England. Q: Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the potential of prison reform in Northern Ireland? A: Nothing of substance has emerged from the NIPS’ response to the succession of critical reports – our 2005/ 2007 Human Rights Commission publications on women prisoners, independent monitoring boards, successive independent inspectorate reports – or from the experiences of released prisoners, fill me with optimism. Reforms considered essential in their inception remain unrealised. Work and education opportunities, particularly in Maghaberry, remain severely limited and many prisoners are released in a worse mental state than they arrive. The majority of reforms recommended as essential by Owers, echoed by Corston in England ten years ago, have not been implemented. While I am well aware that my long-term research contributed to justice and accountability for the Hillsborough families I deeply regret that our work on prisons in Northern Ireland has been ignored. Profound institutional deficiencies can be addressed only by a root and branch overhaul of sentencing and incarceration underpinned by provision of communitybased alternatives with trained staff able to meet the complex material and healthcare needs of those requiring support.

Q: Can you tell me about your writing work with prisoners? A: I have been involved with prisoners’ writing since teaching classes in Walton, now HMP Liverpool, in the 1970s. I worked with Jimmy Boyle at the Gateway Exchange, Edinburgh, in the 1980s and

• Prof Phil Scraton’s co-authored books include: Prisons Under Protest; The Violence of Incarceration; The Incarceration of Women; Women’s Imprisonment and the Case for Abolition.

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COMMENT Prison is not the only response to crime Olwen Lyner, Chief Executive of NIACRO, believes it is vital that community and voluntary organisations in Northern Ireland are encouraged to offer support to all those who have offended rime (and how to respond to it) is a topic on which almost everyone has a view and there are many ways we can view what goes on within our justice system. Last year, for example, just over 28,000 cases went through the Magistrates and High Courts in Northern Ireland. Of these, 83.3 percent resulted in a conviction. Interestingly, 44.1 percent of these convictions were motoring related. Of those convicted of all offences, 55.6 percent received a monetary penalty and 12.3 percent a prison sentence.1 Public and media debate often focuses on prison as the solution to crime or offending behaviour. However, prison is not and cannot be the appropriate response to all crime. It is interesting to consider what happens to those who do not receive prison sentences, particularly as significant efforts are currently being made to develop alternatives and so divert people from prison. Such alternatives include the Enhanced Combination Order, supervised by PBNI but involving partners from the community and voluntary sectors to support people throughout their Order. The Department of Justice is also trialling Problem-Solving Justice Courts; opportunities for people appearing in court, who face complex needs, to engage with specialist support – sometimes connected through links into the community and voluntary sectors which, if entered into, could influence sentencing. The reasons why people find themselves before the courts can be complex. Most of those who we connect with at NIACRO have experienced a range of social problems – many of which have been the focus of previous issues of the VIEW. These problems are not an excuse for offending, but they help us to understand why people offend, and more importantly, what kind of support and engagement might be helpful. Moreover, it highlights the need to be responsive to these issues. We want to help the individual who has offended to lead a better and more fulfilling life away from crime. Our concern is, therefore, that support services contribute to reducing

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We need more engagement with and between groups that have the potential to help people to re-integrate into their own communities and family life further offending, thereby reducing harm to future victims. It is vital that any society has a process that engages with those who have broken its laws, but it is never enough to leave it there. In the Programme for Government (PfG), the Northern Ireland Executive committed to “a safe community where we respect the law, and each other” (Outcome 7). The PfG held out an ambition to drive resources to the frontline and this represented an opportunity for the community and voluntary sectors to support the delivery of associated outcomes. Early

conversations at the top of government gave hope of a new era. This was characterised by collaboration at a range of levels across sectors and organisations. For NIACRO and other third sector organisations working in the criminal justice field – many of whom feature in this issue – it would mean partnerships with statutory criminal justice agencies. When this works well, it allows us to offer services and support to individuals, in custody and in the community, in a triangulated relationship with their statutory supervisor. This model represents an effective means of supporting desistance from crime and increased well-being for the individual. But we need more… As outlined above, not everyone receives a prison or community supervision order. It is therefore vital that community and voluntary organisations are encouraged to offer support to all who have offended. We need more engagement with and between groups that have the potential to help people to re-integrate into their own communities and family life. We have heard many times that our sector is a crowded field, but that analysis is often as a response to funding calls. It is not a sensible recognition of the social fabric that the third sector offers as it places itself in a difficult space, engaging with the complex social problems that leave people in distress. In sponsoring this edition, NIACRO is shining a light on the need to have ambition in line with the PfG. It needs to be a ‘programme for all’. For this to be achieved, we need all sectors, across all Departments to embrace the challenge and be willing to play a part; to be encouraged to act cooperatively not forced into unnecessary competitive relationships. 1– Research and Statistical Bulletin 16/2018 Court Prosecutions, Convictions and Out of Court Disposals Statistics for Northern Ireland, 2017 – DoJ, June 2018

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Sponsored by NIACRO

A chance to start again... “I really don’t want to give you my name” the softly-spoken middle aged woman says in a worried tone to one of NIACRO’s disclosure helpline advisers. She pauses and then adds in an almost whisper… “I’m just so embarrassed that I’m even calling you”. She is immediately reassured by the adviser that the disclosure service operates in the strictest of confidence and that she does not need to reveal her identity to receive advice and support. There is an audible sigh of relief and she starts telling her story. It’s a familiar one. A conviction that was handed down years ago when she was in a very different place, is following her around on job applications and shutting minds and doors to her as a possible candidate before she even gets a chance to speak to an employer. She has so much to give but many won’t take the time to consider her application because of stereotypes and preconceptions about people with convictions. These negative preconceptions exist despite the fact that research has shown that people with criminal convictions are often more hard working and more loyal to employers as they tend to be grateful for the opportunity. Every year, the courts across Northern Ireland hand out thousands of convictions. (In 2017 alone there were 23,630 convictions) to people from all walks of life. People living with convictions cover the entire width of the socio-economic spectrum including well educated professionals and range in age from 10-year-old children (10 years of age is the legal age for criminal responsibility in Northern Ireland – one of the lowest ages in Europe) right up to senior citizens. Meaningful employment has long been recognised as one of the most effective stabilising factors in helping people rebuild their lives and stay

crime-free post-conviction. Isn’t that what we want as a society? More people rehabilitated equals less crime, less victims, less already stretched tax-payers money spent on tackling re-offending which costs the UK economy £15 billion per annum. It’s impossible to count the actual human cost of crime each year (98,301 PSNI recorded crimes for 2017) but statistically we will very likely personally know victims of crime ourselves and know how unpleasant it is to suffer damage or loss. Responsible risk management is part of every recruitment and vetting process for all candidates and there does need to be mechanisms to honestly explore whether the role in question is suitable to the actual conviction(s) declared. By their nature, some convictions make some job choices inappropriate and people with convictions need to be realistic about the risk factors employers need to consider. Depending on the seriousness of the case in question, a person convicted of theft may not be suitable for a role in finance but could still make an excellent employee in a non-financial role such as a recruiter or administrator. The Disclosure Helpline is there to support employers too and many of the calls are from HR managers and recruiters who have come across a candidate who has declared a conviction and they are unsure as to how to proceed. ‘I’d like to give her the job but I’m not sure if I can?’ says Caroline (not her real name) when discussing what one applicant has written on her application form. The Adviser talks her through the role and the responsibilities and the conviction and she decides to bring the information back to the team leader for discussion.

We never hear back in some cases as to whether or not the applicant was appointed, but we get feedback that the employers are grateful to be able to discuss the issues they face and get clarity. NIACRO also provides direct training to employers around the ‘ban the box’ concept of leaving the question about criminal convictions to the last stages of the interview process, to ensure that candidates are not unfairly treated in the recruitment stages and only the candidates that are considered good enough for job offer are actually vetted. This means if there were ten candidates interviewed for a role and one is offered the job, then the background checks only need to be done for one candidate and the other nine unsuccessful candidates can know that if they didn’t get offered the role it was not because of their convictions. Again appropriate risk assessments are carried out to make sure that whoever gets appointed is indeed suitable. People with convictions are punished at the time of conviction and where there is evidence that the person has committed to a life free from crime and has changed their behaviour, it makes sense for second chances to be given. It is unfair that many capable people continue to be simply dismissed out of hand for opportunities in work, education and volunteering. It is time to rethink how we approach reintegrating and rehabilitating people with convictions back into the fold after the original offences have been addressed. We believe that fair recruitment processes, realistic risk assessments and appropriate appointments of otherwise good employees and students leads to better outcomes for individuals, families, businesses and communities as well as wider society. Do you?

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COMMENT Why prisons play a crucial role in society Paul Doran, the newly-appointed Director of Rehabilitation for the Northern Ireland Prison Service, says he is focussed on ensuring that the community becomes a safer place where we respect the law and each other ehabilitation is defined as restoring a person to normal life after a sentence of imprisonment. In the Draft Programme for Government, Indicator 39 is to reduce reoffending and as the newly-appointed Director of Rehabilitation for the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS), I am focussed on ensuring our community becomes a safer place where we respect the law and each other. Prisons have a crucial role in making Northern Ireland safer by challenging and supporting people in our care to change. We do that by working with each individual who is sent to us by the courts and by putting rehabilitation at the core of our work. However, the Prison Service cannot meet the challenges alone – delivery can only be achieved by working with others. The Justice Agencies work closely together in the Reducing Offending Partnership (ROP) and the Public Protection Arrangements for Northern Ireland (PPANI) to make Northern Ireland a safer place. By tackling the root causes of offending and providing research-informed interventions we can target the motivation for offending behaviour and reduce the number of victims of crime. From my experience there are three areas which are critical in supporting people away from offending, especially after they are released from prison. They are accommodation; employment and a positive support structure. Accommodation provides the anchor for someone who has previously led a chaotic life and acts as a springboard for other crucial steps such as obtaining and sustaining employment as well as accessing healthcare and addiction services. One in five people entering prison last year stated they were either homeless, roofless or in a hostel prior to custody. A partnership approach with the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, Probation Board NI (PBNI) and Housing Rights Service is critical to ensure appropriate accommodation is available to people leaving custody and prisoners themselves have been trained to provide advice and guidance to other inmates. Half of those people entering prison have no qualifications and 70 percent were

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There are three areas which are critical in supporting people away from offending, especially after they are released. They are accommodation; employment and a positive support structure unemployed prior to custody. A prison sentence is an opportunity to improve literacy, language and numeracy skills which leads to better employability prospects, a key factor in rehabilitation. Since 2015, Belfast Met and North West Regional College have provided Learning and Skills in our three prisons through a modern, fit-for-purpose curriculum of educational and vocational

training courses. NIACRO has joined with NIPS and PBNI to draw down European Social Funding for a three-strand project Working Well (Short-term, Long-Term and ‘through the gate’) to prepare prisoners for the employment market. Extern has also obtained European funding for a training programme to reintegrate former offenders and vulnerable people in the North-West, complementing its ‘Extern Works’ Mallusk project , while the Prince’s Trust and the Advantage Foundation also provide employability programmes in custody. Substance misuse contributed to the offending of two thirds of prisoners and over half had experienced depression or low mood prior to custody. The South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust is responsible for the provision of primary physical and mental healthcare to prisoners, including addiction services delivered by Start 360. As we learn more about the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences, we can design interventions to assist the large number of prisoners who have been socially excluded and led chaotic lifestyles so that they are better equipped to deal with life in the community and lead more positive lives. Finally, experience shows that close family ties play an important part in supporting prisoners to make and sustain changes that can aid their rehabilitation. Many prisoners’ relationships are broken and fragmented as a result of their offending often leaving their families feeling unsupported and increasing the likelihood of inter-generational offending, mental health and financial problems. Barnardo’s and NIACRO along with the Chaplaincy service provide support for families and for prisoners to maintain appropriate family links which also help prevent future involvement in the justice system. In my first few weeks in the Prison Service, I have been greatly impressed by the dedication of the staff who are fully committed to supporting and challenging the people in our care to change. Along with our partners we are making a real difference, and we will continue to play our part in making Northern Ireland a safer community for everyone.

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Problem-solving courts: Justice for the 21st Century? By Brian Pelan roblem-solving justice is a term that we are going to hear more frequently in Northern Ireland. In the forward to a book called Good Courts:The Case for Problem-Solving Justice, Jonathan Lippman, the former Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, wrote in 2015: “At its core, the idea of problemsolving justice is simple: the justice system will achieve better outcomes by addressing the underlying problems that bring people into the system, not just the specific offences for which they are arrested.” Geraldine O’Hare, the new Director of Rehabilitation at the Probation Board of Northern Ireland, is excited at the potential of problem-solving justice initiatives here. Five pilot initiatives have been developed in Northern Ireland: • Substance misuse court • Family drug and alcohol court • Enhanced combination orders • Support hubs • Domestic violence perpetrator programme “What we're trying to do through the problem-solving initiatives is to reduce the number of people coming before the courts, coming into prison and coming onto probation,” said Ms O’Hara “We’re still in pilot phases. It’s going to take some time. A lot of the work that we have based our projects on is from the

Geraldine O’Hare, Director of Rehabilitation at the Probation Board of Northern Ireland United States of America and the research that we have done there. “In the 1980s the US decided that they can’t keep putting people into prisons with all these different problems. They may have the highest prison population in the world but they have got problemsolving right. “When it comes to drugs and mental health they have realised they can no longer say that they will lock these people up and throw away the keys. That's why they introduced problem-solving courts. “Drug courts led the way in the 1980s. They have thousands of them all

over the US. They work. They are effective at addressing the root causes. They are cost-effective. For every one dollar invested is a three-dollar saving. “The research from the US would say that 75 percent of individuals that attend a drug court programme do not reoffend within two years.” “I always talk about the big three issues: drugs/alcohol, domestic violence and mental health. If you can crack those three things in the justice system, you will go a long way in solving them,” says Geraldine. “I think that there are people who need to be incarcerated because of their level of risk. However, if you look at the research, it tells us that for those whose offence may warrant a community-based intervention that alternatives to short sentences are better served in the community. “Everything we do in probation is about holding people to account. It's also about trying to encourage and ensure that these people will develop a lifestyle that keeps them out of trouble.” When asked about financial constraints on budgets, Ms O’Hare replied: “The financial uncertainty hits everybody. It is difficult to plan for future projects in this world of short-term funding.” • Good Courts: The Case for Problem-Solving Justice by Greg Berman and John Feinblatt. www.quidprobooks.com

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Looking out for children when a parent goes to jail By Brian Pelan hen a parent goes to prison the effect on the family, especially children, is often huge. They can be left confused, ashamed or angry. Belfast woman Deirdre Sloan, the Children’s Services Manager for the Barnardo’s Parenting Matters project for the last 25 years, spoke to me about how her team work to try and repair the damage that a conviction causes. “Our focus is always on the children even though we’re not working directly with them,” said Deirdre. “Our focus is about what are the needs of the child. “When a parent goes to prison or even if they’re not given a custodial sentence, it still has a huge impact on the child; everything from the fear, the stigma within their own community, the worry about that parent, financial strain, going to school, other children knowing about what’s going on, bullying, some families having to move home. It has a huge impact on them. “We work directly with the parent in prison or in the community because some parents won’t get a custodial sentence but might have been given a community order. “We will support the prisoners by focusing on their children rather than their offence. “It’s not that we ignore the offence

Focus: Deirdre Sloan but we put the focus on the child. We do one-to-one and group therapy.” Deirdre added: “Parents who have been convicted often struggle in how to explain the situation to their children. “Many children have been told that ‘daddy is at work’ or ‘daddy is in hospital.’ That is OK if the child is two or three but as they get older they become more aware. The parent doesn’t always have the words or language to explain it; they’re also frightened what the child will do with the information. “We support parents in how to explain or tell their children and why honesty is important. We’re mindful of people’s situations and we don’t tell them you have to do this.”

Deirdre supervises a team of around seven staff; one is based in Hydebank, two in Maghaberry, one in Magilligan, two members work in the community with people on probation orders, and an administrator. Another issue that Deirdre raised is the prisoners who don’t want to tell their children that they are in jail “A lot of prisoners, especially those who have been sentenced for the first time, don’t want their children to visit as they may be ashamed or embarrassed. “We will challenge them to think about what is good for the child. We’ve had children say: ‘Does my daddy get any dinner or a bed to sleep in?’ Children worry about the very basic things. “We say to the prisoners that they can alleviate those concerns by allowing the child to see them. If a visit is not possible we encourage regular phone contact.” ‘We also work with life sentence prisoners. It’s about helping the child maintain a link and for the prisoner to let the child move on with their life.” Deirdre admits that prisons are a challenging place to work but remains committed to the services that she and her team deliver. • For more information go to www.barnardos.org.uk/parenting matters.htm

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Can violent men change? Writer Sarah Stafford looks at the effectiveness of domestic violence perpetrator programmes BC’s recent Panorama documentary Can Violent Men Change? shone a controversial spotlight on the effectiveness of domestic violence perpetrator programmes in changing offender behaviours. While some viewed these programmes as a positive intervention in working with offenders to address their attitudes and beliefs that perpetuate violence and ensure their abusive patterns of behaviour don’t continue into future relationships; others were more sceptical of their capacity to change the coercive and controlling behaviours that underpin domestic abuse. Pilot programmes; Promoting Positive Relationships and the Respectful Relationships Intervention are currently being rolled out by the Probation Board for Northern Ireland in collaboration with the Western Trust and Derry Magistrates Court. The role of the Women’s Aid link worker is to support and safeguard the partner or former partner of the offender engaged in the programme. Marie Brown, Director of Foyle Women’s Aid, said: “We are delighted to work in partnership with the Probation Board of Northern Ireland (PBNI) and Social Services and to date there has been a good uptake. The programme makes sense and is the right way to go to ensure the whole family is supported.” Marie said the role of the link worker was vital. “No perpetrator programme should be run in isolation. Women are kept informed throughout. The link worker is

Support: Marie Brown, Director of Foyle Women’s Aid in Derry there to ensure the woman is safe and there is no further risk to her or her children. There can be risks involved when challenging violent men to address their behaviour, especially in terms of anger.” In 2015, a review by the University of Ulster into female Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) survivor perspectives on the changes brought about by IPV perpetrator programmes indicated that victims reported elements of positive change through their partner’s engagement, but the sustainability of behavioural change was uncertain and other barriers to change needed to be accounted for such as mental health and alcohol or substance misuse. Marie said: “It’s important not to take a certain stance and instead, come up with solutions to the issue. It will never be ‘one size fits all’ and consideration needs to be

given to other factors such as alcohol abuse.” She added: “No one programme will work for everyone but that’s not to say everyone shouldn’t be given the opportunity to stop if they acknowledge their behaviour. Some people do want to change. We can continue to work with victims, but for serial perpetrators with two, three, four or more victims, more is required to break that cycle.” Marie added: “Feedback from women is that they want the violent behaviour to stop, and often they want the family life or co-parenting to continue. It’s better for everyone involved. Women would often say that the relationship is not bad all of the time.” The programmes are targeted at tackling the root cause of offending and working with perpetrators who have pleaded guilty and acknowledged their harmful behaviours. By doing so, the aim is to enable offenders to build positive relationships in the future and reduce reoffending. It is hoped that a focus on treatment as well as early intervention will contribute towards safer communities, a reduction in the prison population, offer more options for judges and prove to be more cost-effective long-term. The Trust element of the pilot programme has reported that, at present, participant attrition rates have been low and feedback from the Trust and those engaged with it has been positive to date.

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Using Mugshots to break re-offending

Some of the products which Mugshots produces

By Lisa Smyth vercoming the stigma of their past and finding someone willing to give them a chance can be one of the biggest challenges faced by young offenders. However, Mugshots is an awardwinning business that is doing just that and is helping to break the re-offending cycle in the process. The innovative scheme equips the young prisoners at Hydebank Wood College with the skills, support and resources they need to help them move on effectively from a life of crime. The brainchild of Gerry Ford, the Mugshots programme has been up and running for seven years. As director of Advantage NI, an organisation based in Northern Ireland that provides services to young people around the world, Gerry had the experience and desire to want to help young offenders. “I was doing voluntary work in Hydebank and we were talking about how high the re-offending rate was,” said Gerry. “We were chatting about how important work is when people get out of prison when it comes to preventing them from re-offending. I just had a wee lightbulb moment where I thought we should set up a business that would provide the right type of work experience and skills that employers are looking for.” The result was Mugshots, a printing business like no other – as a social enterprise, it reinvests all its profits back into further enhancing the employability of young offenders. Demand for the programme is high,

Desire: Gerry Ford according to Gerry. “We always have a waiting list for guys to get started and we’ve had 126 go through so far,” he said. “We’ve had 10 guys go on and set up their own business. They develop so many skills through the programme and you have to remember that there is a back story for every person who is in prison. “I’m not excusing their offending, but most of the guys don’t have the skills that most people take for granted. “We’ve had guys come to us who don’t know how to make eye contact, they don’t know how to shake your hand, and they go on to make presentations in front of potential customers from the private business sector.” The programme has gone from strength to strength since it was first set up and Gerry is keen to see it continue to grow. To date, they have exported goods as far away as New York, Chicago, Hong Kong and Melbourne. And they have just set up a

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workshop outside of Hydebank to provide ongoing support to participants of the scheme after they leave prison. However, Mugshots is much more than just offering opportunities to young offenders. It is behind a scheme to help tackle the stigma attached to mental ill health and the high suicide rate in young men. The LSN campaign encourages people to stop and listen to those who may be experiencing poor mental health and also strives to encourage young men to speak out when they are struggling. Gerry said they have been overwhelmed by the success of the project. “We’d lost two guys to suicide so we knew how important the subject is,” he said. “We print the LSN (listen) message on clothing and encouraged young people to wear them. Our original aim was to recruit 100 young people within a year who would act as LSN ambassadors and wear our printed garments to say they would listen to someone else. “We went out to colleges across Northern Ireland on a road show and took some former offenders to do a presentation and it took a life of its own. “Within the first month, we got 2,500 people and we now have over 4,500.” So, how does Gerry react to those people who believe that prison is a place solely for punishment? “I think that’s very short-sighted,” he said. “If we can convince the young guys there is something else other than committing crime, then there will be fewer victims and that is essentially what we’re about.”

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COMMENT

Positive moves to tackle issue of reoffending Richard Good, Director of the Turnaround Project in Northern Ireland, believes it’s in all our interests to help make the journey a success when a prisoner finishes their sentence and is released back into the community n 2002 Jeremy Travis published a book entitled But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Re-entry. The title of the book reminds us that nearly every one of us who is sentenced to serve a prison sentence will be released, sooner or later, to live in the community. When we hear of someone being sent to prison it may be tempting to turn our backs, thinking “case closed”, and that the system will take care of things from there on. But imprisonment is not the end of the journey for the person who has been convicted. And there’s plenty of evidence to show that the system alone hasn’t been able to take care of things from there on – at least not in the sense of preventing people from re-offending. Department of Justice figures show that of the adults released from our prisons in 2014/15, 61.2 percent had committed previous offences, and 37.4 percent went on to commit a further offence within 12 months of release. Turnaround is a new organisation that is seeking to play a part in tackling these unacceptably high rates of reoffending. We are doing so by implementing a model built on the wealth of evidence that exists about what helps or hinders people on their journey away from offending. While it’s a different journey for each person, things like having a job, a home, stable relationships and a personal identity that is more than a criminal record make a huge difference to many. As does a system that enables people to move on by providing support before and after they finish their sentences. And a community that accepts the principle that each person has the capacity to change and is willing to provide opportunities and a helping hand during a critical period of transition. At the core of our model is ‘transitional employment’ – jobs that begin

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At the core of our model is ‘transitional employment’ – jobs that begin before people leave prison and continue afterwards

before people leave prison and continue afterwards. In Northern Ireland, we don’t record how many people leave prisons with a job to go to, but in England and Wales it’s around one in four. And even if people do find a job upon release, they are often not ready for ‘conventional’ employment environments. So Turnaround is establishing enterprises that will provide real jobs, in real businesses, but with an ethos that makes it easier for people with an offending background to find their place, get used to the world of work, and ready themselves for the next stage of their journey. Alongside that, we will support each person to develop a positive self-identity, to plan for their own future, and to find ways to turn those plans into reality. We call it Turnaround because we are working to help turn around the lives of people who have ended up in our justice system but want to leave offending behind. But also because to do that we need to turn around the wider community, encouraging people to look at, not away from, the prisons in our midst and the people we send there; finding ways to engage with and support people on their journey back to live among us. These journeys aren’t easy; not for the people who are imprisoned, not for the system they go into, and not for the wider community to which they will return. If they were, re-offending wouldn’t be an issue. But it is an issue and one that we should turn around and work together to address. Everyone in our community who goes to prison comes back, and it’s in all our interests to help make the journey a success when they do. • For more information, or to get in touch with Turnaround, visit www.theturnaroundproject.org

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Restorative practices can be very positive for victims, says Gillian Montgomery, Assistant Director and Victims Lead at the Probation Board for Northern Ireland

Safeguarding victims of crime when offenders are released By Sarah Stafford father of a teenage girl has recently expressed outrage that the man convicted of sexually assaulting his daughter and previously convicted of rape, was released from prison without his family being informed. But what measures can be implemented to inform and safeguard victims where offenders are either given custodial or probation supervised sentences? I spoke to Gillian Montgomery, Assistant Director and Victims Lead at the Probation Board for Northern Ireland (PBNI), about the benefits and limitations of victim information schemes. “I don’t know the specifics of this case,” Gillian said, “But if victims are not registered to the information scheme, an offender can be released without them knowing, it’s as harsh as that. Our remits are confined by legislation” The Victim Information Scheme seeks to ensure that victims receive information about what it means when someone is sentenced to an Order which requires supervision by the Probation Board. The Prisoner Release Victim Information Scheme is available to any victim where the offender is sentenced to a term of imprisonment for more than six months. The schemes are co-located within the Victim Information Unit, overseen by the PBNI. Enrolment on the information schemes is voluntary, with the onus on the victim to register. I asked Gillian about the implications of this, “The PBNI provided evidence to the Justice Committee a number of years ago

Active steps: Gillian Montgomery about the restrictions of legislation and victims being expected to register at such a difficult time. The repercussions are, if people don’t have the information, they can’t prepare.” In 2017/2018, there was a 42 percent increase in registrations for the Victim Information Scheme from the previous year, “Active steps have been taken to increase enrolment,” said Gillian. “Online registration was introduced last November. It’s more accessible for victims and available irrespective of the offence.” She added, “We write to every victim where there is a community sentence involved. There needs to be a balance in respecting the victim’s views and rights and letting them know the option is there. It’s important to raise the profile of the schemes using the media, website, victim and witness steering groups.” Research in 2005 undertaken by PBNI that looked at how the scheme might operate, found that victims felt vulnerable,

unsupported and had little knowledge of the role of PBNI. I asked Gillian how the establishment of the Victim Information Unit has developed to meet the needs of victims? “Colocation of the schemes ensures the seamless transfer of information from custody to community. We work with the specific needs of victims and signpost to Women’s Aid, Nexus, Support After Murder and Manslaughter, etc.” A Specific Enhanced Combination Order has been rolled out in a number of courts as a direct alternative to short custodial sentences. It’s a community sentence which requires offenders to participate in victimfocused work. Restorative work is also carried out if the offender and victim are both willing. Gillian added, “Restorative practices can be very positive for victims. “One case study involved a mother whose daughter was killed by dangerous driving and who chose to engage in an indirect mediation process with the offender and a PBNI victim liaison officer. “She was able to have questions answered that weren’t answered in court. It was raw and painful but helped her deal with issues about the death.” How are the schemes measured in terms of victim impact? “A register check is kept internally and audited monthly. The Criminal Justice Inspectorate are due to undertake an inspection on care and treatment of victims which will look at it more widely.” As of August this year, 1,709 victims have been provided with a service by the Victim Information Scheme.

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COMMENT Looking forward on our 25th birthday Anne-Marie McClure, Chief Executive of Start360, casts her eye over the services that they deliver in the justice arena and the challenges and opportunities which lie ahead for her organisation tart360 delivers 28 services across Northern Ireland and seven of those are delivering directly to our service users in the justice arena. Most of our remaining services have wider justice links, for example in the prevention of offending, and preventing the harm caused by substance use. Supporting positive change for our service users is what Start360 is all about – our mission is Change Starts Here. In this our 25th birthday year, we’ve been looking forward to what the future holds for our justice services.

Services in the prisons Our AD:EPT drug and alcohol service is now in its 10th year and is constantly evolving to meet service user need. Funded by the South Eastern Trust, it’s an exemplary model of partnership working. Our mentoring scheme in Magilligan is going from strength to strength – and is now being introduced in Maghaberry. Our staff team delivers a number of specialist interventions including SMART recovery, auricular acupuncture, and the Building Skills for Recovery Programme. The Mentoring and Advocacy Service continues to operate in Hydebank College and we value the relationship we have built with NI Prison Service (NIPS) there. Building on this foundation, and a pilot programme which took place in 2016, we have recently commenced a joint initiative between Start360 and NIPS – the HeadWay Landing. This is an innovative approach to supporting young people to engage with interventions at a meaningful level, encouraging and motivating those who struggle to engage. Services in the community Our AD:EPT2 throughcare service, funded by the Big Lottery, is soon coming to an end and we are currently seeking new funding for it – it has had a substantial impact on recidivism for those who have engaged and independent evaluation has shown how important the individual and family supports have been.

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The impacts of short-term funding, austerity, budget cuts, the lack of devolution and the spectre of Brexit all do pose challenges, but this is a small place and we have strong relationships We also deliver the ADJUST throughcare service for young people leaving custody. Its very successful evaluation has shown the clear impact this has on recidivism. Our RDV service has received renewed funding from The Royal British Legion to work with veterans leaving custody – based on need identified by our AD:EPT2 team. Finally, the Engage Women’s Project has seen us move into a

new funding relationship with PBNI and our recent Wellbeing Day was testament to the skills and confidence the women have been building as a result. The future for the voluntary sector in the justice system It would be easy to simply list all the barriers and obstacles currently faced by the sector – but that’s not the Start360 way. There are always opportunities and we highlighted some of these in our response to last year’s Prisons 2020 consultation. We highlighted the need for better communications within the prison service, between them and their partners, and externally to show some of the good work which takes place. One focus of our response was on the opportunities created by technology: “More use of technology is essential both for NIPS to function in 2017 and going forward and for those in custody to be skilled in technology before release. Use of technology should be seen as an opportunity and not as a threat so long as risk is properly managed.” The impacts of short-term funding, austerity, budget cuts, the lack of devolution and the spectre of Brexit all do pose challenges, but this is a small place and we have strong relationships which can withstand financial pressures to focus on innovative and collaborative work. We see our future in the justice system as one of partnership working – being creative while taking measured risks, and always putting our service users at the centre. We look forward to the coming years and building on our relationships to ensure that, as we say in our vision, every person leaves us stronger.

• If you’d like to find out more about the work of Start360, you can contact them via their website www.start360.org

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The former Maze prison in Northern Ireland which held hundreds of men who were convicted during the Troubles

‘I believe in a better society. I believe in reconciliation and rehabilitation’ VIEW editor Brian Pelan talks to Professor Peter Shirlow who is on the Review Panel in Northern Ireland which provides advice and support to those who have experienced difficulties accessing employment as a result of having a conflict-related conviction

Professor Peter Shirlow

rofessor Peter Shirlow and I met up recently at Castle Buildings which is situated in the Stormont estate to discuss the work of the Review Panel. The Panel, which comprises Professor Shirlow (Independent Chair); Grainne Killen (The Executive Office); Peter Bunting (Irish Congress of Trade Unions) and Alan Mercer (Confederation of British Industry), was established in August 2010 as part of the St. Andrew’s Agreement. Prof Shirlow started off by talking about the terrain in which former conflictrelated former prisoners live in. “Anybody who has a conflict-related conviction will be affected by any vetting laws, mostly concerning rehabilitation of offenders legislation. There is also another section, which is the Employment Article 2(4) of the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order, which says that anybody whose opinion supported the use of violence against the people of Northern Ireland can also be vetted. “All employers in Northern Ireland have a right not to employ or interview anybody with a conflict-related conviction.

And those persons affected do not have any rights, like you and I would have, to go to a tribunal or to ask questions. Most of the people never have spent convictions. “At the end of the day, you basically have a peace process in which 25,000 to 30,000 people can be vetted out of the labour market and who do not have the same equality rights as those who don’t have convictions.” “Sixty percent of former prisoners have been vetted out of a job that they were qualified for. “We also have a peculiar situation in Northern Ireland where there is a labour shortage. We can also assume that post Brexit that those labour shortages will get worse.Yet two-thirds of conflict-related former prisoners are still unemployed. “We have a group of people who have educated themselves, many of them got degrees whilst in custody, who are sitting on the dole and unable to get jobs for which they are qualified for.” I asked Prof Shirlow has the Review Panel been a failure given the current situation which affects conflict-related

former prisoners? “We have got more companies to accept the Guidance Principles of the Review Panel,” replied Prof Shirlow. The Guidance Principles sit within the overall framework of existing legislative obligations that include employmentrelated record checks and the right of employers to vet. Objective assessments when recruiting those with conflict-related convictions should: • Focus on a person’s abilities, skills, experience and qualifications, • Consider the nature of the conviction and its relevance to the job in question, • Identify the risks to the organisation’s business, customers, clients and employees, • Recognise that having a record does not always mean a lack of skills, qualifications and experience. Prof Shirlow said:“One of the problems of the Good Friday Agreement was that the language was all aspirational, it was never made concrete. It means that we’re still in a situation where employers can vet.” He took the opportunity of our interview to praise the work of NIACRO who are involved with the ex-prisoner working group. “They have provided us with evidence and support and have helped us with the Guidance Principles. They have been very supportive of our work.” We ended our conversation with Prof Shirlow being asked what makes him give up his time on a voluntary basis to be a part of the Review Panel. “Although I’m strongly opposed to the use of violence I do believe in conflict transformation. I believe in the peace process. I think we can have a better society than the one we have. I believe in reconciliation and rehabilitation.”

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Will I ever lose the leper’s bell? Northern Ireland man Michael Irwin, who served six years of a 12-year prison sentence for cocaine importation, argues that he has served his sentence to society but poses the question will society ever forgive and forget his criminal conviction? y conjured image is not one of a tattily shrouded, crouched and hooded leper hobbling along misty cobbled streets toting his bell but more Peter Sellers’ ludicrous Quasimodo disguise in the 1976 film The Pink Panther Strikes Again and the scene where the hump inflates and the ever unfortunate Clouseau floats over the rooftops of Paris lamenting ‘ahh, the bells, the bells’. I often use images like this as a type of coping mechanism when I find myself in challenging situations, after all, mental health is no laughing matter. In May 2017 I found myself in The Royal Victoria Hospital with an abscess on a perforated bowel caused by diverticulitis. Three days into the treatment I’m on the mend physically but what I wasn’t prepared for was the complete mental breakdown/psychotic episode caused by a night nurse accidentally shining a torch in my face. Nothing bad about that you might think but the trouble for me was that it sent my mind back to prison. Whilst serving four years of my 12-year prison sentence I had the pleasure of staying in HMP’s Maghaberry and Magilligan where the night staff shone a torch in one’s face or turned the light on and made verbal requests for a body to move – every hour on the hour. After three referrals and four assessments it has been suggested that I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and I started therapist sessions using Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) in August 2018. As much as I welcome the treatment, my experience demonstrates how overstretched the NHS is and how another state-funded institution (prisons) can cause these mental health issues. The institution of prison is based on a mixed method of military and medical care. I use the term ‘care’ loosely as how can you be cared for when being punished. How can good come from harm? I spent the first two years of my sentence in four different prisons in England and Wales. They seldom did these checks and in practice only if a prisoner was vulnerable. I pleaded with the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) that this intrusion at night was, in reality, making me and others ‘vulnerable’, creating ideations of suicide and self-harm and causing me mental health problems. Admittedly, in recent years, there has been a noticeable shift and realisation that more needs to be done when returning

Education: Michael Irwin has an Open University degree and a Master’s prisoners back to society and I welcome and applaud that. I was fortunate enough to complete an Open University degree in Criminology and Psychological Studies at a cost of approximately £8000 to the NIPS. I went on to complete a Master’s and yet, ironically, I can’t get a job in criminal justice. My safe space in prison was education and I take some solace in the fact that I can share my experience of prisons and academia voluntarily with the great and the good. I’m still suffering from mental health issues despite being out of prison for five years and four months. Mental health issues are often exacerbated by prisons and for me, the military model of care doesn’t exactly help. Upon entering prison, you are stripped, showered and given an institutional number that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Prison, a bit like the army, is meant to break one down to fit its specific need and then rebuild. The problem is prison forgets to rebuild. Ironically, many former Army personnel end up in prison as they too are left on the scrap heap once they’ve done their time. Prison only really comes into the psyche if it happens to someone you know. The playwright Oscar Wilde in the letter De Profundis (which he wrote during his imprisonment in Reading Gaol), says: “When first I was put into prison some people advised me to try and forget who I was. It was ruinous advice. It is only by realising what I am that I have found comfort

of any kind. Now I am advised by others to try on my release to forget that I have ever been in a prison at all. I know that would be equally fatal… To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest one’s own development.To deny one’s own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one’s own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.” And, what Wilde says is even more relevant today due to technology and social media. There is nowhere to hide or disappear and one must continually carry this stigma of criminal, the label of 'the prisoner' and a perceived threat to society. It’s a lifelong sentence. There is no such thing as paying one’s debt as society continues to punish you, long after completion of the sentence handed down by society via the courts. In Northern Ireland, if you serve more than two and a half years in prison your conviction will never be spent. My friend and I went to a job fair in The Europa Hotel in Belfast two years ago. We approached various employers and asked what their policy was on employing former prisoners. Most didn’t know and those who did would only entertain an application after a declaration of a spent conviction and then depending on the crime itself. Therefore, social death is a reality for most people who leave prison. Mental health is only one of the many harms inflicted upon Northern Ireland’s returning citizens. Is it any wonder I feel as if I’ll never lose the leper’s bell.

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We as a society need to start thinking intelligently about how we use our prison system. The vast majority of prisoners will be released one day and will be somebody’s neighbour

Grateful: Erwin James

Erwin James, who served a 20-year sentence for murder, writes about the concept of rehabilitation hen I entered the prison system as an adult sentenced to lifeimprisonment in August 1984 ‘rehabilitation’ was not a word I was familiar with. Ill-educated and inarticulate I had no plans for the future or any notion that prison might be a place where I or anyone else might nurture ambition or aspiration. I knew there was no excuse for crime – but as the years passed it seemed more and more relevant to me that so many of my fellow prisoners shared common life experiences. The care system featured a lot, as did a general lack of meaningful education. Mental health problems were rife – family alcohol and drug abuse and violence in the home were elements which had blighted a large percentage of our upbringings. I discovered opportunities in prison, primarily education and support from other well-meaning prison workers. But I saw that the need among prisoners far outweighed available resources. I was one of the lucky ones. The robust nature of my life before prison, which included some military experience, enabled me to adapt and survive the challenges and vagaries of mainstream prison life. Against the odds of my crimes and my background I thrived in jail. I responded well to the help on offer. I could make my

face fit. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was relatively easy to help. The hard to help were mostly left behind. Over the years I saw and benefited from some quite amazing initiatives – teachers and librarians who invited actors, musicians, poets and dancers to come and meet us and give us a flavour of the Arts a Governor who invited a national choir into his prison to perform for the prisoners every Christmas, and prison staff who organised charity fundraising events and joined in alongside prisoners. But eventually I learned that all these good things, which only ever impacted on a minority of us anyway, relied completely on the goodwill of prison staff and the attitude and strength of the Governor in charge. There was no official rehabilitative agenda. And all too often whenever the popular press got wind of a progressive innovative prison initiative, headlines aimed to cause outrage among the public prompted politicians concerned about ‘public opinion’ to close it down. ‘Rehabilitation’ was clearly an embarrassing word. This ambiguity puzzled me for years until one day a prison Governor said to me, “As a society we believe in and want rehabilitation for prisoners, but we’re not sure how rehabilitated we want them to be.” I knew in that instant that however absurd, this

was the crux of why the prison system fails so badly. The fact is anyone who makes it into a crime-free contributing life after prison in the UK does so, not by design but by chance. Well after serving 20 years to the day I made it and I’m grateful to every helping hand that encouraged me along the way. But we as a society need to start thinking intelligently about how we use our prison system. The vast majority of prisoners will be released one day and will be somebody’s neighbour. However challenging it may be to think that we should help people who have caused us harm and distress, unless we do, the majority of prison leavers will continue to cause even more of the same. During my 20 years inside I served alongside every type of offender imaginable. I don’t consider myself to be a spokesman for people in prison, but one of the most important things I learned about my fellow prisoners was that the vast majority had the desire to change. We, society owe it to ourselves to facilitate those changes, whatever the financial and emotional cost. We deserve prisons that let people out better equipped to live better than they were when they went in. And more importantly, so do future potential victims of prison leavers.

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‘A sentence is about a loss of liberty not loss of your home’ Brenda Parker from Housing Rights tells Una Murphy about their project in jails which is aimed at trying to prevent prisoners becoming homeless when they are released from custody hen Brenda Parker was piloting a housing project in Northern Ireland’s prisons with the Housing Rights charity in 2006, she might not have imagined how prisoners would become integral members of her team. Roll forward the years and she is now the charity’s Deputy Advice Services Manager and is proud that prisoner peer advisors get training from the charity to help others in jail and on release some ex-prisoners continue to use their expertise within the housing sector. “We’re the only ones doing this in the North and we are proud of the model,” Brenda told VIEW. “A stable home is absolutely a key to resettlement into the community,” she added. “We want to ensure people don’t lose their home when they go into prison. If they do lose their homes we work to help them get accommodation on their release.” Teams of prisoners within Northern Ireland’s jails work with Housing Rights staff advisors to help fellow inmates. “They provide one-to-one advice which prevents people becoming homeless on release,” Brenda added. “The peer support prisoners build up

Proud: Brenda Parker unique skills and knowledge. The work they do in the prisons takes a lot out of them but they feel they are giving back,” she said. “A sentence is about a loss of liberty not loss of your home,” Brenda said. In addition to prisoners working with Housing Advice staff who are advocates, there is a Beyond the Gate project team working with 70 of the most vulnerable prisoners. They provide a link between the prison and the community helping with

referrals to addiction support, GP appointments as well as giving out housing advice. Vulnerable former prisoners, such as those with mental health and addiction issues “can fall through the cracks very quickly” she said. Most prisoners are looking for private rented accommodation on their release and “one of the difficulties is the cost”, she said. “Former inmates may not have the deposit and rent needed and prisoners may have to accept a referral to a hostel with a resettlement plan in place,” she added. “Hostel places are not always available and some ex-prisoners who have addiction problems may not want to go into hostels for fear they may relapse,” Brenda said. Back in 2006 when Brenda was first asked to go into the prisons to do a threemonth survey, she found that “there was high need and few resources” to help prisoners with housing problems. While resources are stretched and the “scale of needs in prisons” is growing, she believes the charity has pioneered an approach to housing that is helping many former prisoners keep a roof over their heads when they return to the community.

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My volunteer befriender spoke to me like a human being, not a prisoner

Janette McKnight, left, Director of the Quaker Service in Northern Ireland, writes below about the impact of their befriending service in prisons, and right, we carry an extract from My Story – a collection of writings from young people who live here. The project was coordinated by Rory Doherty from the Quaker Service “Quaker Connections made me realise my worth – that I was worth something and that someone can change. I realise there is more to life than breaking the law. It let me realise I was not alone – Quaker Connections was there to lean on and helped me speak. It is commendable. My volunteer befriender spoke to me like a human being, not a prisoner. I was hesitant at first but week after week I felt the nonjudgemental support and importance of talking to someone. It cleansed my soul. It helped me make a decision not to offend but to treat people the way I want to be treated.” The Religious Society of Friends has a long history of work with prisoners since the days of Elizabeth Fry. Quaker Service, following in that tradition, has been providing services for people in prison in Northern Ireland for over 45 years. In the

wake of a successful pilot, Quaker Service launched a befriending programme in 2012 for prisoners referred by the Prison’s Safer Custody Group as those most isolated or at risk of self-harm. At that time, more than 150 men at Maghaberry Prison were receiving very few or no visitors at all. We aimed to provide these men with an opportunity to have contact with someone who was not a professional involved with Prison or Probation services with the hope that continued contact would help them deal better with their situation and make them more prepared for release into the community. Quaker Connections has grown and developed, and today 36 volunteers are providing befriending services across all prison establishments in Northern Ireland. About 75 percent of our volunteers regularly visit some 30 men and women each year. The remaining quarter provides various group befriending activities such as drama classes, joinery workshops, women’s empowerment groups, board games and

coffee mornings with well over 40 people in our prison system participating in these activities annually. Sinead Bailie, our volunteer development manager, said of our volunteers “Their presence and more importantly, their unique and wonderful personalities have shifted the dynamic. In a world of regime and ‘them and us’, our volunteers’ very presence is making love visible”. As with all Quaker Service programmes, Quaker Connections wants all people to be valued and fulfil their potential. The difference made by simple human compassion is often quite profound. Befrienders have spoken of developing feelings of hope and a sense of belonging where they previously had none and as well as helping the individual, this also serves to support resettlement and reduce reoffending. The quote from the befriender at the beginning of this article sums up better than I can, the importance of Quaker Connections.

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y name's John, I'm 19 and I'm from west Belfast. About seven years ago my Ma got put in jail for nine months. So, I had to go to school and help my Da with my wee brother and sisters, and we saw her like once a month. It was quiet in the house. My Da was more used to going out working, but then he had to look after five of us, so he couldn't. Well, we all still had to go to school. I was in like second year I think, and everyone knew about it. Like me, Ryan, Kirsty, Lisa and David, I think basically most of us got bullied in school because my Ma was in jail. Then once she got out, she came back and lived with us for about a month, then she got kicked out by the social workers. Social services made my Da choose between her and us. My Ma kicked them - told them to get out. She went to the shop, they came back and made my Da choose between us or my Ma. So, then she moved and lived in a hostel for about three months and then got a house. She lived there about a year and then got another house because she got sick in the first one because of the damp. The story about her being in jail. It was all round newspapers before we found out. We were at school when it was all happening. Most people on the road even knew about it before us. I found out after school. Like I had messages and all of the people asking me if everything was ok. And I was like, yeah why? “Did you not hear about your Ma?” We knew she was at court, so we didn’t know until my Dad came back and told us. It was weird with her not being there because we had to look after ourselves, like with cleaning and all. Yeah, it was a struggle, like my Da's family came down and helped him. I can't remember for how long. Because, he ended up fighting with his brother and they haven’t talked since. We got bullied from primary school through secondary school. We got used to it. I blame it on my older brother because he was the first one there, so he must have done something.

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OUT OF THE SHADOWS

The untold story of people who have been in prison or institutions with autism or learning difficulties By Poly Bradon n 2014, I began work on a two-year project with the charity, MacIntyre. The aim was to look at how, with the right support, people with learning disabilities and/or autism could live fulfilling lives. Throughout this time I saw hope and possibility for people who were being supported by knowledgeable and specialised care workers. It left me wondering what happens to those people who haven’t found this kind of support; the ones who slip through the net or whose disability isn’t seen as being quite ‘bad enough’ to need support. How do they cope with the daunting prospect of moving from childhood to adulthood in a world where you need to be able to manage your time, resources and relationships or face the consequences? Out of the Shadows offers a very different view on the human cost of locking up people with learning disabilities

and/or autism. The book, which is published by Dewi Lewis in partnership with Multistory, contains intimate and powerful photographs by Polly Braden, seven in-depth stories by journalist Sally Williams and three first-hand accounts. Together, their stories offer a valuable insight into how they ended up in prison and the challenges faced to find a permanent way out. This ties in with the 10th anniversary of the influential report No One Knows which highlighted shocking failings in the criminal justice system – yet nothing has changed. People with a learning disability make up 1.5 percent of the population yet seven percent form the prison population. Ten people have shown courage in sharing their personal stories of how they came to be in prison. These stories are disturbing, moving and important in pushing debate on why there has been no change and why people with a learning disability are finding themselves incarcerated because of failings much earlier on in their lives.

Thank you to everyone who was brave enough to share their stories and to Multistory for their support. We look forward to continuing our collaboration in bringing these issues to light. Out of the Shadows is a collaboration between Multistory, Polly Braden and Sally Williams and the book was produced by Multistory and published by Dewi Lewis Publishing. It can be bought at https://multistory.org.uk/shop/ Multistory is a community arts organisation based in West Bromwich in the borough of Sandwell. They commission acclaimed photographers, artists and writers to work with local people to tell their stories of everyday life. Multistory is supported by Sandwell Council and Arts Council England

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Danny on his local high street in Wrexham, Wales

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Image: Poly Bradon

Danny’s story My name is Danny. I lived in Northern Ireland when I was young. I had five brothers. three sisters. I’m the fourth. My school didn't have time for me because I couldn't understand what was going on. My mum took me to school but I’d wait for about half an hour and go out the back door. I was always on my own growing up. They called me 'The Loner. And then I fell into a bad crowd when I was about 11 or 12 and that was when the crime started. I used to break into businesses with my friends to get money; I didn’t break into peoples homes. I got a fine but I didn't pay it because I didn’t know how to pay it; no one told me how, so I went to prison, And I learnt more about crime there than I did out of prison, I've been in HMP Manchester. prisons in Northern Ireland. in Scotland. The Maze Prison and HMP Wandsworth.

I had more security in prison than out. I had a roof over my head and clothes on my back. I felt happier. so when I came out, I committed more crime to get back into prison. The last time I came out I was sent to Plas Yn Worn Bail Hostel in Wrexham and I met a lady called Gaynor Wright, I didn't know I had a learning disability until then. She was working for Shelter at the time and asked me. would I come and volunteer in different shops and stuff like that. When she loft Shelter she went to work for KeyRing and she put me forward. I became a member of KeyRing, living in supported housing for 17 years. then eventually became a trustee. The support I received from KeyRing stopped me from breaking the law. I've been a trustee at KeyRing for six years. There’s also the Working for Justice group (an organisation that the Prison

Reform Trust and KeyRing Living Support Networks set up). It's to help people who go in and out of prison who have Iearning disabilities. We're trying to train prison officers, the police and courts how to deal with people who have learning disabilities. We tell them to listen, to ask questions like: 'Do you need help with reading and writing? Do you have a mental health problem? Would you like to see a nurse? Do you have a disability in any way? Are you on medication? Do you need any help at the minute?’ Little things like that would help. People need help when they come out. Some prisons are starting to do this with support from housing associations so they can go in and talk to those who are ready to leave and ask: 'Have you got somewhere to go? Let's see what we can do for you’. There’s nothing like that and I think there should be.

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Campaign: Bernadette O’Rawe at the Bullring in Ballymurphy, west Belfast

‘We are hoping that in time communities will come to view these young men as human beings who have made mistakes’ By Kathryn Johnston Seamus Heaney’s classic poem Whatever you say, Say nothing ends with the lines ‘Is there a life before death? That’s chalked up In Ballymurphy. Competence with pain, Coherent miseries, a bite and sup, We hug our little destiny again. Ballymurphy is one of the most socio-economically deprived areas in Belfast. Poverty levels were so high at the start of the Troubles that Mother Teresa established a mission there in 1971, and went on to live in the area for a year. In 2006, local activist Bernadette O’Rawe and her daughter, also called Bernadette, set up a project in Ballymurphy to try and keep young people in the area out of prison and out of the clutches of the paramilitary organisations. The project ran until 2012. They are hoping to set up a similar scheme in the near future. Bernadette said: “Not one of the young people who came to a room we had in a building at shops in the Bullring in Ballymurphy was from a family untouched by the Troubles. That’s trans-generational stress. And most of them had already come to the attention of the police. “These kids were facing all kinds of social issues, they were outside the whole

system and that in turn led on to them being permanently excluded from school, so they were spending their days living on the streets.” Bernadette went onto meet the International Monitoring Commission (IMC), chaired by Lord John Alderdice. Their remit included monitoring continuing activity by paramilitary groups. “Lord Alderdice was a psychiatrist. At one meeting I was explaining the work I was doing to him. I said: ‘If only someone would help me.’ He replied: ‘Bernadette, I’ll help you’. He was as good as his word and got me two psychiatrists to work with the young people. One was a music therapist who had worked in Bosnia. We introduced music therapy, we took them up the Shankill to meet people.” Since the group was closed, three young people have died from suicide and one from an accidental overdose, with about eight or nine others ending up being shot. “Even the police had my number. It was a regular occurrence getting rung up by them in the middle of the night. “And kids would tell me, ‘Such and such is on the roof and he’s going to jump’. “All crime is wrong,” said Bernadette. “But beating, shooting, exiling and shooting people is a lot more anti-social. In fact it’s

the worst kind of anti-social behaviour. “We have a police force and a criminal justice system. If someone is behaving in a criminal way let the police and courts deal with it. “People age out of crime, but the victims are never offered a chance to explain themselves, they’re just attacked and left with physical and mental health problems that drain the health service – that’s if they are not shot dead. Bernadette, who is currently undertaking a Masters degree in Philosophy at Queen’s University, said: “I hope in the near future to bring together young people who have been victims of paramilitary violence. The intentions would be to promote self-esteem and selfconfidence, to promote respect for themselves and others, and to divert them towards more meaningful and productive activities and reduce criminal behaviour. “Communities often label young antisocial men as troublemakers or ‘scum’ and fail to recognise the extremely challenging life circumstances in which they find themselves. We are hoping that in time communities will come to view these young men as human beings who have made mistakes (like all of us) and will come to view them in a more favourable light.”

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COMMENT Concerns over creating probation ‘markets’ Anne Fox, Chief Executive of Clinks –the national charity supporting criminal justice charities and social enterprises across England and Wales – looks at how privatisation policies have affected voluntary organisations n 2015 the UK Government completely changed how probation services were delivered in England and Wales under the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) programme. Services for people under probation supervision on release from prison or serving community sentences and in preparation for release in England and Wales were developed and delivered until 2015 by local Probation Trusts – localised services under the Ministry of Justice’s National Offender Management Service. TR proposed two major reforms to this system. Firstly, probation services would be divided into services for people who were deemed to pose a high risk of harm to the public, delivered by a new public National Probation Service (NPS) with regional offices; and services for those deemed to pose low to medium risk would be managed by 21 new Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) who would each provide services in a specific geographical area and would be paid by results – how successful they were at reducing the reoffending rates of their service users. Secondly, probation services would now provide support to more people – bringing into service scope those people who had served a prison sentence of 12 months or less. Previous to TR people serving short sentences did not get probation support and the rationale was to target support at them so that they could get support to address the root causes of their, often persistent and prolific, reoffending. The voluntary sector working in criminal justice is made up of around 1,700 organisations with a workforce larger than that of the prison and probation services combined. It has a long history of providing support alongside statutory probation services. These organisations offer specialist services to address the complex causes of offending such as homelessness, unemployment, mental ill health, and substance misuse. They do not, in the main, deliver the sentence of the court. Instead,

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Voluntary sector involvement in supply chains is low and charities that are in supply chains have had to adapt services or subsidise them with other charitable funds, undermining their quality and sustainability

they provide the wraparound services needed to support an individual to complete that sentence and live a fulfilling life beyond it. Therefore there was some potential with the TR reforms for the voluntary sector to be better able to reach people through delivery of funded services for people supervised by either the CRCs or NPS. But Clinks’ and partners’ research has shown that the vital services these organisations provide have not been utilised to support people under probation supervision as envisaged. In fact, the voluntary sector is under-represented, under pressure and under-resourced in the current delivery of probation. Voluntary sector involvement in supply chains is low and charities that are in supply chains have had to adapt services or subsidise them with other charitable funds, undermining their quality and sustainability. The unrealised vision of creating innovative probation services that contract a range of support to reduce reoffending has led to a lack of clarity about what the CRCs and NPS should be funding. This has negatively affected the ability of the voluntary sector working in criminal justice to fundraise from other sources. At the time of writing we are awaiting the conclusion of a programme to further reform probation based on an understanding by Government from a range of inquiries, inspections and reports that the situation is untenable and the model TR as introduced will not work. One positive is that this programme to date has recognised that the involvement of the voluntary sector, skilled and experienced in helping people to turn their lives around over centuries, needs to be better facilitated so people can have access to a range of services that can help them. We’ll know the outcome in early 2019. • Clinks (www.clinks.org) supports, represents and advocates for organisations to provide the best possible opportunities for individuals and their families.

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COMMENT New solutions are needed to old problems Richard Garside, Director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies in London, asks is it possible to get out of the crisis of imprisonment and imagine a society far less reliant on imprisonment, or one without prisons at all? he Northern Ireland prison system has had its fair share of problems. But they are dwarfed by the deep dysfunction and sense of crisis that has engulfed prisons in England and Wales. In absolute terms, there are far fewer prisoners in Northern Ireland than in England, Wales and Scotland. The proportionate use of imprisonment in Northern Ireland is also much lower. Indeed, England, Wales and Scotland would have 20 to 30,000 fewer prisoners in custody if they imprisoned people at the same rate as Northern Ireland. This is quite a turnaround from the use of imprisonment in Northern Ireland prior to the Good Friday Agreement. While the former Justice Minister, David Ford, was not without his critics, I observed, with some admiration, as he pressed for meaningful reform of the Northern Ireland Prison Service. The report by Anne Owers was also important in this respect, kicking off a series of reform initiatives, some more successful than others. But beyond the routine programme of prison reform – investment in buildings, regime improvements, staff training, effective resettlement – is it possible to think about a more ambitious agenda? Is it possible to get out of the crisis of imprisonment and imagine a society far less reliant on imprisonment, or one without prisons at all? Every prison that has ever existed was built by people, at given points in time, to imprison people, for given periods of time. Every prison that has ever existed, or will ever exist, has a beginning and an end. Every prison that exists today will one day not exist. What our and future generations chose to do – to build new prisons, or do something else – is a political and historical question. It is political because the decision to build and maintain prisons or to do something else, is wrapped up in broader questions about how the collective wealth and resources of a given society might best be deployed for the common good. It is a historical question because it relates to the human capacity to shape human societies, for better or for worse, drawing on the

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While the former Justice Minister, David Ford, was not without his critics, I observed, with some admiration, as he pressed for meaningful reform of the Northern Ireland Prison Service

accumulated ideological and material resources handed down by previous generations. It is very reliance on imprisonment – the assumption that imprisonment is and should be a timeless, fixed presence in any imaginable society – that should be questioned. The harmfulness of such thinking, at a material level, is clear in the suicides, self-harm, broken dreams and wrecked families and communities that form the collateral damage of imprisonment. But imprisonment also performs an ideological role, not least of all in mystifying the social processes that give rise to the problems to which prison is presented as the answer. As Angela Davis puts it, in her book Are prisons obsolete?: ‘The prison… functions ideologically as an abstract site into which undesirables are deposited, relieving us of the responsibility of thinking about the real issues afflicting those communities from which prisoners are drawn in such disproportionate numbers’. Her own prescriptions for how a future without prisons might be achieved are relatively brief, in what is, to be fair, a short book. We should not, she argues, look for ‘prisonlike substitutes for prison’, such as house arrest and electronic monitoring. Rather, we should ‘envision a continuum of alternatives to imprisonment – demilitarization of schools, revitalization of education at all levels, a health system that provides free physical and mental care to all, and a justice system based on reparation and reconciliation rather than retribution and vengeance’. Earlier this year, another prison abolitionist, David Scott, proposed nine ‘interlinked strategic objectives’, including tackling inequality, fostering democratic engagement and promoting alternatives that might credibly displace the punishment reflex, in his book, Against imprisonment. If we are to get out of the crisis of imprisonment and stop reproducing fresh crises in prisons, a recognition that the future is open, rather than already determined, and that new solutions to old problems, while not easy to come by are in principle possible to find, are the essential first steps.

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Reading text by using Braille

Braille team work . . . By Brian Pelan n extremely unlikely encounter with a retired former prison guard and a man serving a life sentence who is out on licence occurred recently when I visited a Prison Arts Foundation project on the Antrim Road in north Belfast. Both of them – 72-year-old David Johnston from Bangor and former inmate Stephen – work together on a voluntary basis to create Braille books for visually impaired people, David, a very fit-looking man with a good sense of humour, said: “I’ve been retired for about five years. I joined the Northern Ireland Prison Service in 1988.” He served in two jails; Crumlin Road and Maghaberry. David put his name forward to work in the Braille unit in Maghaberry. He started off as a relief instructor before gaining a permanent position. “I always had an interest in disabilities and community work. I thought it was worthwhile and productive for prisoners to be helping people with disabilities,” said David. He worked as a Braille instructor in Maghaberry Prison for about 25 years. “Around 14 prisoners were involved in the Braille unit. We produced around 150 Braille publications a year. The preparation of each individual book takes a long while. I retired about five years ago. Lifer Stephen met David in the Braille unit whilst he was serving his sentence in Maghaberry. “I enjoyed the work right

Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell’s autobiography If Only was the first book that Stephen turned into Braille away,” he said. When Stephen got out of jail on licence nearly five years ago he signed up for a range of courses with the Northern Ireland charity Extern, including forklift driving, electrical courses and waste management. I took whatever course that they threw at me. “When I heard about this Braille project I got involved right away. I do three days a week, 12 hours in total. I don’t get paid for it, it’s voluntary. “The first book I worked on was Geri Halliwell's 1999 autobiography If Only. It was 360 pages. He served 17 years in jail before being released. “It was hard getting out at first, especially the amount of traffic on the road and the speed of the cars,” said Stephen. Both men laughed when I asked how

the two of them got along when they were working together. “We've no problem getting on,” replied David. “We are a part of a team when we come in here. “We used to have another four men working with us but some of them ‘decided’ that they had to go back in again.” ‘Back in again’ was obviously a reference to going back to jail. “There is a woman called Hazel who is blind. She visits the Braille unit in Maghaberry every Wednesday and comes in here occasionally. We can ask her if we are doing the Braille books properly by asking her can she read them. This adds a whole new dimension to our work,” added David. As our interview came to an end, I asked David what had his relationship been like with inmates when he worked in prison? “I always tried to treat prisoners as human beings,” he replied. I then asked Stephen was he doing the voluntary work as a way of repaying the community for his crimes? “No,” replied Stephen. “Nothing could ever repay for what I did.” • Prison Arts Foundation (PAF) is a registered charity that seeks to provide access to the arts for those people who have offended in Northern Ireland – www.prisonartsfoundation.com/

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Some victims find the programme useful as “a step forward to healing, not forgetting”

‘Hard men do cry when we bring a victim in’ Robin Scott, Chief Executive at Prison Fellowship Northern Ireland, tells Una Murphy about the impact of the restorative justice programme they run called Sycamore Tree obin Scott has worked in prisons for 30 years. A “life sentence,” he said. And he knows that “hard men do cry”. He has led Prison Fellowship Northern Ireland, a Christian organisation, since 1993 and has seen a shift from paramilitary prisoners to ‘ordinary inmates’) in the prison population since the end of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. But the impact on victims, whether it is through crimes related to the conflict in Northern Ireland or as a result of a ‘death driving’ or even burglary is still huge. The prison restorative justice practice programme can have more of an impact than victim impact statements in court, he claimed. In jail, prisoners on the programme meet victims of crimes and “process the pain sitting in front of you”, said Robin. “When victims speak about their individual loss the pain and weight of emotion is very real on both sides and not

just the victim,” he added. Hearing a mother describe kissing her son goodbye in the morning and then going to identify his body in the morgue or a husband asking why a driver got behind the wheel and killed his wife are some of the real-life stories which have come out of the programme, Robin said. Despite the “apprehension, pain and weight of emotion” Robin told VIEW that there is a waiting list among prisoners for the Sycamore Tree programme his organisation runs in Hydebank Wood College and Women’s Prison and the highsecurity prison Magaberry. “Hard men do cry when we bring a victim of crime in,” he said. When Robin reflects on some of the encounters between prisoners and victims he remembered a woman who was a victim of crime and offered the perpetrator a job in her business once he finished his sentence. “The former prisoner availed of that

offer and it has worked well. The victim talked about it being cathartic. It has had an impact on her life and business and family and a huge impact on the former prisoner.” Some victims find the programme useful as “a step forward to healing, not forgetting”, Robin said. While prisons are needed to protect society, there “needs to be a time when an individual has had their time served”, he said. Robin acknowledged how difficult that is for victims of crime. “They always have to live with the loss; it is an incredibly difficult balance. “But If you have taken a life it is a life sentence in a different way – you will always carry it with you,” he added. • For more information about the Sycamore Tree Programme, go to www.pfni.org/pfniprojects/sycamore-tree/

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Libraries – a place of calm in the midst of an often volatile prison environment Jayne Finlay, left, who is a final year PhD student at Ulster University and who is researching the role of library services in the prison context, writes about her research project at Hydebank Wood College and Women's Prison and the impact of reading on prisoners’ lives y professional background is in academic librarianship, but I’ve always been interested in how libraries serve and support marginalised and socially excluded communities. A few years ago I carried out a small-scale research project on family literacy programmes in prisons, and this is what led to my first visit to the library at Hydebank College and Women’s Prison. Getting to know the librarian here, and seeing how positively everyone – staff and students alike – spoke of the library, made me curious about the role of the library in the lives of the women and young men at Hydebank. Libraries are often described as a “normal zone” within prisons – a place of calm in the midst of an often volatile environment. This can be seen quite clearly in the library at Hydebank where students spend their time reading books or magazines, chatting to each other and to the librarian, or taking part in the various informal learning programmes and events run by the library. Books on offer in the library can be used for self-education, or simply as a means of escape and relaxation. Reading tastes differ little from that of the general population. The young men tend to opt for non-fiction books such as celebrity biographies or fiction, with the female prisoners leaning more toward lighthearted fiction or positive thinking books. During my research, I’ve had the privilege of attending a few Reading Aloud sessions where a volunteer reads short stories and poetry to the young men. This often sparks lively discussions about issues

related to the readings, or can simply be an enjoyable and relaxing time for those who take part. The library also has a good relationship with Libraries NI. Just recently, an exhibition of art created by the students at Hydebank was on display at Newtownbreda Public Library. In their “Prisons 2020” framework, the Department of Justice underlines the need to better educate the wider community about the work of prisons, and for the media to create a more positive profile of what goes on behind bars, and this is a chance for the public to see firsthand some of the positive work taking place at Hydebank. It’s a really interesting time to carry out this research project. In the past few years the Northern Ireland Prison Service

has put a lot of effort into expanding educational opportunities for students, and the library is a key part of this. Many of the women and young men at Hydebank have had negative experiences of education prior to incarceration, and the library can offer a less intimidating environment than the classroom to read and pursue educational interests. One young person I spoke with had learned to read through Shannon Trust’s Reading Ahead programme (a peer-learning scheme which is run in conjunction with the library). This student is now taking literacy classes in the education department. This is just one example of many which show the potential of libraries to support both the personal development and well-being of those incarcerated in Northern Ireland’s prisons.

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