8 minute read
Education Corner Podcast Interview
EDUCATION CORNER PODCAST
EDUCATION CORNER PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH DEPUTY HEAD
Ms. Josephine Lane
ST PAUL’S GIRLS’, DISCUSSING THEIR WORK WITH PROJECT ReMAKE
Recently, St Paul’s Girls’ School have taken part in Project ReMAKE and ReMAKE Educational, an outreach project that introduces sixth form pupils to ex-offenders. This gives both sides the opportunity to share experiences, debate ideas and, most importantly, learn.
Could you tell us a little more about what Project ReMAKE is and how you came across it?
Thank you very much for having me, it is a pleasure to be here with you. Project ReMAKE is really close to our hearts at SPGS. It is a project that was founded in this country by a chap called Kameel Khan, who is a retired judge. It originated at Stanford University where he spent a time teaching. He brought the programme back to the UK about four years ago. It is a programme which supports ex-offenders, we call them “returning citizens”.It enables them to make a positive return into society, which gives them entrepreneurial skills and support, whilst helping them to develop business ideas. The programme itself works with business professionals. Currently, they are working with Queen Mary University, with the Schools of Law and Business.
ReMAKE Educational is a development of Project ReMAKE. We have been working on developing the ReMAKE Educational side of the project, which is all about introducing young people to the concept of social justice. We have run the pilot project over this last academic year and we are developing it for next year.
Is it a part of the curriculum now?
It is a part of what we call a St Paul’s Programme, which is the non-examined curriculum, which takes place on a Friday afternoon and students take all sorts of different electives, and we had 32 students going through the ReMAKE Programme.
Could you tell me a little more about how the students get involved? What topics do the Sixth Form students discuss with the ex-offenders?
The programme is partly a series of talks from a range of people who have been involved in the justice system, or are involved in the justice system. There are talks from lawyers, mentors, visitors, prison reform campaigners. Most importantly, they get to meet, talk with, and
St Paul’s Girls’ School
spend time with our returning citizens who are all graduates from Project ReMAKE. They are all no longer in prison. The discussions are largely based around their life in prison, but most importantly, the support they had when leaving prison. They discuss the significance of the support and how they got that. Support for incarcerated people is patchy at best. It is a hugely underfunded area. Many of the returning citizens that we have worked with at Project ReMAKE count themselves as being really lucky that they got referred to ReMAKE because of a hugely supportive community for them. We feel that our students at St Paul’s have been a part of that journey for them. 50% of people
TURN TO P54 to hear about Baroness Floella Benjamin visiting Churcher’s College “50% of people who are released from prison reoffend within twelve months. This is largely because of the lack of support. Project ReMAKE has seen no reoffending amongst ex-graduates.”
who are released from prison reoffend within twelve months. This is largely because of the lack of support. Project ReMAKE has seen no reoffending amongst ex-graduates. It is largely men who have been in to talk with our students and we have had one woman. We’ve found it a lot harder to get women to talk to us because they
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Project ReMAKE
have other issues that they are trying to juggle, such as family responsibilities, that they find themselves coming back to in different ways than men.
What common questions do the students ask offenders?
Students often ask: What were the most important things for you on release? The answer is often having the ability to be with their families. It is the main thing and it is a massively significant thing. The other most important thing is a job. This helps to support them with entrepreneurial skills and having access to purposeful work for earning money. Our students have come to a real understanding of how important it is to be seen as an important productive member of society.
Rehabilitation of ex-offenders
They want to have a sense of purpose and identity that is supported and that helps with the transition back into society.
It is important that we treat prisoners as normal people. Do you feel that ex-prisoners need to be given more of a voice in education?
Absolutely, I think that all of those who have been through ReMAKE Educational feel that they need a greater voice, full stop. We can only improve our justice system by really listening to these people, understanding how we could make things better. Students also need to hear those thoughts. They also need to hear the prisoner narrative so that they can be a part of the movement for justice. We asked students for feedback and it was unfailingly positive all the way through. At the end of it we asked them for written feedback, and one student wrote that it had literally changed her life, in terms of her life course and what she wanted to do with her life and what she felt was important. All of them said that it had given them a far wider understanding of what prisoners face, our prisoner system, and how they could be a part of the narrative of change.
Alternatively, how have these discussions impacted the ex-offenders? What do you think they have taken from this experience?
It was really important to us that they took something from this too. We could see quite clearly what students and teachers would be able to take from this experience. We didn’t want to embark on this unless it was a two-way process, and they felt that they were empowered by what they were doing. They would say that by telling these stories, they are empowered to change their own narrative. Part of changing this narrative is being able to talk through your own narrative and sharing those experiences.
How do you hope for the project to expand?
We are currently refining it to make it scalable in the schools. What we are working on now, is that we are talking of a West London partnership with a number of schools. We have also been talking to some of our partner state schools at the moment to see whether or not it is something that we could run with them. Ultimately, we would like to work with more and more schools in London. However, it is a cost and we do have to cover expenses and the charity has to make sure that they are not going to lose out from it. For us, if we can support schools, or encourage independent schools to participate in the project and support their partner schools, that is our longer term hope.
What do you think could be done in the UK to further improve the lives of those who have previously been incarcerated?
I think that whilst people are in prison, they need absolute support to prepare for the release and access to health services and support to prepare for when they come out. They need access to proper training and jobs when they come out. We need to address the causes of crime as well, that is a huge, huge part of it. It is a massive question and it is a situation that we don’t want to shy away from. We need to work harder to prevent people
Life lessons
from having to enter the prison system.
There is a prison in Norway called Halden Prison. Its focus lies on the rehabilitation of inmates and has operated since 2010. The recidivism rates for prisoners who went there are significantly lower (20% after five years) than those who go to a regular prison (76.6% in the US). However, the costs of building such a prison are significantly higher. It cost 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner (£138 million) to build this prison. Do you think that it is worth the extra cost, given the successes of the design?
In Norway, they spend two years training a prison officer. In this country, basic training takes 8 weeks, that is a major difference. They don’t just invest in the building, but they invest in the people working in the building and how they relate to those who were incarcerated, helping them to transition into society in an effective way. We need to invest in these people, we need to invest into community work. This enables a change before they end up in prison. But, one of the things that ReMAKE taught us as a school, is that once they enter prison, the punishment should be the sentence. People enter prison, then they start rehabilitation. The punishment should not be about how long you have got in prison. The punishment is that you have been sentenced and that you have lost your liberty. Once you enter prison, it is all about rehabilitation and being able to move out and becoming members of society who can give back to society.
We would like to thank Deputy Head Ms. Josephine Lane, St. Paul’s Girls’, for giving up her time to speak to us. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
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