The Secret Life of Prisons

We love receiving your questions, thoughts and comments. Email us at podcasts@prison.radio.In this final episode before we take a summer break, we answer questions from listeners inside prison and listeners on the outside.David Breakspear is a peer mentor, advocate and ambassador for people who have been to prison. He spent time behind bars between 1985 and 2017, and uses his lived experience to support organisations including ADHD Liberty, 5asideCHESS and the National Suicide Prevention Alliance. Dr. Ruth Armstrong is a criminologist at the University of Liverpool and a consultant working to support change in government departments and third sector organisations. She’s worked in criminal justice both in the UK and globally for over 20 years, including playing a leading role in Prison Radio International, supporting the development of prison radio projects around the world. Organisations, books and links referred to in this programme include:UnlockHoward League for Penal ReformPrison Reform TrustPhilip Pettit on trustTrusting the UntrustworthyPACTPSI 75/2011 (Residential Services)Purposeful PrisonsWe Are All CriminalsFuck ItPresenters:Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio AssociationPaula Harriott – Chief Executive, UnlockProducer: Andrew WilkieAssistant Producer: Faye DunnThe Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

In 2014, probation services in England and Wales underwent the most radical shake-up for generations in a part-privatisation process known as Transforming Rehabilitation. Seven years later, in 2021, these reforms were reversed as the public and private arms of probation were brought back together under a newly-constituted public Probation Service. In June 2024 a group of people with a wealth of experience of probation gathered for a one-day workshop at Liverpool John Moores University as part of the Rehabilitating Probation project. The workshop aimed to envision what probation services might look like in the future.  Phil and Paula spoke to several workshop participants, including people who had worked in, studied and been supervised by probation. We released this episode on 15 July 2024. This was followed up by a second episode on 5 August 2024 with Professor Nicola Carr, then of the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham, and Dr. Matthew Millings from the School of Justice Studies at Liverpool John Moores University. They have played a leading role in the project and reflected on the workshops. In this final episode, we catch up with Nicola and Matthew, along with Martin Jones CBE, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Probation, to hear about the outcome of the Rehabilitating Probation project and to reflect on where we are one year after the election of a new government. Rehabilitating ProbationThis is the final of three episodes looking at the future of probation. Rehabilitating Probation was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.Presenters:Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio AssociationPaula Harriott – Chief Executive, UnlockProducer: Andrew WilkieAssistant Producer: Faye DunnThe Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. To contact the show, please email podcasts@prison.radio.Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

James Batchelor is an educator, musician, film-maker and producer. He spent a time behind bars where he became a presenter for National Prison Radio. Jimmy has continued to work with the Prison Radio Association in the many years since his release, and he’s been leading a series of workshops in prisons over the past few weeks as part of National Prison Radio’s contribution to Windrush Day. Colin McFarlane is an actor, voice artist and campaigner. He's the star of films including Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, as well as countless animations and TV series. Together with the singer Annie Lennox, he founded the Justice4Windrush campaign which aims to inform the British public about the on-going Windrush scandal and provide free legal support to people who have a legitimate claim for compensation.Presenters:Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio AssociationPaula Harriott – Chief Executive, UnlockProducer: Andrew WilkieAssistant Producer: Faye DunnThe Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. To contact the show, please email podcasts@prison.radio.Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Tamar spent a short period of time in HMP Holloway, a women's prison in North London, in 2016. Months later, the prison was closed for good. The buildings became derelict. Several years later, Tamar was one of a group of six women who had all spent time in Holloway to go back into the prison with film-makers to take part in a remarkable documentary called Holloway, Daisy-May Hudson is one of the co-directors of Holloway. She began her film-making career when she decided to start filming her family's experience of homelessness. She is also the writer and director of the acclaimed film Lollipop, which premiered at last year's Edinburgh International Film Festival.Find screenings of Holloway and buy tickets here.Presenters:Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio AssociationPaula Harriott – Chief Executive, UnlockProducer: Andrew WilkieAssistant Producer (and deputy presenter!): Faye DunnThe Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. To contact the show, please email podcasts@prison.radio.Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Zak Addae-Kodua is one half of Zak and Jules, the presenting team behind the award-winning Life After Prison podcast. He has experienced several stints out on licence and explains why it's not always as straightforward to keep to your licence conditions as you might imagine.Cecilia Goodwin is the founder and Managing Director of Goodwin and Rose Solicitors. She has extensive experience of representing and working with people who are on probation having been released from prison.Presenters:Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio AssociationPaula Harriott – Chief Executive, UnlockProducer: Andrew WilkieAssistant Producer: Faye DunnThe Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. To contact the show, please email podcasts@prison.radio.Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Ten years ago, David Kendall decided to put on an entire festival of arts and literature inside HMP Lewes. This was the birth of Penned Up, a unique annual event which is now in its tenth year, and which has found a home in HMP Erlestoke in Wiltshire.Today we learn about how on Earth you go about organising a festival in a prison, and some of the guests who have taken part over the years, including Nick Cave, Tony Adams, Billy Bragg, Garry Younge, Courttia Newland, Max Porter, Dr Rache Clarke, John Niven, and even National Prison Radio's Lady Unchained.Alongside David is Jailhouse Moose, a blogger who first met David while serving a sentence in HMP Liverpool. He went on to be on the organising committee after he'd been transferred to HMP Erlestoke. He now writes about prison.Find out more about Penned Up here.You can read Jailhouse Moose here.Presenters:Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio AssociationPaula Harriott – Chief Executive, UnlockProducer: Andrew WilkieAssistant Producer: Faye DunnThe Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. To contact the show, please email podcasts@prison.radio.Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

On the day David Gauke, the former Justice Secretary, publishes his long-awaited Independent Sentencing Review, we get analysis from the journalist David Shipley who served a sentence for fraud in 2020-2021 and now broadcasts for several publications, including The Spectator.Presenters:Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio AssociationPaula Harriott – Chief Executive, UnlockProducer: Andrew WilkieAssistant Producer: Faye DunnThe Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. To contact the show, please email podcasts@prison.radio.Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Nigel Bromage was a prominent member of several far-right groups, including British Movement and Combat 18, for 20 years. During that time, he was close to events that could easily have led him to prison. He became disillusioned with the life in the late 1990s and began a long and dangerous process of moving away from the far-right. He now runs an organisation called Exit Hate, which aims to support people who want to leave the far-right.Find out more about Exit Hate here.Graham Finochio spent almost 20 years in prison in California, having joined a white supremacist group at the age of 14. While in prison he encountered a rehabilitation programme called Success Stories which is based on feminism. Graham is now a Transformational Coach for Success Stories, having renounced his former allegiances. Find out more about Success Stories here.Presenters:Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio AssociationPaula Harriott – Chief Executive, UnlockProducer: Andrew WilkieAssistant Producer: Faye DunnThe Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. To contact the show, please email podcasts@prison.radio.Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Cherie Blair KC became a barrister in 1976 and went on to be a county court and crown court judge. In 2024 she was appointed to the Leadership Board of the charity Women in Prison, where she has stressed the importance of supporting women and girls before they come into contact with the criminal justice system.Kate Morrissey is on the Women’s Justice Partnership Delivery Group which supports the Women’s Justice Board. She’s Head of Health and Justice for the East of England region for NHS England, and at the weekends she serves on the frontline with an ambulance service. Kate was remanded to prison as a young adult where she began to address drug problems that she'd experienced since she was a teenager and embarked on volunteering work which eventually led her to the positions she holds today.You can read about the role of the Women's Justice Board here.You can watch Kate Morrissey's extraordinary TEDx Talk here.Presenters:Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio AssociationPaula Harriott – Chief Executive, UnlockProducer: Andrew WilkieAssistant Producer: Faye DunnThe Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. To contact the show, please email podcasts@prison.radio.Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760