issuu 37 view

VIEW, Issue 37, 2016 www.viewdigital.org

The prison, as the US political activist,academic and author Angela Davisonce observed, “becomes a way of

disappearing people in the false hope ofdisappearing the underlying social problems they represent”. I would arguethat prison, reformed or unreformed, isnot the solution to homelessness, mentalillness, educational disadvantage or learningdifficulties. The real solutions to socialproblems surely lie outside the criminaljustice system.

And as the new Justice Minister ClaireSugden takes up her post, she, like herpredecessors in the same position, will beconfronted by the same question. Do wecontinue to lock more people up or dowe, as a society, try to tackle the underlying problems?

In this issue on prisons and justice, Iam delighted to have the director of theQuaker Service Janette McKnight as ourguest editor.

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

They provided services to the families

of prisoners for decades throughout thebleakest years of the Troubles.

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

The Northern Ireland ProbationBoard has had to reduce its funding to thevoluntary sector from £1 million to

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

And yet all the experts and researchmaintain that early intervention is key to areduction in the levels of crime and thenumbers of people going to jail.

If we also step back and identify themain social problems we soon recognisethat much more effective remedies are tobe found outside of the prison system.

The education disadvantage sufferedby those imprisoned – who have often experienced the school to prison pipeline– requires radical changes to our overalleducation system rather than the provisionof more educational opportunities in prison.

The high levels of mental healthissues in our jails requires investment incommunity services and not a seeminglyendless round of cuts

A number of organisations, profiled inthis issue of VIEW, carry out sterling workin our prisons.

But in order to grow and flourish theyneed significant funding.

Is there the political will to supportand fund them?

We shall soon find out.

By Brian Pelanco-founder, VIEWdigital

VIEW: Why we need real solutions

VIEWdigital hosts ‘open’ public courses and tailored in-house media training by industry experts. Ourexperienced training associates have worked for major newspapers and broadcasting organisations.This year we have worked with 3rd sector & Public sector organisations including:• Law Centre NI• Housing Executive• Equality Commission• VOYPICWe can help improve your skills to get you to tell your story. Contact Una Murphy e: [email protected] for more details and sign up on the VIEWdigitalwebsite for our training ezines.

Mike Boorman: SEO copy writer, blog poster, transcriber and general man of communication.Contact [email protected] for a quote for your project

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EditorialVIEW, an independent socialmagazine in Northern Ireland

You made me realise my self-worth –that I was worth something andsomeone can change. I realise there

is more to life than breaking the law – itcleansed my soul.”

These words were spoken by a highlyvulnerable man in prison befriended byone of our volunteers. It’s something wehear over and over again in different wordsby people who are supported by QuakerService, and it goes right to the centre ofour purpose. Friends, or Quakers, believethat there is “that of God,” “light” or“goodness” in every person. That fundamental belief underpins everything wedo and leads us to value the equal worth,unique nature and potential for greatnessin everyone regardless of the choices theymay have made.

Before I had ever heard of QuakerService I had become somewhat disenchanted by the way society judgedand punished people who had made badchoices. There seemed to be little understanding or interest in what mighthave led to a crime or a problem. Back in2005 when I joined Quaker Service, Ifound an organisation that had been translating Quaker values of peace, equality, truth and simplicity into actionsince the early 1970s. I found a group ofpeople who accepted people where theywere, who genuinely loved and cared forpeople and families in crisis, people whohad often been cast aside by society ashopeless or unworthy. I felt I had come home.

Quaker Service emerged whenFriends starting providing practical supportto families visiting internees at the Maze.That grew into the first family prison visitors’ centre in the UK and a series ofother projects reaching out and supportingthose who are the most forgotten, unpopular or sometimes viewed as “undeserved”. By delivering practical, social and emotional support services that

value and empower people just where theyare, we play our part in reducing violence,suffering and disadvantage.

Quaker Cottage, a cross-communityfamily centre, has been delivering a rangeof therapeutic services for mothers, chil-dren and teenagers in some of the mostdisadvantaged areas in Belfast for over 25years. Each year, over 100 mums and chil-dren referred as those most “in need” or“at risk” by social and health care profes-sionals are supported at Quaker Cottage.

Grant McCullough, our Centre Man-ager, said: “Many of the mothers are at adesperate low in their lives and looking fora way to escape from the feeling of beingtrapped by circumstances.

“At the Cottage we have a reputationfor helping mothers on their journey toturn their lives around and we value theopportunity to become involved in theirlives and to be able to accept, direct andsupport them.

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

resources – and often the learning is a twoway process.”

Our Teen project at Quaker Cottageprovides support for 100 young peopleeach year in three different age groups.The young people pick most of the modules themselves based on their ownneeds, but all start off with a storytellingproject which bonds each group at theearliest stage. One young man who hadthe opportunity to tell his story whilst incustody said: “Looking back on my story, Ifeel bad. I regret all the things I’ve done. Iwould like other young people to read mystory and think about what they’re doingwith their life. This could be you.”

Our other key service, Quaker Connections, is a volunteer programmesupporting people in custody through befriending and practical support. Since theinception of Quaker Connections in 2011,we have befriended over 120 isolated menin prison. The simplicity of a volunteer –there because they choose to be – visitingsomeone who has lost their family contactcan have outstanding results.

To me, and to Quaker Service, rehabilitation is more than stopping reoffending or helping families out of crisisso they are no longer a risk or drain onservices. It is about finding that DivineSpark in them and helping them realisetheir own value and worth.

We are working not so much to turnlives around, but to empower people toturn them around for themselves. Whatwould our justice sector look like if thosevalues pervaded it?

It is a time of great change and challenge for the justice sector, in the community sector, and Quaker Service isnot immune.

We are looking to the future by askinghow we can innovate and grow, how wecan continue to reach to the margins and keep making love visible inpractical action.

By guest editorJanette McKnightDirector,Quaker ServiceNorthern Ireland

I found agroup of people whocared. I felt I had come home

‘’“



Amidst the noise and the hustleand bustle in the cafe at theMac theatre in Belfast, I listened as Senior LecturerLinda Moore spoke

passionately and knowledgeably about thesituation facing women prisoners inNorthern Ireland and why we need reformand accountability in the penal system.

I started off by asking Linda had thesituation changed for women prisonerssince she and Professor Phil Scratonbrought out their book, ‘The Incarcerationof Women: Punishing Bodies, Breaking Spirits’, in 2014?

“In our book we documented the really serious human rights abuses forwomen in prison in Northern Ireland,”replied Linda. “And we documented theirmarginalisation by them being placed in a male young offenders centre. Fundamentally, that situation remains thesame. The women's prison unit in North-ern Ireland in Ash House still remains situated in Hydebank Wood – a youngmale offenders centre. That is absolutelyshocking.”

I asked her what type of offences arewomen being held for and what are thecurrent numbers?

“Women represent a very small proportion of the prison population.Presently there are about 55 women beingheld. When we started our research in2004 there were on average between 24and 25 women being held. In the space of adecade that number has more than doubled. We are seeing a worrying rise inthe numbers of women being held.

“They are being held for a mixture of offences. Some are serving life sentencesbut too many women are serving shortsentences for relatively minor offencessuch as property offences and non-violentoffences. I understand that women are stillcoming into the prison for fines offences.

“We know short sentences don’twork,” said Linda. “The research is quiteclear on this. What we argued in our book

was that women shouldn't be there forfine default, they shouldn't be there onshort sentences, they shouldn't be thereon remand, except in very exceptional circumstances, they shouldn’t be there if they have very serious mental illhealth issues.

“If you take those women out of thesystem then you are left with a very smallnumber of women in prison. What we havealso argued is that when you are going torebuild the women's unit outside of theyoung male offenders centre it shouldhouse no more than 25 to 30 women. Andyet the Department of Justice have plansto build a 94-bed women's prison. Theyshould be looking instead to reduce thenumber of women being held.

“There have been some changes forwomen in Hydebank Wood. There hasbeen the development of a step down unitcalled Murray House which is a six-bed

unit for women about to leave jail. There isalso now more of a range of work opportunities for women than there wasin the past. So there has been some smallchanges, but it's still an absolutely unacceptable situation to still have womenplaced in a male offenders centre.

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

Linda said: “The recommendations ofthe Prison Review Team, led by AnneOwers, in 2011, are still an issue. ThePrison Review Team Oversight body saidthat most of Ms Owers' recommendationshave been signed off, but I don’t understand that. The report in 2015 fromthe Chief Inspector of Prisons in Englandand Wales Nick Hardwick and BrendanMcGuigan, chief inspector of CriminalJustice NI, described Maghaberry as “themost dangerous prison ever inspected”.

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

“I would suggest that the new JusticeMinister Claire Sugden needs to look againat the Prison Review Team's recommenda-tions. They should also talk to the organisa-tions on the ground, talk to the families,talk to prisoners and find out how they are experiencing the situation.

“We need a change in culture. So far,that has not happened. We need to havedeincarceration instead. Prison numbershave unacceptably risen. We know thatprison is expensive and we know that itdoesn’t work. She should focus on whatwe can do instead to assist people from offending.”

Prime Minister David Cameron hasrecently outlined a series of proposals toreform the prison system in England andWales, such as schemes to reduce offending, changing the criteria in which

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

‘’We are seeing aworrying rise inthe number ofwomen prisoners beingheld. We shouldbe looking instead at trying to reducethose numbers



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

I was interested to hear whether shebelieved that these proposals should alsobe implemented in Northern Ireland.

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

“I think the new Justice Ministershould talk to NIACRO about their ideas.We need more employment support forprisoners when they are released. I definitely don't want to see prison leaguetables being introduced here. It didn't workfor schools, why would it work for prisons? League tables just become a boxticking exercise. What we want is supportfor people and organisations who are trying to work with prisoners.

“Also prison governors in NorthernIreland do not have a great record. All youhave to do is look back at our research orinspectors' reports to see that we shouldnot be looking at giving them any more autonomy. We need better leadership andwe need accountability.

“I find it absolutely shocking that youcan have over a decade of inspection reports, independent research reports andthe Human Rights Commission saying that

things are disastrous in prisons in Northern Ireland.

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

“We understand from all the researchthat prison is an expensive failure. Themoney that is currently being spent onprisons could be put to a better use.

“We have a fantastic voluntary sectorhere and we are aware that they are doingamazing work around prisons.

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

those organisations and the women’s sector, we would have a better outcome.People often say ‘what is your alternativeto prisons’? I would say instead let us reinvest in things that work.”

I asked Linda about the high proportion of people from a working-classsocio-economic background who are heldin our jails.

“We know that young people and children who come from marginalised oreconomic disadvantaged communities aremore likely not to get support in schools,to be put out of school and to get intotrouble on the street and to come to theattention of the police.

“Why is it the case that more childrenin care end up in trouble? It’s not they areworse kids. It is that they are not given adequate support. It’s terribly sad as aprison researcher to go around jails and tosee prisoners who have had a really rottenstart in life and who then end up in jail.

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

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

• The Incarceration of Women:Punishing Bodies, Breaking Mindsby Linda Moore and Phil Scraton –Palgrave Macmillan Publishers

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

‘School leaguetables didn’twork for us, sowhy shouldhaving leaguetables for prisons do any better?

’


VIEW, Issue 37, 2016

Together: Sunny Jacobsand Peter Pringle

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By Brian PelanVIEW editor

The story of Sunny Jacobs and PeterPringle is compelling and life-affirming. A true tale of

surviving against all the odds.In 1976, Sunny was placed on death

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

He always denied any involvement inthe crime and his conviction was overturned by the Republic’s High Courtin 1995. Peter was one of the last peoplein Ireland to be sentenced to death in1980. Capital punishment was abolished in1990, with a constitutional ban on thedeath penalty introduced in 2002.

Sunny was 28 when her life changed.She was travelling with her boyfriend, JesseTafero, and her two children, Eric, nine, andChristina, 10 months. Their car had brokendown in Florida and they were trying toget home to North Carolina.

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

Rhodes negotiated a plea bargain withthe state, claiming Jesse and Sunny hadpulled the triggers, in exchange for a lifesentence. Sunny was put in solitary confinement for five years, awaiting execution. Her cell was minuscule at 6ft by9ft, and she spent days pacing back andforth. She began to practise yoga.

Her sentence was eventually reducedto life, but Jesse was executed in horrificcircumstances in 1990. The electric chair malfunctioned and it took him 13 and ahalf minutes to die.

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

confirming both Jesse's and Sunny's long-maintained innocence. Sunny was freed in 1992.

Sunny (now aged 68) and 77-year-oldPeter met in 1998 when Sunny, whostarted campaigning against the deathpenalty soon after she was released, trav-elled to Ireland to speak at Amnesty Inter-national events. Peter went to one of hertalks in a pub in Galway. He was moved byher suffering, but also by the realisation that here was someone elsewho knew what it was like to be sentenced to death for something theyhadn’t done.

The couple started to see each otheron a regular basis and were eventuallymarried in New York in 2011.

I spoke to Sunny and Peter, who live ina cottage in the Republic, about their livesnow and how they are doing. “In oneword, wonderful,” said Peter.

Sunny said: “It’s mystical where we live

and when the sun is out it’s magical.”They regularly travel to give talks

about the death penalty, social justice andhuman rights. “We’ve recently been toPennsylvania and Texas. And before that itwas London, Birmingham, Bristol and Italy,”said Peter. He believes that the presentprison system in many countries is deeplyflawed. “Scandinavian countries have thebest of the prison systems that I know off,in that when a person is sent to prison theaim is rehabilitation not punishment, andthe aim is to minimise the time a personspends in prison, not maximise it.

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

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

“They’re treated as human beings andnot as pariahs, and if the prisoner is prepared to make the effort then the authorities facilitate that and aim towardsrehabilitating that person back into societyat the earliest possible stage,” adds Peter.

I asked Sunny was she still angryabout her conviction.

“I’m not angry any more,” she replied.“I thought I wasn’t angry when I first gotout because I was so happy to get out, butI saw a video of myself speaking and it wasof an angry woman. But I’ve left that angerbehind because it doesn’t serve me, and ittakes up a space inside me that could befilled with happiness, because there’s achoice that we make – we always have achoice – it’s important to get that acrossto everyone. When people are going intoprison you have a choice always, so mychoice was to replace anger with hope.”

• For more information aboutSunny and Peter’s work, visittheir website at www.sunnyand-peter.com, their Facebook page atwww.facebook.com/sunnyand-peter/ or the Sunny Centre atwww.thesunnycenter.com

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

The day that I spoke to Sunnywas the 26th anniversary of theexecution of her formerboyfriend Jessie. Sunny said:“My daughter Christina still acknowledges the day and howshe misses her dad and shedoes it on Facebook every yearso that everyone can read it.”

Watch Sunny talk about herexperiences in prison athttp://bit.ly/1XoHSxM



By Brian Pelan

The Quaker Service, who have been working inNorthern Ireland’s jails and providing supportfor prisoners and their families for a number

of years, also run a facility overlooking the city ofBelfast.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Long may it continue.

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

Images: Hannah Mitchell



Breaking the chains of alcoholismVIEW talks to former prisoner ‘John’ who is a recovering alcoholic. Henow visits jails in his role as an AA volunteer to speak to inmates abouthis battle to overcome his addiction and to try and help others who aresuffering from the disease

By Brian Pelan

John Jones (not his real name) is aboutto turn 60 but he looks much younger.He is a volunteer with Alcoholics Anonymous and he visits jails on a regular basis.He is from Belfast and he spent

around 14 years in a number of prisons fora variety of offences, including assault,shoplifting, fraud and forgery. John firstwent to jail when he was 22 years of age.His last time inside was at the age of 36.

“I can say without doubt that it wasthe bottle that led me into crime. I starteddrinking at 17 years of age and I believe Iwas an alcoholic from the word go. Mywhole family, apart from my mother, werealcoholics. There were seven of us, including my parents, in the family. I was the second oldest. My eldest brother died at29 years of age from alcoholism. He alsospent time in prison.”

I asked John how he coped with thepressures of being in prison. “You just tryand keep your head down. You learn howto cope in jail. There’s a language, there’s acode, there’s a currency in how to act. Youroll with the punches, you do what youhave to do to survive.

“I haven’t reoffended since I was lastin prison and that’s as a direct result ofstopping drinking.

“I found AA through my father whowas an alcoholic. He stopped drinking about seven years before I did.He’s still alive and he has been off drinknearly 30 years now. The whole family hadbeen split up through alcoholism. We’ve allmanaged at the end of the day to stopdrinking through the help of the AA.

“It was a long process to get mecleared so I could visit jails as an AA volunteer because of my prison record.

“It was a weird experience. I hadspent a long time wanting to be out ofprison and now I was applying to go backin. The first group of prisoners I spoke towas at Maghaberry jail. They were in prisonbecause of drinking, or had found them-selves in jail because of the consequences of their drinking.

“AA can’t get anybody sober. All AAcan do is plant the seed. In prisons, at present, there is too much access to drugs.So if you’ve got an alcoholic in there whois dependent on something to take himselfout of his own reality, he will take the drug,whatever the consequences. We are nowfinding that many people coming out of

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

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

“Alcoholics are in complete denial.They see alcohol as the answer, not the problem.”

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

“They’re not putting in the resourcesthat should be put in. At times it feels justlike a box-ticking exercise.”

• Alcoholics AnonymousNorthern Ireland can be contacted at 028 9043 4848.

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Every night, the last things Greek-borneconomist, Vicky Pryce sees beside her bed are a red and white

dotty tissue box and a bottle of aspirin:two ‘souvenirs’ that she brought homefrom her time in prison. While many wouldregard imprisonment as an experience tobe quickly forgotten, Pryce is, however,keen to retain memories of this period ofher life.

“The box and aspirin are definite re-minders for me of a part of my life, whichwas a very important time,” she says. “ I stillkeep in touch with some of the women Imet while I was there, and I certainly don’tbelieve in simply closing that chapter. Itshaped me and is now very much part of me.”

When it comes to turning a negativeinto a positive, it would be difficult to sur-pass Vicky Pryce. In March 2013 she wassentenced to eight months in prison foraccepting her ex-husband’s penalty pointson her driving licence some 10 years ear-lier. After a very public trial, she was sentfirst to Holloway and then to East SuttonPark, an open prison in Kent. Faced withthe realities of life behind bars, Pryce beganto research the injustices she found withinthe prison system and she documentedthem on her release in ‘Prisonomics: Behind Bars in Britain’s Failing Prisons’.

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

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

“I think that what surprised me mostwas that I discovered how easily your lifecan be turned upside down,’ she says. “Italso however reinforced my belief that,while we all make mistakes, if you have theright frame of mind, then you can survive.My time in prison also seriously widenedmy perspective on life – particularly aboutwomen’s vulnerability – and encouraged arethink on my part. I realised that I had aunique opportunity to look at first hand atthe evidence of what’s happening towomen if they are sent to prison.”

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

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

So what does she suggest as an alternative?

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

UK approach. In Italy, for example, very fewwomen are put into prison because the au-thorities believe that they shouldn’t beseparated from their children and they’replaced under a form of ‘house arrest’. Simi-larly, in the Netherlands, they use the‘weekend imprisonment’ model, whichavoids disrupting employment. The UK,however, remains unenthusiastic about thisidea due to the administrative costs ofmanaging a Friday arrival and a Sunday departure.

“I have gone back to work as an econ-omist, but I’m still involved in the econom-ics of prison reform. I am convinced thatone way of reducing reoffending and fur-ther costs to society is through educationand employment. In prison I saw the desireof girls to educate themselves and wit-nessed the difference in mental attitudeand ambition for the future that acquiring ajob while in prison made.

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

“It made me appreciate, however, howmuch other people are at a disadvantageafter such an experience.

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

My prison experience alteredthe way I view everythingJournalist Debbie Orme talks to economist Vicky Pryce whowas jailed in 2013 after she pleaded guilty to accepting speeding points on her driving licence for her ex-husband, former Cabinet minister Chris Huhne

Vicky Pryce,right, andthe cover ofher book,Prisonomics



By Caroline McCoubreyTogether For You

In 2013 a partnership of nine leadingmental health organisations, led by Action Mental Health, succeeded in

winning an award of £3 million of fundingfor three years from the Big Lottery FundNI to deliver mental health services topeople of all ages across Northern Ireland.

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

Four of the nine partner organisationshave been supporting the mental health ofprisoners. These include Relate NI, whohave offered one-to-one and partner counselling sessions to more than 50 prisoners and their families; MindWise,who have trained and supported volun-teers to work in the prisons to supportthe education needs of prisoners andCAUSE, where the funding gave the organisation the opportunity to providepractical and emotional support to individuals and their families to reducefeelings of isolation and stigma that can beassociated with not only mental health, butinvolvement with the criminal justice system also.

Over the course of the project, theyhave provided one to one support to morethan 60 carers in this situation.

Finally, since January 2014, ActionMental Health’s MensSana team have been involved in delivering OCN-accreditedhealth and wellbeing and personal development courses in MaghaberryPrison and Hydebank Wood College, alongwith resilience workshops and mentalhealth awareness sessions. To date, morethan 180 men and women across both facilities have completed OCN courses ina range of topics including UnderstandingStress, Understanding Feelings and Emotions, Understanding Risk and Understanding Motivation.

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

prisoners to improve their education, andto get a job when they leave, but we alsoneed to tackle the underlying issues thatpeople have. We need to have a holistic approach, otherwise nothing is going to change.

Geraldine Kelly, Project Worker forAction Mental Health, said: “We work withoffenders who are the most removed fromengagement in Hydebank Wood College,and those with a diagnosed mental healthillness in Maghaberry Prison, helping to settle them and working on their copingstrategies. We talk through their behaviours and why they may be happening. We show them that as well asworking on their mental health, they canalso get a qualification through OCN. Thefinal goal is to get them engaged with theother prison programmes and health andsocial care support, so we continue to im-

prove their mental health and ultimatelyreduce reoffending. These courses act as acatalyst for this, allowing them to go outinto the mainstream prison, and continueto improve.”

The Together For You project has nowcome to an end, however many of thesevital services mentioned above hope tocontinue, depending on funding.

They have been vital in turning roundthe lives of Ryan, Andy, Robert, Gareth and many more men and womenfrom the prisons by improving their mentalhealth and self-esteem, and reducing theirchances of reoffending once they havebeen released.

• For further information on Together For You or to watch thefull video interviews, visitwww.togetherforyou.org.uk

Some of the young men fromHydebank Wood College werewilling to be interviewed by Together For You, something initself that many of the youngmen said they wouldn’t havehad the confidence or motivation to do prior to taking part in the courses.

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

Andy said: “I wasn’t progressing or engaging before the courses so endedup on the Willow landing where I wasjust locked up all the time, not interested in doing anything. It was thereI met Geraldine from Action Mental

Health. I initially thought that I didn’tneed the courses, but once I started it Irealised how much I was learning aboutmyself, my self-esteem, dealing withemotions…lots of things you wouldn’thave thought of.”

Robert said: “Before the courses I wasalways getting restrained and beingdragged back to the block, always messing around. The courses have justchanged me.”

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

‘The courses have changed me’

Helping to turn lives aroundPositive: Ryan, left, with Andy, Robert and Gareth, who all praised the Together For You scheme

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When Micky (not his real name)was released from a short spellin prison a few years ago, he

knew immediately that he wanted to givesomething back to society. And, more importantly, he knew exactly what formthat would take.

“While I was in prison,” Micky tellsme, “I quickly realised that some of themen I was with, who, on the outside wereas hard as nails, couldn’t even write theirown name.

“The ‘rehabilitation’ wasn’t workingand, when they got out, these men had nooption but to carry on where they’d leftoff. I knew that this was where I wanted to help.”

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

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

teach English and maths to people whohad often been told they would neveramount to anything.

“All that most of these people wantedto do was to improve themselves,” saidMicky. “They just needed someone to helpthem. I worked with each of them on aone-to-one basis, and I think it was this aspect of my mentoring role that reallyhelped them to express themselves.

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

“One guy I was teaching, for example,had had serious drink and drug problems,and a judge had told him that he wouldn’tsee his daughter if he didn’t get his act together. Within one year, the guy had notonly passed his driving test, but had alsopassed exams in English and maths, andsubsequently regained access to his child.Where, a year or two previously, he’d beenan absolute wreck, he’d now completelyturned his life around – and so much forthe better.

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

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

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

“The really frustrating thing,” said NIACRO Senior Practitioner Gareth Eannetta, who manages resettlement programmes including peer mentoring, “isthat just a few weeks after the funding wascut, research carried out by the NorthernIreland Statistics and Research Agencyshowed that the Jobtrack project to support resettlement actually reduced reoffending by up to 24 per cent. In fact, indications showed that, even partiallycompleting the project reduced the one-year reoffending rate by between twoand 18 per cent.

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

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



On the road to reformVIEW put a series of questions about rehabilitaion strategies inour jails to Brian McCaughey, the Director of Rehabilitation inthe Northern Ireland Prison Service, and his Deputy DirectorLouise Cooper

Q: Can you outline your views onrehabilitation strategies in ourprisons?

A: Brian McCaughey: “The history of ourprisons in Northern Ireland, probably because of the conflict in Northern Ireland, has been that prisons have had an emphasis on security and keeping peoplewithin the walls. Rehabilitation needs to bein the centre of our prisons and that weneed to work it out and challenge people’sattitudes and behaviours and release thembetter prepared to avoid reoffending. Interms of putting prisoners at the centre ofour work, we have introduced an assessment of risks, needs and strengthsfor each individual prisoner and the prisoner participates fully in that.”

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

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

Q: What sort of schemes are inplace to make sure that prisonerskeep in contact with their families. Would you ever consider a scheme whereby partners and children can stayovernight or longer?

A: BMcC. “There are no models in North-ern Ireland prisons where families can stayovernight, not at the present time. Thereare models where the families and theirchildren can come in where the prisoner has participated in a specialprogramme – a ‘families matter’ programme – and they’re allowed specialvisits with their children through their participation in those programmes. Those happen in Maghaberry, in Hydebank andMagilligan, and we’re looking to see how to

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

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

A:BMcC: “Historically in Northern Irelandour prisons were somewhat separate fromthe community, and the community wasseparate from the prisons. And what I al-ways said was that prisons need to be cen-tral to community and community centralto prisons. If we have 1,800 prisoners wehave a workforce of 1,800, and what canthey deliver for the rest of society? “What contribution can they make by wayof reparation and making good for theharm they’ve done. How could they help

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

“What is the purpose of a prison?How can we purposefully engage peoplewhilst in custody, and then how can we integrate people by phasing them into employment after they are released.”

Q: What are your views on thefamilies of prisoners and how theyare treated by society?

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

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

“Our prison population is mainly maleso those individuals are left to rear children, to school them and tofeed them.

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

Q: Do you look at rehabilitationmodels in other countries?A: BMcC: “You’ll find examples of bestpractice drawn from all of the other jurisdictions and we have drawn from thatin turn in developing our own prisonerarrangements.”

Q: What are your views on the recent news announcement thatthe Quaker Service and NIACROhad lost funding contracts theyhad in the prisons?

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

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

Q: How have funding cuts affectedrehabilitation services in our jails?

A: BMcC: “We currently have somewherein the region of 40 providers working withus from the voluntary community andstatutory sector helping us deliver rehabilitation in prisons.

“There is less money available.“It’s about doing things differently

with less.”

Are you interested in the idea ofhaving league tables for prisons inNorthern Ireland? (In the recent Queen’s Speech in Britain,it was announced that reoffending leagues tables will bepublished for jails in England andWales). Do you think that theywould work here?

A: BMcC: “As we only have three establishments in Northern Ireland, aleague table doesn’t grip me. “I’m more interested in establishing whatis the the purpose of each of these establishments and how can we maximise delivery against that purpose.”

‘’Rehabilitation needs to beat the centre of our prisons

Aims outlined: Brian McCaughey and Louise Cooper



The organisation VoluntaryServices Belfast Foundation(VSB Foundation) has been

supporting a number of projectsin the community/voluntary sector for a number of years, in-cluding work in the prison sector.

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

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

“For a number of years we’vehad a relationship with the Pilgrim Trust in the UK. We ran asmall grants programme andwe’ve followed their direction ofpriorities. One of those was engagement with women offenders and looking at the issues around women offenders tosee if there were ways in whichyou could mitigate offending andalso offer support for offenders.

“Off the back of that we thenran a small grants programme inNorthern Ireland. Our funding programme has run between seven and eight years.

It's about £30,000 per year“The issue around women

offenders came about because ofthe Corston Report (a reviewpublished in 2007 by Jean Corstonwhich looked at women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system in England).”

Bill said: “That was followedby reports in Northern Irelandthat said the same issues werecoming forward. There was someanecdotal evidence that womenwere being sentenced for offencesthat were different to what menwere being sentenced for; such asnon payment of fines, non payment of TV licences and minorshoplifting. Some women wouldbe sent to prison for some ofthose offences. Also the background to women committing offences was thatthey had much more serious andcomplex issues, such as mentalhealth problems, drug abuse andsexual and violent abuse fromtheir partners.

“The other issue that gaveconcern was that quite a numberof women would also have familycommitments and therefore itwas not just a punishment of thewomen if she was in prison, but

also on the family because quiteoften kids would have to be takeninto care.

“We are not experts in criminal justice but we want tosupport sector organisations whowork in the area, such as NIACRO, the Prison Fellowship,the Quaker Service and the PrisonArts Foundation.

“This issue around women isprobably a solvable problem inthe sense that the number ofwomen going into prison is a smallcohort, and in Northern Irelandit’s even smaller than in the restof the UK. So if you can actuallyput resources in, when you’veidentified what the problems are,can you solve the problem?

“This doesn't mean that youare not going to have women offenders. Prison is legitimate in anumber of cases when it involvesindividuals who are going to commit harm.

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

Helping handVIEW talks to Bill Osborne,right, director of the VSBFoundation, about its ongoing work of supportinggroups who work in thecriminal justice sector

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

Offending Costs! was the title of asymposium held recently by thePilgrim Trust and VSB Foundation

in Belfast. These two organisations had launched

a recent research study looking at ‘TheCurrent Landscape of Support for Womenwho Offend in Northern Ireland’. Theseorganisations have provided funding support to encourage local community interventions to address the underlyingcauses contributing to female offendingand offer practical support for womencaught in the criminal justice system toprevent offending.

I was keen to carry out this researchas I was aware of how the media oftensensationalised and negatively portrayed aminority of women who committed veryserious offences, compared to men whocommitted similar crimes. I was interestedto explore what differences there might befor women because of their life experiences and, given the very muchsmaller prison population, the impact thatprison has on them.

The research findings supported thefact that women’s pathways in to and outof offending are often complex and arerecognised as different to those for men.Women in prison represent around threeper cent of the prison population and themajority of women who offend are older,low risk and with combinations of vulnerabilities such as domestic, personaland socio-economic factors that couldoften trigger a crisis point in women’s lives.

Whilst there are crimes for whichcustody is necessary and appropriate, it appears that many women are frequentlysentenced for short periods of time forfairly minor offences resulting in significantdisruption in their lives and those of their families.

The research found that many womenin custody are vulnerable with experiencesof domestic violence, trauma, bereavement,sexual violence and used alcohol/illicit orprescription drugs as coping mechanismsin order to contend with ‘fluid’ and ‘chaoticfamily’ circumstances

These women have low self-confidence, little self-belief and theirentry into the criminal justice systemheightens feelings of guilt and shame, leav-ing many worse off as a result of theirprison experience.

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

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

The research has demonstrated thatthe money spent on prisons could bemore effectively used with better shortand longer-term results through genderspecific approaches such as the Inspireprogramme (www.pbni.org.uk/what-we-do/video-gallery/inspire-womens-project/);keeping and strengthening family contactso that women can retain their role as amother; resources offering a ‘wrap around’support for women transitioning back intothe community; interagency and healthsupport for those with mental ill-healthand addictions difficulties; an exploration ofjustice reinvestment and identifying, whereappropriate, restorative practices and community based alternatives rather thancustodial sentencing.

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

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

Many women incustody are vulnerablewith experiences ofdomestic violence,trauma, bereavementand sexual violence

‘’



Tacklingreoffending

By Brian PelanVIEW editor

Most academics and researcherswho look at the prison system willargue that early intervention is

critical in efforts to reduce reoffending andstop people entering the prison system.

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

“Thirty seven per cent of the peoplewe work with have mental health issues; 72per cent have drug and alcohol issues. Prisons and police cells are not the placefor dealing with mental health issues –there has to be earlier interventions. Wecan't sentence our way out of reducing reoffending. We need to work with thehealth system and the new Department ofCommunities in terms of employment.”

I asked how does her organisation effectively manages responsibilities in thewake of recent cuts in its budget andwhere does it leave an early interventionstrategy which costs money?

“Over the last three years our budgethas been cut by 15 per cent. We’ve had toreduce our workforce by 14 per cent. Onthe ground we have less probation staffand heightened caseloads.

“I had to take tough decisions aboutmaking cuts to the partnership we hadwith the voluntary and community sector.

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

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

“The onus is on us to deliver things differently. In partnership with NIACROwe launched the Reset programme. (Resetis an intensive rehabilitation and resettlement project to support people inthe community following release fromprison. It aims to reduce the number ofpeople recalled to prison after release.)

“One of the things that we sought toensure that wouldn’t be affected was ourpartnership work with the PSNI andprison colleagues in public protectionarrangements, which is a set of arrangements that mandate us to work ina collaborative way with sex offenders anddomestic violence perpetrators.”

Ms Lamont was adamant that around20 per cent of the prison population, whoare serving sentences of a year or less,could be dealt with more effectivelythrough community order schemes.

She said: “This is not a criticism of thePrison Service, but those people who arein and out – the revolving door syndrome – all they do is take up the timeof the prison administrative service. The issues that need to be dealt with to ensurethey don't go back are not having anytraction. Things like dealing with addictionor mental health problems are not sufficiently dealt with.

“Interestingly, last year the Lord ChiefJustice Sir Declan Morgan said that he andhis colleagues felt that short sentenceswere not making any real impact.

“In response to that, the ProbationBoard developed a pilot scheme whichaims to divert offenders from short–termcustodial sentences by offering judges amore intensive community order with afocus on rehabilitation, reparation, restorative practice and desistance. Thenew order is called an Enhanced Combination Order.

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

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

“So far around 50 people have gonethrough this scheme, aged from 18 to thetheir mid-30s, mostly men, with offences including burglarly, theft offences and serious disorder

“People who come out of prison,without supervision are more likely to reoffend by 50 per cent, but for thoseunder probation supervision it's around 31per cent. If you are under community service, it goes down to 25 per cent. I'mnot sure that prison has to be the startingpoint and I say that to many people whowork in the criminal justice system. Thereare better outcomes to be had in community sentencing.”

As the budget for the ProbationBoard has been reduced from £20m to£16m, Ms Lamont’s organisation has itswork cut out for it.

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

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Meaningful reintegration into societyis a key challenge for all of usworking in the justice arena.

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

That’s why Extern has been providinghousing and routes to employment formedium to high risk offenders since 1974.We also provide floating support, dedicated expertise and vocational training.

There are many challenges and issuesfacing Extern and other providers in thisarea to ensure we focus on changing thelives of people and families within the justice system – those facing prison, inprison, on remand, or returning to societyfollowing a prison sentence.

There is a pressing need, and opportunity, to improve the current outcomes against a background of hugebudgetary and resource pressures, and theongoing pressures facing those working inprisons too. Without doubt, it is importantthat the focus is on the individual in thejustice system and that we also focus onensuring communities are safer as a resultof how we integrate an ex-offender backinto society.

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

Extern works across many agenciesreceiving referrals from the ProbationBoard for Northern Ireland, the NorthernIreland Prison Service, the PSNI, SocialServices, other Extern services, voluntaryorganisations and self-referrals. On leavingjail many prisoners face huge uncertainty,due to broken relationships and loss offamily support, and face the dauntingprospect of ‘where next?’ – in terms of ahome, support, and a life. The number ofcases presenting to Extern’s ‘Communities’team citing homelessness following prisonis a concern.

We are acutely aware of the prisoner

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

Successfully managed collaborations isa huge benefit to prisoners settling into society. On a weekly basis our homelesssupport service responds to the needs offormer prisoners, with over 200 presentinglast year alone. We are better at preparingfor the release of individuals back into society if we collaborate, and plan together– it will ease the burden on everyone, savetime, and avoid duplication of resources already under pressure.

Every day Extern engages with individuals who, following a term in prison,are on release and in need of support.Our work engages with the challengingcombination of people who are at risk toothers and at the same time are vulnerablein their own right. Extern’s Floating Support Project is led by a social workteam that gives priority to clients withcomplex needs who present with amedium to high risk of offending and whohave previously committed serious offences. The success of the project hasmeant that demand has far outstripped capacity – we have supported more than130 vulnerable clients every year and havea growing waiting list of more than 40.

Extern also provides a regional serviceoutside Belfast, supporting more than 60people across the region. The role of Extern’s work in Floating Support was fullyendorsed in the Supporting People Reviewreport (November 2015) by the then Minister for Social Development, MervynStorey. The report identified Floating Sup-port as “a particularly cost-effective way ofdelivering preventative benefits”, withusers of Extern’s services being threetimes less likely to reoffend that those whoare not supported in the community.

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

COMMENT

We need to cut reoffendingCharlie Mack, Chief Executive of social justicecharity Extern, urges the Government and theOpposition to give urgent attention to the issuesaround justice, including prisons

‘’There is apressing needto improve thecurrent outcomesagainst a background ofhuge budgetaryand resourcepressures



By Brian Pelan

Ican vividly recall the first time I readCrime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was in the late 1970s

during a bad time in my life. I was living in asquat in London and I was unemployed. Itwas not the best time to be reading thisclassic novel.

Devouring copious amounts of beansand toast, I hurtled through this dark andcompelling tale, unable to put it down.Erwin James in his biography, ‘Redeemable: AMemoir of Darkness and Hope’, recounts reading the same book in hisprison cell. “A dark, gripping story thathaunted me for a long time and made methink deeply about the motivations behindevery criminal action I ever made . . . Untilthen I had only considered the damage mycrimes had caused others. This book made me aware of how badly crime damages the perpetrator...”

Erwin spent 20 years in prison afterbeing convicted, along with his co-accusedWilliam Ross, for the murder of the twomen – theatrical agent Greville Hallam andsolicitor Angus Cochran – in 1982, He wasreleased in 2004.

The concept that everyone can be redeemable is explored fully in this book.Readers can decide whether they agree or not.

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

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

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

He lost his mother at the age of sevenafter she died in a car crash. “Nobody toldme my mother was dead. No one talked to meabout the crash. But in the days afterwards I listened in carefully on adult con-versations until I knew for sure.”

What follows is unrelenting darknessas a young child, who needed support andlove, is plunged instead into a catastrophicexistence. From a young age he witnessedregular violence as his alcoholic father unleashed brutal assaults on his Aunt Stellaand others.

Life became a series of house moveswith each event gradually destroying anychance of a ‘normal’ upbringing.

As in the case of many prisoners,Erwin, the child victim, becomes Erwin thecriminal. It was a meeting with psychologistJoan Branton, when he was being held inWakefield Prison, that was to result inErwin examining his actions and the terrible harm that he had inflicted onmany people.

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

felt good to be in the company of a womanagain, even one whose job was to assess mydangerousness. Her manner gave me the impression she was kind and considerate –everything I and the hard prison environmentwere not.”

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

I first came across the author when Iread his regular prison columns in TheGuardian newspaper. His writing style wasall the more raw and effective because hewas in jail. It reminded me of another classic book, ‘The Soledad Brother: The PrisonLetters of George Jackson’.

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

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

• Redeemable: A Memoir of Darkness and Hope is publishedby Bloomsbury Circus; priced£16.99

REVIEWwww.viewdigital.org



INTERVIEW

There’s always waiting in jail. Ninety-nine per cent of the time that’swhat jail is – waiting around bored

out of your fucking mind. The other oneper cent is just stupid, vicious bollocks.”

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

He has helped prisoners write lettersfor Parole and Life Sentence Review expressing their remorse and apologisingfor their crimes.

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

Gebler’s ear for a story is second tonone and in his years spent in jails teachingwriting he has come to understand thatstories about prisoners told by other prisoners is part of the underground

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

“The book is in the voice of a fictionalprisoner. Not someone that I know.While working in prisons I have frequentlyhad the experience of being there whensomeone said ‘Did you hear what happened to ...’ and they would tell a story.

“In prison there is no Facebook andnone of the things associated with modernity so narrative as it is talked is allthey have for social interaction and it becomes much more important inside thefour walls of a prison.”

Gébler is now working in Hydebankwith the Prison Arts Foundation but he also worked in the Maze andMaghaberry Prisons. He feels the mediaand politicians need to start talking aboutjails differently and mentions the Conser-vative Government’s commitment to penalreform in the recent Programme for Gov-ernment. In his book the Sunday Muck, afictional newspaper like the fictional jail,gets frequent mentions.

“The politicians and the media are notencouraging the public to understand butinstead they encourage a punitive, closed, negative attitude”, Gébler toldVIEW magazine.

Far from talking to liberal Guardianreaders (like himself), he wants to reachout to those people who believe that theonly penal system worth having is to lockprisoners up and throw away the key.

It costs more to keep a prisoner in jailthan to educate a boy at Eton College,England’s elite public school which thepresent British Prime Minister DavidCameron and many of his political contemporaries attended, Gebler pointsout “Why are we spending so much moneywhen the results are so bad?” he asked.

“In Scandanavian countries there are alot less people in prison, and a much lowerrecidivist rate. We don’t appear to havethe courage to follow that route.”

• The Wing Orderly’s Tales byCarlo Gébler. Published by NewIsland: http://newisland.ie/prod-uct/the-wing-orderlys-tales/

“

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



Housing Rights believes that every-one should have a home. We havebeen helping prisoners with the

support of the Northern Ireland HousingExecutive, the Northern Ireland PrisonService, the Probation Board NorthernIreland and NIACRO since 2006.

Over time we have seen a pattern ofrepeat offending amongst some of ourmore vulnerable clients. This was most apparent in those who have a history ofhomelessness and complex needs. We successfully secured funding and co-operation to allow us to pilot a ‘Beyondthe Gate’ service. This is a groundbreakinginitiative for Housing Rights and movesway beyond our traditional advice service.

‘Beyond the Gate’ aims to preventhomelessness and sustain accommodationfor the most vulnerable clients leavingprison. The initiative is about bridging,bonding and linking the most vulnerableand challenging clients to their accommodation as well as their relevantsupport services.

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

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

All ‘Beyond the Gate’ clients have:• A history of repeat offending• Not traditionally engaged with supportservices• Mental health and/or addiction issues• Complex needs• Challenging behaviour

Our Beyond the Gate team consistsof two Housing Rights Development

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

They are then picked up at the prisongate and taken to their new home. It’smore than just getting accommodation; theteam work intensively with the clientsafter release to connect them with the relevant counselling, benefit, addiction ormedical services they need.

Our approach is unconditional. It isalso delivered at the pace of the client. Thisis often the first time that the clients willhave someone take the time to get toknow them, to scratch below the serviceand understand their issues.

As these clients don’t traditionally engage with service providers, on releasewe collect them at the gate. We bridge thegap where, without our support, clientswould not engage with services.

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

The ‘Beyond the Gate’ team relishworking with clients with complex needsand challenging behaviours. They are particularly proud of the impact their workhad on Barry (not his real name) a particularly vulnerable young client.

Barry is 19 and has Asperger’s andepilepsy. Over 18 months, he was in andout of custody on a number of occasions.Before his most recent release he was referred to ‘Beyond the Gate’.

With nurturing, patience and supportthe team have worked through Barry’svery challenging behaviours. They havebuilt his confidence to the point where hehas been able to live in the community formore than six months.

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

COMMENT

A home ‘Beyond the Gate’Jim O'Callaghan, Head of Operations with Housing Rights, explains the background to agroundbreaking initiative which is aimed at securing accommodation for vulnerable prisoners

‘’Before ourinput theywould havebeen in thecommunity forone to two daysbefore returningto prison. Wethink thatspeaks volumes

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While there aren’t official statisticson the numbers of Travellers inprison, it is recognised

that Travellers are significantly over-represented within the prison system – although Travellers only accountfor 0.6 per cent of the overall populationin the Republic of Ireland

The Republic’s Prison Service estimate that Travellers account for 22 percent of the female prison population and15 per cent of the male prison population.The disproportionate representation ofTravellers in the penal system is not a situation that is unique to the Republic: thesame trend can be found in other coun-tries with an indigenous minority ethnicpopulation.

The Travellers in Prison Initiative (TPI)was developed in 2014 by the St Stephen'sGreen Trust, a small grant-giving charitablefoundation in Dublin. It is a response tothe particular needs and circumstances ofTravellers within the 14 prisons in the Republic. The background to the TPI can betraced back to the Irish Penal Reform Trust(IPRT) research report on ‘Travellers in theIrish Prison System’ produced in May 2014.This research clearly documents the challenges and difficulties being experi-enced by Travellers within Irish prisons.

A priority for the TPI is to embedpositive and sustainable change in policyand practice. Results and learning frompilot actions will be documented and usedto inform the development of longer-term,sustainable cross-prison initiatives.

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

1. Building a knowledge base aboutTravellers in prison

The existing data collection

mechanisms are not producing accuratecounts of the number of Travellers inprison. The TPI is supporting a pilot projecton ethnic data collection in one prison andto deliver training and supports to relevantprison staff as well as awareness raisingamongst Travellers.

2. Increasing and improving access toprison-based services for Travellers

While there hasn’t been any researchconducted into the uptake of services byTravellers, the barriers to access and theoutcomes, the anecdotal evidence indicatesthat many Travellers are not benefitingfrom those services. The TPI strategy to increase Traveller participation in prison-based services has three primary strands:

Encouraging Travellers to want to participate

Creating an atmosphere in prison inwhich participation is both normal andpositive

Providing suitable services in prison.3. Strengthening supports for families

of Travellers in prison, and post-release,using a multi-agency approach

Family support is considered to be aparticularly important factor in improvingoutcomes for Travellers in prison and theirfamilies and ultimately reducing recidivism.The TPI plans to research the key issuesfor Traveller families and to develop resources to enable the provision of ap-propriate supports

4. Strengthening self-identity and self-advocacy for Travellers in prison by mainstreaming a peer-support model

Feedback from Traveller organisationsrefers to the isolation and loneliness experienced by Traveller prisoners particularly for the disproportionately highnumber of Travellers in protection wings.

The TPI is committed to supporting the establishment of Traveller peer supportgroups in prison and has developed a quarterly newsletter specifically for Travellers in prison. Travellers in prisonhave been facilitated to write articles forinclusion in the newsletter. The TPI also facilitates Traveller organisations workingwith Travellers in prison or their families toaccess and share knowledge and experience through their participation inregular Traveller Network meetings.

5. Increasing awareness and capacitythrough training and learning programmesto Prison Service and Probation ServiceStaff and community based organisations

There has been a tendency by serviceproviders to provide generic offenderbased services designed for men from themajority population. There is a growing realisation that a ‘one size fits all’ model ofservice delivery does not meet the needsof all service users. The TPI plans to develop and deliver training on Traveller in-clusion to prison and probation staff andcommunity based organisations.

A steering group has been establishedto oversee the development and progression of the TPI. Current steeringgroup members include representativesfrom the Irish Prison Service, ProbationService, HSE, National Traveller organisations and the Irish Penal Reform Trust.

• Further information about theTravellers in Prison Initiative canbe accessed at: http://www.ssgt.ie

Anne Costello who co-ordinatesthe project can be contacted [email protected]

Some of the artwork made byTravellers inWheatfieldPrison in Dublin

Support for Travellers behind barsA charity foundation in Dublin tells VIEW of a scheme ithas backed which tries to meet the needs of Travellers whoare being held in the prison system in the Republic



The Samaritans are celebrating 10years of their award winning prisonpeer-support programme, the

‘Listeners’, in Maghaberry this year. Samaritans have been providing emotionalsupport to prisoners for 25 years, recognising that they are one of the groupsin society most vulnerable to suicide.

The Samaritans support prisonersthrough a number of methods: 24/7 accessto their phone service within the prison,providing emotional support on the wingsof prisons, and setting up and running theListener support scheme.

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

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

Belfast and Bangor branches alsowork together to provide emotional sup-port to young offenders and women at Hydebank Secure College and prison.

We asked Gillian McNaull, SamaritansRegional Prison Support Officer, why theysupport prisoners.

“Well, we recognise that prisoners areone of the most vulnerable groups interms of suicide risks. A prisoner is eightto 10 times more likely to take their ownlives than a member of the generalpopulation and 46 per cent of female prisoners and 21 per cent of male prisoners have attempted suicide prior to imprisonment.

“We know that the entry period ofcommittal to prison is the most high-risktime for prisoners, so we have Listenersgiving inductions to all prisoners that enterthe prison, and we know from our statistics that the most Listener call-outscome from the committal houses of the prison.

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

“The Listener training team of Belfastbranch have received a certificate ofachievement from the Lord Mayor’s charityawards and the Northern IrelandProbation Board partnership was the

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

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

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

“To empower prisoners to do something good in a place they have beensent to for doing something bad – nowthat is a great gift.”

• For more information on theListener scheme, go tohttp://www.samaritans.org/your-community/our-work-prisons/lis-tener-scheme

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

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

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

‘Larne House’, as it is known, is aShort Term Holding Facility (STHF). Up to19 people can be detained in the formerprison cells of the police station. Despitebeing renovated the feel and atmosphere isstill very much that of a prison includingvery similar security installations. Prior tothis facility being established the Home Office used prisons in Northern Irelandfor immigration detention.

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

The Home Office detains pregnantwomen, children and survivors of torture.The increased use of immigration detention across the UK is extremely concerning: Home Office figures show that32,446 people entered detention in 2015, aseven per cent rise over the previous year,while the number of detainees who aresubsequently removed from the UK following detention continues to decrease:down from 64 per cent in 2011 to 45 percent in 2015. It appears that detention isincreasingly being used as routine practice.This is wholly contrary to UNHRC’sguidelines, which state that detentionshould be used as an exceptional

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

Despite not being convicted of anycrime, immigration detainees are notawarded these simple assurances. In contrast, immigration detention can beordered by an immigration officer, meaning no court involvement and it canbe indefinite.

Immigration detention is extremelydisorientating for individuals. The mentaland physical state of detainees (as experienced by visitors to detentioncentres) is alarming. From January 2007until the end of 2015 there have been2,230 attempted suicides across the UKdetention estate and more than 16,786persons were on suicide watch.

The detention estate in the UK hasbeen expanding for many years, often run by private companies such asG4S, Serco, Mitie and GEO, who profitfrom the imprisonment of innocent people considered to be ‘illegal’ by the government.

Throughout the UK many visitorgroups and human rights advocates try toactively assist people in detention andlobby to try and change public perceptionof migrants and refugees.

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

Larne House Visitors Group is a localvolunteer group which visits detainees inLarne House.

If you would like moreinformation or to get involved, [email protected].

COMMENT

End the detention scandalHeiko Topp, who lives in Northern Ireland andhas campaigned on refugee issues for a numberof years, says we need to start a debate on therole of detention centres for immigrants

‘’Every yearthousands ofpeople, including children, arelocked up in prison-like conditions inthe UK withouta time limit, lack of judicialoversight, and inadequate access to legal advice



The murder of toddler, James Bulgerby two 10-year-old boys in Liverpool represented a turning

point in youth justice. It clearly demonstrated the fundamental effect thatone case can have on the justice system.

The media frenzy that ensued provided the climate for what has been de-scribed as ‘vitriolic’ reporting. The DailyStar tabloid published images of the boysand ran the headline: ‘How Do You Feel Now You Little Bastards?’ (November 25, 1993).

Reflective of the language employedby the trial judge in his summing up, otherlabels present in media coverage referredto the boys as: ‘evil’, ‘cunning’ and ‘wicked’,demanding that they ‘rot in jail’.

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

Labels such as: ‘sickos’; ‘evil’; ‘teenthugs’; ‘unruly’; ‘disaffected’; ‘out-of-control’; ‘hoods’; ‘tearaway’; ‘feral’;‘immoral’; ‘scumbags’, have typically beenemployed by journalists as part of headlines, or present in quotations fromlocal politicians.

The committed and vibrant children’sand youth sector organisations have longhighlighted the impact of this use of language. They have argued that negativemedia portrayals impact on the lives andexperiences of children and young people,as well as on public perceptions of theirservice provision.

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

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

conducted in Woodlands Juvenile JusticeCentre along with Mat Crozier from Include Youth, children and young people incustody discussed how negative labels areoften internalised.

When asked directly how they feltabout media reports, young people expressed concern about the impact ofnegative reporting on their relationships.How they would be viewed and respondedto by family and/or friends when they leftcustody was one of their major concerns.One young man described how the localmedia had first labelled him as a “scumbag”and it had become a label then employedby his “ma and granda”.

Young people also stated that themedia never contextualise young people’sbehaviour and that important backgroundinformation was rarely included in newsitems: “If your Ma doesn’t love you, you aregonna wreck home, do drugs, drink… butthey [the newspaper] are sayin’ it’s all theyoung person’s fault.”

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

Applying labels and ‘naming and shaming’ of children and young people hasan added dimension and severe consequences in a post-conflict society. Myresearch documented young people’s experiences of punishment attacks following production of their own forms ofmedia to challenge negative stereotypes.Reflecting on several of their front-pagenews items, a number of editors interviewed admitted to “amplifying tensions” in local communities.

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

COMMENT

When words can do damageVisiting research fellow Dr Faith Gordon arguesthat negative media portrayals of children andyoung people typically results in the creation ofa one-sided narrative

‘’One young mandescribed howthe local mediahad first labelledhim as a ‘scumbag’ andit had then become a label employedby his ‘ma and granda’

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A pointed exercise in relaxation behind barsBy Brian Pelan

Anxiety and tension levels are bothhigh in our jails as prisoners try tocope with the environment and the

length of their sentence. Start360, who deliver a treament

service in the prisons for inmates withdrug and alcohol problems, now also runan acupuncture clinic.

I visited Maghaberry Prison recentlyto observe the scheme at first-hand. Forthose people who have never seen the inside of a jail, nothing prepares you for theenvironment that you enter. In the midst ofbeautiful countryside, high walls surroundyou and you immediately feel as if you’veentered an ‘alien’ world.

Two members of the Start360 team atthe jail took me to a room where the clinictakes place. We sat in the room waiting forthe prisoners to arrive.

Four young men, serving sentences,joined the acupuncture session. All threelooked tense and were willing to try it tosee if it helped them. None of them hadtried it before. It was a surreal experienceas all three inmates allowed the needles tobe inserted in their ears and tried to relax.

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

meditation music was played for nearly anhour. I’m not sure what the prisoners gotout of the experience, but it was certainlynot a negative one. At the very least, it allowed time out for a short while fromthe tension of the prison.

I was very impressed with the gentleness and professionalism of theStart360 team at the jail. All of them are

very dedicated to their work and are goodat what they do.

Giving the high number of prisonerswho are dealing with mental health issuesand drug and addiction problems, an hourin the acupuncture clinic will not solvetheir problems, but it definitely offers thema brief moment in time to close their eyesand dream.

The acupuncture session at Maghaberry lasts for about an hour



October 2016 will see the 10thanniversary of the NI Protect LifeSuicide Prevention strategy. Life-

line, the regional crisis counselling helpline,a core strand in the suicide preventionstrategy, led by Contact since establishingthe pilot service for North and WestBelfast in 2006, rolled out regionally since 2008.

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

Sadly, more than 150 callers lost theirlives to suicide over the decade, more than30 last year alone. You can immediately appreciate our ambition to eliminate suicide for people in our care.

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

The zero suicide approach, success-fully proven by Henry Ford Health Care,pilot projects across dozens of UK and UStest sites, regards every suicide as prevent-able until the last moment of life.

Recent research dissolves the myththat people who ‘decide’ to die by suicidecan’t be helped. Top studies dissolve pervasive suicide myths with the fact thatsuicidal people are ambivalent about livingand dying until the last moment of life.From thousands of Lifeline case exampleswe know that carefully negotiated blendedcare interventions save lives.

The zero suicide approach demandscommitment to major service quality improvement from NI health and justicesystems. A complete rethink on how toeliminate suicide as a preventable harm. Tohave a fighting chance incremental changeformulas must go, setting ambitious goals that stretch everyone towards service excellence.

We have known for decades that victims and perpetrators of crime sufferheightened suicide rates, yet emergencyservices have no formal links with healthcare systems to facilitate reciprocal riskmanagement information sharing at times

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

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

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

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

Zero suicide and perfect crisis carerequire a work culture of zero blamewhere immediate learning from honest mistakes are celebrated as oppor-tunities to achieve continuous service quality improvement.

Zero suicide for people in our care isthe only target to aim for. Embedding thisbold commitment requires visible, trustedleadership champions.

• “Zero Suicide – An entire systemapproach” – presentation from JoeRafferty CEO of Mersey Care NHSTrusthttps://vimeo.com/148789208

• Zero Suicide Atlanta International Declaration – whatdoes it mean for Northern Ireland?http://www.contactni.com/Zero-Suicide-Declaration-and-Crisis-Now.php

COMMENT

Target must be zero suicideFergus Cumiskey, Chief Executive of the counselling service Contact, says we have knownfor decades that victims and perpetrators ofcrime suffer heightened suicide rates

‘’People whocome to theattention ofpolice, prisonand probationservices requiresystematic networked support,especially inpreparation forrelease fromcustody

Twitter: @ContactNI

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By Brian Pelan

Relate NI have been providing relationship counselling to a numberof prisoners in Maghaberry Prison

for more than seven years. Also for nearlytwo years now they have also been working in the young offenders centre Hydebank Wood.

I called into their offices in GlengallStreet, Belfast, and spoke to three of theirstaff members – Senior Counsellor VincentO’Rourke, Professional Services ManagerLorraine Robinson and Project Co-ordinator for the Together For Youproject Peter Topping – about their counselling work in Northern Ireland’s prisons

Mr O’Rourke said: “My main focus inthe Prison Service is working with the menin Maghaberry in terms of their relationships. We as an organisation have aparticular philosophy about relationships,and we see relationships as being the mostimportant thing that people have in theirlives. Regardless of why the person isthere, we explore with them what effecttheir prison sentence is having on themand their network of relationships.

Ms Robinson added: “In time past wedid actually have what we called a HealthyRelationship programme but that is nolonger available because there isn’t fundingfor it. It’s very much individual counselling.It’s through a family support team withinthe Prison Service who are the team that

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

Mr Topping said: “I manage a projectthat allows councilors to go intoMaghaberry and Hydebank.

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

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

“Presently, there’s very little resourcefor us to grow, although as Vince and Peterhave said, the uptake of sessions are full allthe time and we have waiting lists. The impact of the counselling is really positive.The prisoners are obviously telling theirpeers that it’s really, really good – it helps them.”

I talked to all three about all the research which shows that maintaining arelationship with loved ones outside is keyfor the prisoner if he or she is to undergoa rehabilitation process.

Vince said: “I think what is distinctiveabout what Relate has to offer amongst allthe other professionals that are working inthe prisons that we focus on the client asthey experience their life here and now, sowe’re not particularly focused on the reason why they’re there.

“Very often the prisoners will be

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

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

Vince said: “There is an element of ex-pressing very difficult feelings, but we havea therapeutic role and therefore our thera-peutic conversations are conversations that are different from simply letting off steam.”

Vince, Peter and Lorraine all agreedthat only a small number of prisoners wereable to access their counselling services. Inorder to grow, more long-term fundingwould need to be secured.

Lorraine added: “I’m not sure whowould provide the funding. Presently, thecore grants are going in the voluntary sec-tor and the Department of Justice grantshave been reduced significantly.

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

Peter also said that funding for the Together For You scheme was ending.“We’re now back into the cycle of tryingto find more funding,” he added.

• Relate NI are based at 3 GlengallStreet, Belfast, phone: 028 90323454; email: [email protected]

Why funding is key if Relate’svital service is to flourish ...

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



Ispent more than 20 years teaching in acategory B prison in Britain for men. Ihappily took early retirement last year at

the age of 59, along with six others teachers. It was our release from a penalsystem which had, especially in the last 10years or so, slowly sucked the creativityand energy out us.

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

I applied at a nearby jail and was rewarded with a position to teach Englishat a variety of levels. The jail housed category B prisoners serving four years ormore. My first few months there wereawful. I dreaded going into the place. Therewas no discipline in the class – they knew Iwas a rookie and I had to battle hard towin them over.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The choice was theirs – inductionthen was more about informing potentialstudents as to why education could giveyou qualifications and alternatives, whereastoday men are placed on classes whenavailable and often against their wishes.

Education ranges from entry levelEnglish and maths to Level 2 (equivalent toO level GCSE) where progression ends.The onus is now on the individual to winfunding for the Open University if theywant to advance.

Today's curriculum has now reducedto three subjects: maths English and art.And continued reduction in funding has ledto classes and curriculum shrinking dramatically, especially in the last couple of years.

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

The constant conflict between education and prison was regularly underreview about when and what classesshould run. Ofsted and internal inspectionwere dreaded even more. Longer classes,petty, needless paperwork and continualdaily assessments had to be recorded inminute detail. Teachers were workingharder and longer outside class trying to keep up. Sickness leave and departures increased.

The seven of us met recently to swapstories about some of the people we hadtaught, from the funny and decent to thedangerous and devious.

We had some brilliant and surrealtimes to recount, but were unanimous thatgetting out was for the best.

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

Recently retiredtutor Tony Pelanlooks back onmore than 20 yearsof teaching in aBritish jail

Tony enjoyinghis new-foundfreedom atthe Trough ofBowland inLancashire

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

And now for another thing

When I was young I really,really wanted to go to prison. You can

blame two things for this: Ronnie Barker and readily available citrus fruit.

I was an inveterate Beanoreader as a child and ‘Porridge’was basically ‘The Bash StreetKids’ with grown-ups: the screwswere benevolent and feeble teachers whom Fletch and Godbercould run rings around through amixture of guile and cheek.

Even Mr. Mackay, very muchthe “wire mother” of the set-up,proved his true character in theChristmas episode: imagining hehad finally foiled one of Fletch’sschemes, he turned up, shinycheeked and wreathed in smiles,dispensing Christmas cheer in the form of a contraband bottleof Scotch.

It was a lovely, safe, consequence-free environment,where nobody was actually bad,where there was telly in the recroom, cushy jobs to be had in thelibrary and garden, and gulliblefigures of authority to be madefools of.

And then there were the

tangerines. When Fletch wasn’tdarning a sock or drooling overone of Pan’s People in his cell, hewas peeling a bit of fruit. There’san ongoing joke in The ComicStrip’s excellent ‘The Strike’,where Meryl Streep (played byJennifer Saunders) is alwayspulling focus from the other actors in any scene by busily peeling an orange in the background.

In my mind Ronnie Barker asFletch spent the entire series likeJack Horner, thumb deep in a satsuma, the forbidden fruit.

And it was forbidden in myhouse. My parents raised fourhungry and deeply unimaginativechildren in the 1970s.

Whenever fruit was broughtinto the home, if child one wentfor an orange, children two, threeand four would form an orderlycrocodile behind him. We werelike a swarm of fruitarian locusts,the fruit bowl a desert by thetime my mother had turnedround from putting the rest of the shopping away.

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

scurvy while these fleeting visitors shone with rude goodhealth. So when I watched Porridge, I was green with envy(though it was also my naturalpallor): I saw big, clever kids out-witting the authorities, watchingall the telly they wanted andgorging themselves on sweet,sweet fruit. So I really wanted togo to prison. But I’m very glad Ididn’t. Prison, it turns out, is nofun, especially for the young.

More than double the numberof children are affected byparental imprisonment than bydivorce in the family. Around200,000 children in England andWales had a parent in prison atsome point in 2009. Looked afterchildren make up 33 per cent ofboys and 61 per cent of girls incustody, despite fewer than oneper cent of all children in Englandbeing in care. Over two-thirds (68per cent) of under 18-year-oldsare reconvicted within a year of release.

So I consider myself very, very fortunate that I never achievedmy goal. Oranges are not the onlyfruit and porridge doesn’t countas one of your five a day.

I saw big, clever kids outwitting theauthorities, watching all the tellythey wanted and gorging themselveson sweet, sweet fruit.

‘’


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