Finding a place beyond prison

“We’re fast-tracking people to think about themselves, their identity and their heritage differently”, explains Simon Rudlin

Simon Ruding — Artistic Director, TiPP (Theatre in Prisons and Probation)

Our work is primarily focused on two communities — people in prison, and people under the supervision of probation services. These are interesting in their operation as ‘communities’ because the individuals within them are so diverse, and one group for example may include a barrister, a priest and a car thief. The one unifying factor that brings them together as a community is that they have committed a crime, and been caught and convicted. Prison communities extend this even further with the addition of architecture — they have been caught, convicted and are now forced to live in the same place.

This is interesting when you think about heritage and identity. People’s criminal convictions are only a small part of their identity, and — for most — being a prisoner is a transient state. It’s more likely for people to self-identify with being a ‘villain’ or a ‘con’ than a prisoner. One of our participants was very proud of being born on the last day of the Strangeways riot — that’s how deeply engrained it can be.

Our work seeks to support a three-stage process — maturity, social bonding, and narrative shift — toward changing these self-references and identities, and by extension help people desist from crime. Through using the arts and theatre work to expand thinking outside the immediate social group, and creating new social bonds and connections, we’re essentially fast-tracking people through the change process, and empowering them to think about themselves, their identity and their heritage differently.

There is hard evidence to support the value of imagination in driving sustainable change. Longitudinal studies suggest that desistance is better supported when an individual’s redemption story is less realistic, so someone is less likely to re-offend if they say they’ll reform and be an astronaut than reform and be a van driver. We work with people to get them to realise that it’s alright to have creativity, imagination, and aspiration.

There’s no standard project. More and more we’re working with young people at risk of offending, or other at risk groups, and not in prison settings. One of our projects — The Men’s Room — which has now set up as a separate charity — saw artists working with young male sex workers, using art to build a bridge into a community that was not just ‘hard to reach’, but invisible.

It’s about people having a voice, an identity, a means of expression and a community that is defined by something else than what they do, what they’ve done or what they’re at risk of doing.

TiPP grew from the University of Manchester’s Theatre in Prisons and Prevention Research Centre, which was founded in 1992. In 2000, the organisation changed its named to TiPP, in recognition of its shift toward project delivery and practice. TiPP works with prisoners and related communities to improve lives and life chances, to stimulate growth and change through theatre and participatory arts, and to support training and development for artists and criminal justice professionals.