Crossroads Trust at Birmingham City University Howard League
”I’d just seen rehabilitation sabotaged from within”, said Jonathan Robinson, having been rebuffed by a prison staff member when offering to assist prisoners with literacy needs whilst residing within a HMPS establishment.
Crossroads Trust were pleased to accept an invitation by JR and BCU Howard League to join them at the BCU Howard League organised event, ‘An Evening with Jonathan Robinson’, to discuss the prison system.
It was good to hear the perspectives of Jonathan, writer, author and prison campaigner, coupled with the experiences of some of our Crossroads members. Also wonderful to hear the passion and new thoughts of fresh, new student perspectives. They clearly had an eye to the future in terms of considering punishment, rehabilitation and safer communities.
From whatever perspective, it is clear that we all looked for less punitive and more rehabilitative services to ensure that the incarceration of human beings in the UK was productive and resulting in people becoming safer, less likely to re-offend and to be able to reach their own potential to lead a useful life on release back to their communities.
We talked about the risks of following the US model and the benefits of following a more Scandinavian approach to reducing re-offending yet reducing prison numbers. We talked about encouraging the ‘talent within’ the prison walls and JR discussed his thoughts and approaches and who he was speaking to regarding the future use of prison as a criminal justice sanction. We also spoke about the ‘system’ itself of the ethics of making profits from punishment and of how this might look in the future.
JR’s commitment to outlining how prisons could do more with their residents, or how more innovative and relatively low cost approaches might better engage prisoners is always inspiring. Crossroads Trust wish him well in working with political and campaigning ears who are beginning to listen to the issues he has highlighted in his books, IN IT and ON IT.
Beverley Crossroads
