The Locked up Living Podcast: Surviving and thriving in prisons and other challenging environments

Hugh Venables. The power of thinking, the power of words and the power of putting them together.

Many of our podcast conversations have engaged with the idea of thinking, how to encourage, to change, to stop. This discussion is also about thinking but approaching it from an oblique angle. Journaling and poetry, two activities that involve getting thoughts out of ones mind and written down on paper.
Hugh Venables is a Yorkshire-based writer and poet. He is passionate about the power of words. A selection of his poetry is available at  hughvenablespoetry.com 
 
Until his retirement, for twenty-five years he ran his own successful marketing communications and graphic design company in York.
 
Married with four grown-up children, Hugh enjoys bird-watching and walking, especially across the North of England. He is also a keen amateur horologist. His 'reflections' blog, about clocks, time and life in general, can be found at www.theclock-shop.co.uk/reflections/
 
Hugh can be contacted via comments@hughvenablespoetry.com
 
We, and Hugh would welcome feedback about his episode.

Dan Lawrence, the Forensic Psychologist discusses psychosis and the relationship to early childhood experiences.

Dan Lawrence is a forensic psychologist who is based in a secure mental health service in south wales where he provides input into medium and low secure services for men. He is also a PhD student, associate tutor and academic supervisor at Cardiff Metropolitan University. He conducted an important scoping study into the effect of restrictive practices in adult forensic mental health services. D Lawrence et al.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14999013.2021.1887978?journalCode=ufmh20
"The studies were grouped into four main areas: 1) Nature of the problem describing the type, incidence, prevalence and scope of restrictive practices in secure mental health services; 2) Service user perceptions and experiences of restrictive practices; 3) Staff experiences, views and decision making; and 4) Interventions designed to reduce the use of restrictive practices. Findings support the notion that restrictive practices have a detrimental impact on the wellbeing of most service users in adult secure services as well as the staff who use them. Continued efforts to reduce restrictive practices are needed and the importance of collaborative working cannot be understated. Implications for future research, clinical practice, policy and best practice guidelines are all discussed."

Alex Busansky, George Carter describe their project improving food in US prisons through container farming.

Alex Busansky (president of Impact Justice) and George Carter Impact/Justice
 
Today we are pleased to be meeting with Alex Busansky. Alex began his career as a prosecutor at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in 1987. For 12 years, he handled homicides, serious domestic and other family violence, and sex abuse cases. He moved on to found Impact Justice, a national innovation and research center based in Oakland, CA and Washington, DC, which works to create a more humane and restorative system of justice in the United States. I should mention that we have engaged with Impact/Justice previously when we talked with Leslie Soble and Roy Waterman about food in US prisons.
At Impact Justice, Alex works to reduce the number of people involved in the justice system, improve conditions for those currently incarcerated, and support people successfully re-enter communities. He and his colleagues have developed, launched, and scaled numerous projects including the Restorative Justice Project, the PREA Resource Center, the Homecoming Project, the Research and Action Center, and the Center on Youth Registration Reform.  
https://impactjustice.org/
George Carter is the founder of Skout strategy and is an eco-system and food systems builder and AgTechnologist. He partners with Impact Justice to develop vertical farming.
https://www.skoutstrategy.com/

Margie Wright: What is Transpersonal Psychotherapy?.

One of the pleasures of our Locked up Living conversations, for us, is that we are always meeting people who come with different experience and a different perspective. But always the underlying tenets ar the same, sensitivity, thoughtfulness and trust. Such a person is Margie Wright.
Margie Wright bio.
When I was a teenager growing up in Zimbabwe I used to imagine, one day working as a psychotherapist but I never said it out loud as my family seldom talked about or showed those things called emotions. Instead, I went on to university in South Africa and studied Zoology and Entomology. I did though manage a sneaky year of psychology. As an Entomologist I worked in biological control and my job took me to the Sudan. Afterwards I had the experience of living in Egypt. There, I was involved in setting-up and volunteering for Befrienders Cairo (the Samaritans abroad), for 10 years, which I found fulfilling. On return to the UK, I found the courage to explore my teenage dream and did a foundation year in counselling. At last, I felt as if I was on the right track as counselling seemed to come naturally to me. I went on to train as a Transpersonal Psychotherapist at The Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy Education (CCPE), in London. Currently, I run my own private practice as a therapist and supervisor with a focus on developmental trauma having, also trained in two approaches effective in trauma therapy; Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Internal Family Systems therapy. I am a member of staff at CCPE and run workshops entitled, “Trauma and the Transpersonal”. Please see my website www.counsellinginamersham.co.uk for further details.

Rick Bradford. The Empathy Gap. Male disadvantage in focus.

In this fascinating and challenging conversation Dr Bradford talks about his journey towards a realisation that the male/female disadvantage debate is much more complex than it may seem. But it is always very difficult and sometimes dangerous to talk about.
Dr Rick Bradford has enjoyed a successful  career in physics and engineering, he has become increasingly drawn to investigating men’s issues in recent decades, and has gained much respect for his insightful blogging and his encyclopaedic book on issues facing men, The Empathy Gap.

Shona Minson: Should researchers have reflective practice?

The first sentence of this podcast will probably resonate with many people. Shona Minson courageously talks about the impact upon her health and wellbeing of working intimately with traumatised children and mothers. It is a very honest conversation and we are grateful to Shona for sharing her reflections with us.
 
Shona is currently a British Academy Post Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Criminology. Since March 2020 she has been researching the impact of COVID-19 prison lockdowns on children who have a parent in prison.  
She has provided training to judiciary on the sentencing of mothers and primary carers in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.  In 2018 she released the film series 'Safeguarding Children when Sentencing Mothers' for sentencers, advocates, probation staff and women facing sentence in England and Wales. She has more recently been involved in a similar series for criminal justice professionals in Scotland, which was released in April 2021. 
 
After graduating from St.Anne's College, Oxford in Jurisprudence Shona was called to the Bar of England and Wales and practised criminal and family law from 1 King's Bench Walk, London. Her professional experience led to her research interest in the points of intersection between family and criminal law.
She obtained an MSc (Distinction)  from the University of Surrey in Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research in 2012. Her Masters research explored  the impact of motherhood as mitigation in criminal sentencing using interviews with members of the judiciary and an analysis of sentencing transcripts.
Shona then moved to the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford and funded by the ESRC she undertook DPhil research which analysed the place of children in maternal sentencing decisions in England and Wales. She explored the status of children of prisoners in English law and engaged directly with children and their carers to explore the nature of the impact of maternal imprisonment. She also interviewed members of the Crown Court judiciary to examine sentencing practice.
In 2017/ 2018 Shona was employed by the Faculty of Law as the Research Officer on an ESRC Impact Acceleration Award funded project in association with the Prison Reform Trust and Dr Rachel Condry.  ' Addressing the Impact of Maternal Imprisonment: Developing Collaborative Training' . It built on the findings of her doctoral work and provide information, in the form of films, to sentencers and legal professionals to aid consistency and understanding in maternal sentencing decisions. The films were launched in January 2018 and are available for sentencers, advocates and probation staff. An additional film was made for women themselves facing sentence and it can be viewed here. 
Shona shared her research findings with the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights in March 2018, in particular with regard to the state duty to protect children from discrimination which they may face as a consequence of the status or activities of their parents (UNCRC, Article 2). As a consequence the JCHR held an enquiry into the right to family life of children whose mother is imprisoned. 

Edson Hato - helping organisations embrace diversity

Edson Hato is an award winning executive who transforms multi-billion global companies, start-ups and scale ups through a process called “rehumanisation”. He has 20 years experience of helping businesses transform their culture to promote talent, leadership and organisational development, performance, diversity and inclusion.  He started his career at Price Waterhouse Cooper but has since worked as Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Astra Zeneca, UBS, Philip Morris and ING group.
 
He founded LikeMinds, a board and people advisory company to share his vision and help companies implement change.  Among his many achievements, Edson is Chairman of the Advisory Board for Corporate Queer a network organisation for LGBT+ professionals to challenge the hetero-normative culture of the corporate world.
 
An advocate of lifelong learning, Edson is currently studying for a PhD focused on the subject of critical leader behaviours that are necessary for transformation.
https://edsonhato.nl/en

Workplace bullying, the silent epidemic

Bullying at work is common and particularly pernicious when it comes from your manager. They can often become obsessed and expend enormous resources to catch you out or undermine your position. Todays conversation is from the heart as we touch upon matters that have personal meaning. Our guest is Eden. Eden is a court reporter and has worked as court reporter for two years now. She attends virtual employment Tribunals to take notes and share findings predominantly in whistleblowing hearings after having experienced the process of whistleblowing firsthand. Eden is from a, a writing and creative background and has recently written a graphic novel to highlight the serious silent epidemic within Society of Workplace bullying to help educate others, understand the horrendous traits of a adult bullying.

Dean Kingham. Solicitor working with some of the most challenging cases in the english prison system

Dean has practiced in prison law for around 15 years. He is often at the forefront of the main challenges protecting the rights of prisoners and viewed as someone who works tirelessly to expose injustice and a lawyer who does not shirk from representing those for whom antipathy is to be expected from the courts, or the general public.
In 2020, he was named public law legal aid lawyer of the year, which recognised the fact he is often at the forefront of the challenging advancing prisoner rights.
He is trained in the main psychological risk assessments-  HCR-20 (violence) psychological risk tool, RSVP (sexual) psychological risk tool and SAPROF (protective factors tool). Being one of a few lawyers trained in these tools he is able to better question the psychological evidence given in cases by Prison Service psychologists.
Dean also holds the following roles/positions:
Committee n a member for the Association of Prison Lawyers (APL) since 2015. He is the Parole Board lead for the APL and as a result, sits on the Parole Board user group;
Vice-chairman of Progressing Prisoners Maintaining Innocence (PPMI);
Sits on the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) User Group;
Councilmember for the Human Rights Charity Justice;
Sits on the advisory panel for Inside Justice.
dean.kingham@rtw.cjsm.netReece Thomas Watson Solicitors758 Holloway RoadLondonN19 3JFwww.reecethomaswatson.com

Caroline Purvey and Daniel Wood talk about the ’Total Release Experience’ programme

Caroline Purvey has dedicated over a decade to creating a unique, sustainable, cost-effective programme to eradicate unnecessary suffering from stress, overwhelm, and trauma.  Her established and trusted brand TRE UK® delivers the Total Release Experience® programme which has transformed the lives of men, women, and children globally. Author of #1 bestseller ‘Feel It To Heal It’ Caroline comes highly recommended by professionals including doctors, counsellors, therapists, and psychologists. Her validated and accredited programme is adopted by Fire & Rescue, Police, and Prison Services. Her expertise is unparalleled, as is her drive and passion  
Daniel Wood, is an International Speaker, and best-selling author.   
Since 2012 Daniel has been Releasing for his well-being and working with his mother Caroline to share their programme with thousands.
Daniel wants to raise awareness and inspire communities and organisations to engage with the TAP process (Thoughtfully Activate the Psoas).  Leading them to be an inspiration for 1 million teenagers in releasing their tension as they learn to Release, Recover, Discover.
Daniel is a father with purpose.   His mission is to inspire and motivate 75,000 fathers to embrace the practice so they can lead their children to have a life tool for their stress management and can all live their best life.
Their website is https://treuk.com/