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

5. Professor David Wilson & Professor Michael Brookes - The Barlinnie Special Unit: A failed success

Can therapeutic environments survive the long haul in prisons?  What happens when prison environments emphasise recovery and growth?
 
Professor Michael Brookes (OBE) and Professor David Wilson of Birmingham City Hospital talk about their recent article, A failed success: the Barlinnie Special Unit, which came out in International Journal of Prisoner Health August 2020. They consider this unit, to most appearances highly successful working with men who the rest of the scottish prison service had struggled to contain, and why it ultimately closed. The conversation extends to thinking about why some highly creative organisations succeed and others fail.  
Professor Michael Brookes was formerly Director of Therapeutic Communities at HMP Grendon where for eleven years he was the clinical lead within this accredited therapeutic community prison.
https://www.bcu.ac.uk/research/-centres-of-excellence/centre-for-applied-criminology/people/michael-brookes
 
David Wilson is an expert on serial killers through his work with various British police forces, academic publications, books, and media appearances. He can be found at: https://professorwilson.co.uk
 

4. Morgan Godvin: Does prison cure addiction?

Society often assumes that drug addicts benefit from prison? Can prison help people recover from substance misuse? Or does prison make recovering from an addiction harder?  What happens when drugs are decriminalised? What kind of services and laws are developed when people with lived experience are involved in their creation? Would there be less addiction if we were more compassionate towards people addicted to drugs?
In this episode, Morgan Godvin shares her inspirational story.  Morgan serves as a commissioner on the Oregon Alcohol and Drug Policy Commission. She is in long term recovery and spent four years in prison following the death of her close friend from an overdose. She is a passionate advocate for drug, and penal reform. She is powerful in describing the difficult times she has experienced but optimimistic that change could be on the way. The inspirational book she suggests is Righteous Dopefiend (California Series in Public Anthropology): 21 by Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Righteous-Dopefiend-California-Public-Anthropology/dp/0520254988/ref=sr_1_1?crid=28Z4LJWNPGWV&keywords=righteous+dopefiend&qid=1670954452&sprefix=righteous+dopefiend%2Caps%2C72&sr=8-1
 

3. Liz Mullinar - The Heal for Life Foundation treating trauma and the effects of abuse.

What are the long-term effects of child abuse on children? What are some of the barriers that make it difficult for survivors of childhood abuse to trust in service providers? Can people with lived experience of severe physical, sexual and emotional abuse in childhood find ways to offer therapeutic services in a way that improves opportunities for healing? In this episode the Liz Mullinar shares her inspirational story of how she came to found the Heal For Life Foundation (Mayumarri) in 1999 to provide a safe centre for survivors where they could heal from the devastating impact of trauma and abuse. The Heal For Life model has since helped over 8,500 people across Australia and the world and has been independently evaluated to achieve significant, long-term improvements in mental, social and emotional health. This provides a different approach to working with trauma andthe elements of the work could be integrated into many settings.
 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heal-Life-Yourself-Childhood-Trauma/dp/0648536521/ref=sr_1_2?crid=OBCHO2COH732&keywords=liz+mullinar&qid=1670954030&sprefix=Liz+Mullinar%2Caps%2C109&sr=8-2
 
 

2. Gareth Ross and Lucy Reading - Measuring social climate in a prison

Does everyone who ends up in prison get the same kind of experience? Do all prison environments "feel" the same? Do different kinds of prison settings have a different kind of atmosphere? Why might it be useful to measure the social climate of a prison or to compare and contrast them?  Are some environments more compassionate? Does the presence of psychologists or psychotherapists make a difference to how a wing is run? Is prison more effective when it involves a psychological approach?
 
Gareth Ross and Lucy Reading tell us about their recently published research which describes the social climate across therapeutic and non therapeutic wings in the Category B prison, HMP Gartree

1. Locked up Living: Introduction to the podcast and trailer for what’s to come

What's it like to work in a prison? Is it any different to working in a secure hospital? Meet the co-hosts of Locked Up Living.
Locked up Living is a Podcast examining aspects of resiliance for those locked up in prisons and hospitals and the staff who look after them. Psychotherapist David Jones and Psychologist Naomi Murphy introduce themselves and talk about their own experiences and how they came to spend their lives working in prisons. This is the preface to a series of interviews from the fields of anthropology, criminology, psychology, psychiarty and psychotherapy and with people whose lived experience gives them a unique and powerful perspective.