Michael Brookes and David Wilson 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. 

David Wilson is an expert on serial killers through his work with various British police forces, academic publications, books, and media appearances. 

Morgan now 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 and 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.

In 1999 Liz Mullinar founded the Heal For Life Foundation (Mayumarri) 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 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.

Gareth Ross and Lucy Reading tell us about their recently published research which describes the social climate across therapeutic and non thereapeutic wings in a high secure prison.

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.