By Prison Radio Association
The podcast currently has 78 episodes available.
Sean Henry received multiple prison terms through his early adult life. But receiving a long sentence for a serious offence when his son was just two months old, Sean discovered a different perspective on his own life and the way he had been acting.
With precious support from key people in his life, including his son's mother and their extended family, Sean gradually but decisively made the changes that have transformed his future. His son is now an adult and Sean is able to reflect on why things turned out for him the way they did.
Sean now works for Sussex Prisoners Families, as well as working with young people who are at risk of following the path Sean followed.
Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock
Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn
The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.
To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate.
Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760
On Monday 11 November 2024, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe delivered the annual Longford Lecture at Church House in Westminster.
Nazanin was imprisoned in 2016 at the end of a family visit to Iran, accused of plotting to overthrow the government by running courses in journalism that the Iranian regime said aimed to train people to spread propaganda against Iran.
She vehemently denied these charges but remained in prison until 2022.
In this year's emotional Longford Lecture, she tells us what she learnt from the experience and explains her passion for penal reform.
For more information about the Longford Trust, visit www.longfordtrust.org
Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock
Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn
The Prison Radio Association runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.
Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760
Tyler Voase was released from prison in the summer of 2024.
He first went into jail in 2022 weighing over 40 stone, and with the support of a well-thought-through and timely intervention from gym staff he reinvented himself, losing 18 stone while in HMP Feltham.
Samy Ali is a Physical Education Instructor (PEI) at HMP Feltham, and he was the member of staff who knocked on Tyler's cell door one day to offer him a job working in the gym.
Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock
Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn
The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.
To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate.
Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760
Matthew Torbitt is a writer and broadcaster. A period of homelessness as a young man led to involvement in crime, for which he received a sentence. These experiences fed a political awakening and a career working with the Labour Party.
Matthew now writes and tours television studios commentating on politics. He joins us down the line from Washington DC.
Ben Zaranko is a Senior Research Economist for the Institute for Fiscal Studies. He is about to start work on a major research project using new data from the Ministry of Justice to assess the economic impacts of the justice system.
Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock
Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn
The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.
To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate.
Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760
Dwaine Patterson spent 22 years in prison. For seven of those years he was one of a handful of people detained in Close Supervision Centres (CSCs).
CSCs are prisons within prisons, housing those people said to be the most dangerous and disruptive in the entire prison system.
In this remarkable interview, Dwaine describes what it was like to be deemed so dangerous that seven prison officers in riot gear plus a dog handler were required just to unlock his door.
Claire Salama is a solicitor who specialises in the law around imprisonment. She works for the Howard League for Penal Reform and has represented several people who have been housed in CSCs and other segregation units.
You can contact the Howard League's legal advice line here.
Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock
Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn
The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.
To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate.
Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760
David Shipley served a prison sentence for fraud. He had never known anyone who had come into contact with the criminal justice system prior to his conviction. His sentence was eye-opening for him. He became 'radicalised' by the experience and promised himself he would do everything he could after release to talk as widely as possible about the reality of imprisonment.
He now writes a regular column in The Spectator magazine and appears widely on TV, radio and in the press.
Danny Shaw was a Home Affairs Correspondent for BBC News, covering crime and justice stories, for more than 30 years. He later became a senior political advisor to Yvette Cooper, the then shadow Home Secretary, ahead of the general election. He’s now a freelance journalist with bylines in the Daily Telegraph, the Times, the Guardian and the New Statesman to name just a few.
Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock
Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn
The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.
To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate.
Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760
Simon Madu was released from prison in 2021 after serving twelve years in prison. He remains 'on licence' and must report to his probation officer regularly as part of his continuing sentence.
However, Simon is also a member of staff at His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service, as the Engagement Lead for a pioneering project called Engaging People on Probation (EPOP). As such, his probation officer is also a colleague in the probation service.
Simon's role is to support 'peer mentors' – people who have experience of the justice system who volunteer to offer support and guidance to others who are coming out of prison.
Danielle Bond is the Peer Mentor Coordinator for EPOP.
Simon and Danielle explain the positive role peer mentors can play in the life of people released from prison. Peer mentors are all people who have been to prison or been subject to probation supervision. They are on the front line of efforts to help people avoid committing further offences after release from prison.
Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock
Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn
The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.
To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate.
Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760
In 2004, Paula was imprisoned for eight years for a drugs offence.
Twenty years later, she is the trailblazing Chief Executive of a prominent national charity, being cited multiple times for her pioneering work in the criminal justice sector by none other than the Minister of State for Justice, and noted by The Times of London as an 'intutitive broadcaster'.
In today's emotional episode, Paula fills in the space over those two decades to describe the enormous challenges that come with being released from prison, and what she's learnt from the events that have led to her becoming a leading light in the campaign for a better justice system.
Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock
Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn
The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.
To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate.
Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760
The Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool was built in 1846 and was the first structure in Britain to be constructed from cast iron, brick and stone, with no structural wood. As a result, it was the first non-combustible warehouse system in the world.
It was also the venue for the 2024 Labour Party Conference, and Phil and Paula took the opportunity to return to Liverpool to listen to James Timpson, a newly-appointed Minister of State in the Ministry of Justice, for the first time since his appointment.
Journalist and conference veteran Paul Mason explains what the Labour Party Conference is all about, while our fantastic Assistant Producer Faye Dunn gives her view on her very first conference, coming just two months after her release from prison.
Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock
Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn
The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.
To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate.
Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760
In 2021 Tony was told by a nurse in HMP Ford that she suspected he had cancer.
Over the following years, Tony has experienced frustration and fear but also received heart-warming empathy and kindness from the staff at the Fernhurst Centre at St. Richards Hospital, Chichester, and in particular from Marion Misselbrook, a Macmillan Information and Support Worker who was invited by the Governor of HMP Ford to offer support to prisoners undergoing cancer treatment.
In this very special edition of The Secret Life of Prisons, we reunite Tony and Marion to hear their emotional and at times shocking account of cancer care in prison.
What can we learn from Tony and Marion’s remarkable relationship and trust that can improve outcomes for people in prison?
We also hear from Professor Jo Armes, a researcher from the University of Surrey who contributed to a study entitled Improving Cancer Care in Prisons which was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
You can download the report Improving Cancer Care in Prisons here.
The research findings have also been adapted by the Synergy Theatre Project into a film, Cancer Cells, which you can watch here.
If you are caring for someone who is receiving cancer treatment, you can find out about support you may be entitled to, as well as lots of other resources here.
To make a donation to Macmillan Cancer Support visit donation.macmillan.org.uk.
Our thanks to the staff and volunteers of The Fernhurst Centre at St. Richards Hospital, Chichester for hosting our recording.
Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock
Producer: Andrew Wilkie
The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.
To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate.
Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760
The podcast currently has 78 episodes available.