had previously carried out a study looking at the significant role faith played in the experience of imprisonment. Through a number of in-depth interviews with male prisoners at HMP Littlehey, she found that Christian teachings about God’s love and forgiveness helped the men to take responsibility for their offences, and for their rehabilitation, as did the support of the chaplaincy team. Indeed for some, it had been their faith that had led them to handing themselves in, realising that they needed to own up and seek help so that they could break free from their offending behaviour. Many also felt that imprisonment provided them with an opportunity to show love and support to their fellow prisoners, often transforming the meanings they gave to their time inside.This sense of purpose was echoed in the way they saw their faith as a way towards their own rehabilitation, providing them with an alternative lifestyle, a moral framework to live by and a way of working through the difficult experiences from their pasts that had led to them offending in the first place.
More broadly, many of those interviewed spoke of how the chaplaincy provided a place of respite from the dehumanising effects of imprisonment, and allowed them to ‘feel like a human being again’. They also gained a sense of peace from the idea that God, rather than the prison authorities, was in ultimate control of their lives. 89
Much of this mirrored what I saw at ESP. In our airy and light multi-faith room we were all treated with respect, there was discussion and debate and we were listened to as we voiced our various opinions and thoughts and discussed things, like the meaning of various passages from the Bible, in such a way that allowed us all to lift ourselves from our human conditions and move to a different level of understanding and feeling. There was also compassion and willingness to share experiences and listen to other people’s feelings and as such it was very liberating. I did not discover God, or at least I didn’t discover anything spiritual over and above what I already believed in, but I now think that these sessions were seriously therapeutic – I was not aware of the real difference they were making at the time but I always left with a feeling of well-being, and not just because of the excellent mango juice and chocolate biscuits.
There is a long tradition of the church helping women in prison. It started in earnest with Elizabeth Fry, the great Christian philanthropist and prison reformer, whodid a lot to highlight the conditions of women in prisons at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1818 she gave evidence to the House of Commons committee on the conditions in women’s prisons – the first woman ever to present evidence in Parliament. She had been instrumental in encouraging women to read the Bible as a way of getting them to help themselves, something that continues to this day under the stewardship of the chaplains in each prison. It seemed rather sad when I discovered soon after my release that the Bank of England had announced plans to replace the image of Elizabeth Fry on the £5 note with one of Winston Churchill. It was worrying that the departing Bank of England governor, Sir Mervyn King, admirable in many other ways, should leave behind him on his retirement a monetary policy committee (MPC) and a financial policy committee consisting of only men and banknotes which, although all featuring the Queen, should have no other female in the long history of Britain worthy of mention on them. His successor, Mark Carney, later announced that the £10 note will now feature Jane Austen. That is good in itself but I can’t see why, just as the issue of women in prison has risen up on the agenda, we can’t have more than one woman on our banknotes – or a female on the MPC again.
19 MARCH
There is now proof beyond reasonable doubt that I have achieved universal name recognition, for better or worse. Denise, a mature lady
More broadly, many of those interviewed spoke of how the chaplaincy provided a place of respite from the dehumanising effects of imprisonment, and allowed them to ‘feel like a human being again’. They also gained a sense of peace from the idea that God, rather than the prison authorities, was in ultimate control of their lives. 89
Much of this mirrored what I saw at ESP. In our airy and light multi-faith room we were all treated with respect, there was discussion and debate and we were listened to as we voiced our various opinions and thoughts and discussed things, like the meaning of various passages from the Bible, in such a way that allowed us all to lift ourselves from our human conditions and move to a different level of understanding and feeling. There was also compassion and willingness to share experiences and listen to other people’s feelings and as such it was very liberating. I did not discover God, or at least I didn’t discover anything spiritual over and above what I already believed in, but I now think that these sessions were seriously therapeutic – I was not aware of the real difference they were making at the time but I always left with a feeling of well-being, and not just because of the excellent mango juice and chocolate biscuits.
There is a long tradition of the church helping women in prison. It started in earnest with Elizabeth Fry, the great Christian philanthropist and prison reformer, whodid a lot to highlight the conditions of women in prisons at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1818 she gave evidence to the House of Commons committee on the conditions in women’s prisons – the first woman ever to present evidence in Parliament. She had been instrumental in encouraging women to read the Bible as a way of getting them to help themselves, something that continues to this day under the stewardship of the chaplains in each prison. It seemed rather sad when I discovered soon after my release that the Bank of England had announced plans to replace the image of Elizabeth Fry on the £5 note with one of Winston Churchill. It was worrying that the departing Bank of England governor, Sir Mervyn King, admirable in many other ways, should leave behind him on his retirement a monetary policy committee (MPC) and a financial policy committee consisting of only men and banknotes which, although all featuring the Queen, should have no other female in the long history of Britain worthy of mention on them. His successor, Mark Carney, later announced that the £10 note will now feature Jane Austen. That is good in itself but I can’t see why, just as the issue of women in prison has risen up on the agenda, we can’t have more than one woman on our banknotes – or a female on the MPC again.
19 MARCH
There is now proof beyond reasonable doubt that I have achieved universal name recognition, for better or worse. Denise, a mature lady
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