As I type this week’s blog entry I am sitting in our new office in London. As I do I am reminded that things change. Often they change on a timescale not to our liking but they change nevertheless. For example, I had a foot-long sub in front of me just a few minutes ago and now I do not. Change is necessary and it will affect us all. Beyond the changes in the condition of my lunch, I face changes in my working situations as well. Charities the length and breadth of the country are facing increasingly difficult times due to the financial situation, and Prison Fellowship are not exempt from these pressures. This is why we are re-locating our central support office.
We are normally afraid of change and do everything in our power to stop it. It is only with hindsight that we ever appreciate it. Just 13 years ago Prison Fellowship were nervously tip toeing into our first ever Sycamore Tree programme. 15 prisoners (probably as nervous as we were) took that programme and it took us a year or two to find our feet. Since then the programme has changed both in structure and in availability. Now we expect over 100 courses each year. By the end of this financial year we will have run almost 1,050 programmes and taught around 16,500 prisoners. We even have a strategic plan to develop our provision to 200 and then 400 programmes a year.
It is a similar story with Angel Tree. 1994 saw our first attempt at this programme in just one prison, with 40 children receiving a Christmas present. Now we run in 76 prisons and almost 4,500 children received a Christmas present this year. In addition to this we now operate Angel Tree in two new ways, family fun days and Mother’s Day. Our strategic vision is to reach 20,000 children and to have Angel Tree, in one form or another, available in every prison in the land. I wonder what the volunteers buying those first 40 presents will have thought about that.
The plans we have for the future will require much change and even more courage, but we mustn’t forget who we serve. The prison scene has changed as well. The number of prisoners in this country has grown and grown, as a result the need to support their families has also grown. The only thing that doesn’t appear to have changed is our broad, societal approach to justice. We are still totally pre-occupied with those three eternal principles of justice: what law has been broken, who did it and how are we going to make them pay?
When oh when will this change?
As the country’s largest provider of Restorative Justice programmes, Prison Fellowship is pretty well placed to query whether this approach is at all sustainable. I have written before and I will write again, that the best way I know to reduce the ridiculous reoffending rates we have in this country, is to take up a Restorative Justice approach. Forget about retribution and think about restoration. Let’s think about: Who’s been hurt, what are their needs and who’s responsibility are they?
I’m not a nuclear physicist, or a member of MENSA. I was not a child prodigy and I don’t consider myself a genius. I am capable of some fairly rational thought however, and it is my humble observation that prison ‘aint working’. Perhaps Carol Vorderman might be able to explain how the reoffending rate increases the more people we put inside. Two and two makes four however much you claim to the contrary. Change is what is required. How many more years must we continue trying to force a square peg into a round hole?
We have heard much about a rehabilitation revolution, perhaps it is finally coming, though I shan’t hold my breath. It is currently possible to spend 20 or 30 years dipping in and out of prison and yet never truly understand the impact of your crimes. Until this changes, I’m afraid the results of imprisonment won’t either and as a result, you will have to listen to people like me complaining for a while yet.
Prison Fellowship will continue to facilitate change in the lives of offenders, families and victims, I will continue to embrace the changes to the way we do so and I will also continue to pray for the day we see real change in the way justice is provided in this country.
Incidentally I am not too unhappy about the change in my sub, it looked nice on my desk but it’s much better where it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment