The Locked up Living Podcast

Being a prison governor. Kevin Leggett, a personal journey.

This is one of our favorite conversations. Kevin Leggett spent many years working with young offenders at Aylesbury and Huntercombe, and he was deputy governor at HMP Grendon during a period of great change when there was a serious escape. Kevin talks about these times with great warmth and humour and his descriptions of connection with his charges provide a real insight into the meaning of relational working.
 
Kevin Leggett is a now retired prison governor with over thirty years service. Although originally from Durham he began his career as a prison officer at the young offenders establishment Aylesbury and subsequently worked at the prisons Bullingdon, The Mount, Grendon (where I first met Kevin) and Huntercombe as well as having execurive roles for the implementation of policies in the south of England.’

Ariel Garten, psychotherapist, neuroscientist, focusses on meditation and the importance of sleep for calming the amygdala

Ariel is is a Canadian artist, scientist and intellectual known for her work in integrating art and science. She is a neuroscientist and psychotherapist and here she talks about many things but including the importance of sleep and meditation to effective brain functioning. She is the Co-Founder of InteraXon makers of Muse (an award-winning brain sensing headband that we will hear more about during the conversation).  Ariel studied neuroscience in Toronto and researched Parkinson’s Disease and hippocampal neurogenesis.  However, alongside this she is also a fashion designer and has had her work displayed at the Art Gallery of Ontario.  Whilst InteraXon is a very successful company we haven’t just invited Ariel on to promote her products but because she is a really inspirational woman with divergent interests.  

The history of Chaplains and the British Penitentiary system. Jacqueline McCloy

Our second episode considering the place of faith and religion in a prison system, this time in the UK. As well as reminding us how big a part transportation played in our criminal justice system, Jacqueline looks at the meaning and role of pastoral care and how faith provides a direction and an opportunity for many.
Having graduated from the University of Aberdeen with a first class honours Masters of Art in Theology & Religious Studies (2021), Jacqueline is now further researching the effect of religion/spirituality on the posttraumatic growth of criminal offenders in the U.K and their desistance from crime.

Religion in US Prisons. Dr Michael Hallett & Professor Byron talk about their research at Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola) and the place of relig...

We were fortunate to have two such interesting 'hands on' academics in this conversation. Within an academic climate that is not always sympathetic or collaborative they engaged in a three year research project in one of the most notorious penal establishments in the Uniteds States, Angola.
 
Dr. Michael Hallett is a full Professor in the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice at the University of North Florida. Dr. Hallett just finished his fourth book and has published research appearing in numerous additional books and journals including Punishment & Society, Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, Critical Criminology and others. Dr. Hallett's focus is Corrections & Social Inequality, Punishment & Society, and Religion & Crime. Dr. Hallett designed Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Pretrial Services Unit (drug treatment/diversion) and has completed extensive work with local organizations including Prisoners of Christ, Operation New Hope, Hubbard House, the City of Jacksonville, JCCI and others. Most recently, Dr. Hallett led a three-year study at America's largest maximum-security prison, "Angola" (aka Louisiana State Penitentiary) exploring the religious lives of long-term inmates. He has served as Principal Investigator on grants from the US Department of Justice, Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Jesse Ball DuPont Foundation, and several other organizations. Dr. Hallett has chaired two academic departments at UNF (Sociology, Anthropology & Criminal Justice and Criminology & Criminal Justice) after first directing the Graduate program in Criminal Justice. Dr. Hallett frequently works on local justice issues in Jacksonville and has completed over a dozen funded projects at UNF, often employing students in the research. Dr Hallett also serves as a Senior Research Fellow at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion.
 
Hallett, M. (Guest Editor) Special Issue * Social Justice * "Emancipatory Justice." Forthcoming 2017.
Hallett, M., J. Hays, B. Johnson, SJ Jang, G Duwe (2017). https://www.routledge.com/The-Angola-Prison-Seminary-Effects-of-Faith-Based-Ministry-on-Identity/Hallett-Hays-Johnson-Jang-Duwe/p/book/9780815351733?gclid=Cj0KCQiAxoiQBhCRARIsAPsvo-xH9-GOhfmTalVcw6RsQWJhZu3I2Q1NcNrq97aGFmqIBpGNEJiiS7caAqvAEALw_wcB
Hallett, Michael A. 2006. Private Prisons in America: A Critical Race Perspective. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.**
Hallett, Michael A. (Editor). 1997. Activism and Marginalization in the AIDS Crisis. New York: Routledge.**
Hallett, Michael A. and Dennis J. Palumbo. 1993. U.S. Criminal Justice Interest Groups: Institutional Profiles. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.**
Byron Johnson is Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University. He is the founding director of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) as well as director of the Program on Prosocial Behavior.  He is a leading authority on the scientific study of religion, the efficacy of faith-based organizations, and criminal justice. He has been the principal investigator on grants from private foundations as well as the Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, and the United States Institute for Peace. He is the author of more than 250 articles and a number of books including More God, Less Crime (2011), The Angola Prison Seminary (2016), The Quest for Purpose (2017), The Restorative Prison (2021), and Objective Religion (2021). He is project director for the Global Flourishing Study, a longitudinal data collection and research collaboration between scholars at Harvard University and Baylor University, in partnership with Gallup and the Center for Open Science and with the support of a consortium of funders. The $43.4 million initiative will include data collection for approximately 240,000 participants from 22 geographically and culturally diverse countries.

’It’s not that bad’.....But it is. Tyrone Walker talks about his introduction to the US penal system at the age of 19. And the value of mentor wisdom ...

Tyrone Walker entered the American prison system at the age of 19. In this candid conversation he describes where he came from, what it was like entering prison and the benefit he gained from the wisdom of a particular older peer.
After serving nearly 25 years in prison, Tyrone earned a certificate in business and entrepreneurship through the Georgetown Pivot Program. His Pivot Program internship with the Justice Policy Institute (JPI) led to a full-time position, in which he used his lived experience and subject matter expertise to effect policy changes. There, Tyrone spent two years advocating for sentencing reform and managing JPI’s projects around D.C’s Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA) and Second Chance Amendment Act. As Director of Reentry Services with the Prisons and Justice Initiative, he supports students with their reentry needs both before and after release. He believes that helping our men and women while they are still on the inside is the most effective way to bridge the gap towards a successful reentry. When he is not working, he is taking classes online to earn his bachelor’s degree in political science.

THE LAST BAD DECISION SLIPPED OUT OF HIM AS EASILY AS WATER OVER A FALLS. Jeff Grant (https://greenwichmag.com/features/the-redemption-of-jeff-grant/)

This is a moving story which gives an account of a man's travel from a position of trust and respect to drug use, criminality and prison. Through self reflection and mentoring Jeff remade his life to make a positive contribution for the benefit of others.
For more than 20 years, Jeff served as managing attorney of a 20+ employee law firm headquartered in New York City representing family-owned and closely-held businesses and their owners.  We invited Jeff onto the podcast after reading his story in New Yorker.
In 2001, after an addiction to prescription opioids he committed a white collar crime and served almost fourteen months in a Federal prison over the course of 2006/07. When Jeff left prison, he started his own re-entry by earning a Master of Divinity majoring in Social Ethics.
After graduating from divinity school, Jeff was called to serve at an inner city church in Bridgeport, CT as Associate Minister and Director of Prison Ministries. He then co-founded Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. (Greenwich, CT), the world’s first ministry serving the white collar justice community.   On May 5, 2021, Jeff’s law license was reinstated by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York.
He is once again in private practice and is committed to using his legal expertise and life experience to benefit others.
 
Online white collar support group
https://prisonist.org/white-collar-support-group/
Progressive Prisons Ministries
https://prisonist.org
Bio
https://grantlaw.com/bio
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/30/life-after-white-collar-crime
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/380464
 

Tick Box Culture. Author, politician and journalist David Boyle tells us how it came about.

Our guest has been described as “part writer, part journalist, part politico, part historian, part economist and mostly brains, intellect and common sense”.  He’s also been described as “the finest radical voice of this generation”.  We came across David Boyle last year when  reading his wonderfully subversive “Tickbox” which explores the “insidious philosophy of automation and the misuse of data that weighs heavily upon us”.  It’s impossible to work in the public sector and read his book and not experience a huge wave of overwhelming familiarity.  In fact, those of us who work for the NHS but within a prison are unfortunate enough to experience a double dose of corporate inefficiency.   Last yearNaomi invited David along to have a conversation at a conference the Fens Unit was due to hold to celebrate its 20th year anniversary but unfortunately Coronavirus put paid to those plans.   So I am really pleased that I’ve managed to find an opportunity for us to sit down and have that conversation today instead. 

25 minute cut. Gareth Ross & Lucy Reading compare culture across different wings of a high secure prison

Fifteenth of January, a year ago, Naomi Murphy and David Jones published the first Locked up Living Podcast. Fifty nine episodes later we return to the very first one in a specially edited version.
In this episode Gareth Ross and Lucy Reading told us about their recently published research which describes the social climate across therapeutic and non thereapeutic wings in a high secure prison. Looking back we can see the significance of the finding that a change in culture, which need not be expensive, can make a major change to the rehabilitative effectiveness of a prison setting.
 

Men as victims of coercive control. Deborah Powney engages with this controversial topic.

Deborah Powney is a lecturer in Criminal Justice and a final year PhD Candidate specialising in recovery and growth in female and male victims of intimate partner abuse, domestic violence and coercive control.  Having a particular focus on male victims, she has conducted two international studies throughout the pandemic to investigate the types, levels and impact of the abuse experienced by men across the world. A survivor of partner abuse herself, she prides herself on being an evidence-based researcher and therefore asserts that abuse is not a gendered issue. 
She also explains the intrinsic similarity of a chocolate muffin and chocolate fudge cake and its relevance for critical thinking theory.

’University of Cambridge and Royal Holloway, University of London scholars discuss the effect of life imprisonment for young people. Ben Crewe, Susie ...

Ben Crewe, Susie Hulley and Serena Wright discuss their research on the implications of life imprisonment for young men and women. Their powerful experiences convey the deep and lasting sadness for all arising from such tragic events and the richness of their descriptions help us grasp the basic humanity of all those involved. This is quite a long podcast and may need two sittings. It is worth the listen and we found that the creative process, clearly evident in their work, was rekindled in the conversation itself.
Life Imprisonment from Young Adulthood
Adaptation, Identity and Time
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-56601-0
When the Advisory Committee on the Penal System reported on the prison regime for long-term prisoners in conditions of maximum security in 1968, only 168 individuals were serving sentences of longer than 10 years. Today, such sentences are bordering on commonplace. England and Wales have the highest number of life-sentenced prisoners within Europe, while increasing average sentence lengths mean that more men and women are serving longer periods in custody than ever before.Such considerations are located within relevant shifts in the penal system of England and Wales, in particular, the legacy of the minimum tariffs contained within the 2003 Criminal Justice Act, the ‘up-tariffing’ of ‘knife homicides’ and the increasing use of joint enterprise sentencing.