My most intensive block of prison work so far came to an end in December in part planned and in part forced. 2023-25 had me at one of our 8 High Security prisons HMP Manchester (formerly Strangeways) for a few days a month and last year that pattern was duplicated at HMP Hindley (a much lower category of security) so that I was serving two prisons every month on a contract funded by NHS Health & Justice.
The look back-look ahead process is many-faceted, continued sub-consciously over the festive period and is still a work-in-progress. Outcomes were all measures of Safe & Healthy: To have more people out of cell / out of office doing more for themselves, each other and contributing to the running of the prison.
The primary work was to deliver a program of my design to a combined group of staff and men serving sentences – and yes, this is highly unusual – that had them participating in 3 back to back days of intensive Physically Active Learning
We found very quickly that this was also a vehicle for building relationships which meant that the environment on the prison Wings was more collaborative and safer: More people were treating more people as people instead of targets – almost the golden goose in closed environments when the consequences of actions and words will always come back on everyone, anytime. This is particularly pertinent now as our prisons are overcrowded and under-resourced which means people are living and working in places of high-stress and high volatility.
This stuff is measurable in hard numbers too – critical in our prison system where almost everything (and success) is numbers:
- More people doing PE
- More people interested in learning-education
- Less people on medication
- Less people on formal supervision/discipline
Some Headlines
SCALE & SCOPE
Two prisons, 23 programs, 312 people taking part.
Participants Manchester: 10% of all staff, 17% of all the men – retained on program 75-95%
Participants Hindley: 19% staff, 15% men – retained on program 95-100%
MEASURES THAT MATTER
There was the formal stuff: Stats above, an independent impact assessment Prison – Andy Mouncey and a citation of ‘notable positive practice’ by HM Inspectorate Prisons pg. 10 Then there was the informal stuff – the unsolicited feedback – the crown jewel of which was a simple ‘thank you’ given freely and from the heart One Thing To Rule Them All – Andy Mouncey
CONTEXT IS ALL
It’s not enough to be good.
When working in an environment that is restrictive and often chaotic with staff that are under tremendous pressure and men who have (ever more) complex need, having good content and being good at making it land will only get you so far. There are risks in raising people up when there is little else for them to reach for, while pushing water uphill on your own only postpones the inevitable.
SOLO IS UNSUSTAINABLE
I like being my own boss: I like working in the way I want to work with the people I want to work with and after 26 years of being my own boss this means I’m now utterly unemployable.
I don’t employ anyone ‘cos I didn’t get into this to be an employer.
So where are my Circles Of Support? I’ve worked more deliberately over the last few years at putting these in place because a truth of 12 years of prison work is hard: This is not the work I should be doing on my own (anymore).
PERSPECTIVE IS LOST
Two questions that continue to help me see this work for what it was as opposed to what it (still) feels like – questions that it took a good friend of mine to ask while no-one else was posing them and I’d lost sight of ‘em:
- Bad stuff happens to other people too.
- Good stuff also happens among the bad.
Funnily enough when I sat down to do my ‘good stuff too’ list it turned into quite a long list – much of which I’d lost sight of. And when Mrs Mouncey added her five-pennyworth the list got longer again.
You get what you focus on, right?
Staying On The Horse
2026 therefore has to be the year when I dilute my prison-only focus (possibly with work in support of people in our Probation Service) and has me working more in collaboration and partnership. Reducing the dose, frequency and exposure of the work will allow me to stay on the horse while reducing the personal cost.
There is a certain skill set (and mindset) which requires continual practice, so to find ways to do so at a reduced intensity means I can feel ready and re-charged in equal measure. It’s important I think, to stay on this horse.
