Prisoner Publishing: Supporting Rehabilitation and Reform through Innovative Writing Programmes
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Surrey
Department Name: Languages and Translation Studies
Abstract
UK prisons are in crisis: over half of prisoners are functionally illiterate, assaults are at a record high, and reconviction rates remain at around 50%. The severely under-funded Mexican prison system faces yet more urgent problems, such as overcrowding, endemic violence and a severe lack of educational and rehabilitative opportunities for prisoners. There is a lack of funding and support for arts and education projects, even though their benefits are well proven: evidence suggests that prisoners who do not take part in education or training are three times more likely to be re-convicted than those who do.
The aim of the Prisoner Publishing project is to develop grassroots writing and book-making programmes in UK and Mexican prisons using cartonera methods - community-based initiatives involving the production of low-cost books from recycled materials - that have emerged from the most challenging Latin American environments. The proposal stems from unforeseen developments across two AHRC projects supported by Global Challenges Research Funding, Precarious Publishing and Activating the Arts for International Development, which together have demonstrated the potential of community publishing workshops to promote multidimensional social and welfare impact in communities facing high levels of precarity, exclusion, stigma and violence. In particular, it builds on the Cartoneras for Peace programme developed in Activating the Arts, which took an unforeseen turn into prison publishing when our project partners in Guadalajara ran the project in Puente Grande, the women's section of Mexico's second-largest prison complex. This programme surpassed all expectations in terms of impact and engagement: the participants reported significant psychological and social benefits; the prison administrators have supported the women to create their own sustainable publishing collective, Bote Cartonero (Cartonera in the Clink); and the initiative received news coverage from the TV station C7 Jalisco.
Through close collaboration with a range of project partners and collaborating organisations and our contacts in UK and Mexican prisons (from Prison Governors, Wellbeing teams and Education teams), we will co-design three new writing and publishing programmes to be piloted across 16 prisons (6 in the UK, 10 in Mexico). We will adapt the cartonera publishing model of rapid, low-cost, artisanal publishing to different kinds of prison: women's and men's; mixed category and Category B (short-stay); under-performing and high-performing prisons. This will allow us to develop innovative, creative, and cost-effective programmes that will each produce a cartonera book. The programmes will be replicable beyond the project thanks to a comprehensive Prisoner Publishing Pack available in both Spanish and English, aimed at prison arts practitioners.
Designed to be long-lasting, far-reaching, and sustainable, the programmes are expected to produce a significant impact for four principal groups of beneficiaries both within and beyond the life-span of project. Our primary beneficiaries are imprisoned people, especially hard-to-reach prisoners. The programmes will improve functional literacy rates in prisons through collective writing and reading activities, improve participant's self-confidence, help combat mental health problems, increase self-efficacy and agency, and enhance cultural enrichment and quality of life. Second, the programmes are designed to improve the institutional culture of prisons, enhancing their effectiveness as places of rehabilitation. Third, through our public and press engagement activities, the project will change public discourse on prisons and prisoners by promoting the creative and reflective work of participants and combating negative perceptions and stigmatising myths. Finally, the project will facilitate new creative partnerships and knowledge transfer between NGOs, civil society, government and prison authorities.
The aim of the Prisoner Publishing project is to develop grassroots writing and book-making programmes in UK and Mexican prisons using cartonera methods - community-based initiatives involving the production of low-cost books from recycled materials - that have emerged from the most challenging Latin American environments. The proposal stems from unforeseen developments across two AHRC projects supported by Global Challenges Research Funding, Precarious Publishing and Activating the Arts for International Development, which together have demonstrated the potential of community publishing workshops to promote multidimensional social and welfare impact in communities facing high levels of precarity, exclusion, stigma and violence. In particular, it builds on the Cartoneras for Peace programme developed in Activating the Arts, which took an unforeseen turn into prison publishing when our project partners in Guadalajara ran the project in Puente Grande, the women's section of Mexico's second-largest prison complex. This programme surpassed all expectations in terms of impact and engagement: the participants reported significant psychological and social benefits; the prison administrators have supported the women to create their own sustainable publishing collective, Bote Cartonero (Cartonera in the Clink); and the initiative received news coverage from the TV station C7 Jalisco.
Through close collaboration with a range of project partners and collaborating organisations and our contacts in UK and Mexican prisons (from Prison Governors, Wellbeing teams and Education teams), we will co-design three new writing and publishing programmes to be piloted across 16 prisons (6 in the UK, 10 in Mexico). We will adapt the cartonera publishing model of rapid, low-cost, artisanal publishing to different kinds of prison: women's and men's; mixed category and Category B (short-stay); under-performing and high-performing prisons. This will allow us to develop innovative, creative, and cost-effective programmes that will each produce a cartonera book. The programmes will be replicable beyond the project thanks to a comprehensive Prisoner Publishing Pack available in both Spanish and English, aimed at prison arts practitioners.
Designed to be long-lasting, far-reaching, and sustainable, the programmes are expected to produce a significant impact for four principal groups of beneficiaries both within and beyond the life-span of project. Our primary beneficiaries are imprisoned people, especially hard-to-reach prisoners. The programmes will improve functional literacy rates in prisons through collective writing and reading activities, improve participant's self-confidence, help combat mental health problems, increase self-efficacy and agency, and enhance cultural enrichment and quality of life. Second, the programmes are designed to improve the institutional culture of prisons, enhancing their effectiveness as places of rehabilitation. Third, through our public and press engagement activities, the project will change public discourse on prisons and prisoners by promoting the creative and reflective work of participants and combating negative perceptions and stigmatising myths. Finally, the project will facilitate new creative partnerships and knowledge transfer between NGOs, civil society, government and prison authorities.
Planned Impact
"Prisoner Publishing" is targeted at four main beneficiary groups:
1. Imprisoned people, particularly hard-to-reach prisoners
The proposed workshops use empowering, participative methodologies, meaning they serve far more than a didactic function for participants. Just as the women who participated in the Puente Grande Cartonera project reported (see CFS), prison publishing programmes produce personal transformation and community building in the most challenging contexts. The programmes encourage respectful dialogue even in the presence of conflict and equip prisoners with transferrable skills from writing and reading to teamwork and public speaking. We expect the programmes:
- To improve functional literacy rates in prisons through collective writing and reading activities
- To improve participants' self-confidence as writers and give them the means to disseminate their creative work
- To combat the mental health problems that are so prevalent in prisons by facilitating the expression of needs in an atmosphere of free and open communication
- To give participants a means of self-efficacy and agency
- To enhance cultural enrichment and quality of life for participants
2. The broader prison community
The proposed programmes will improve institutional culture by strengthening arts and literacy provision through low-cost, sustainable designs. The benefits of these programmes will filter out, giving hard-to reach prisoners a voice, increasing respect for them, and making them more likely to engage in other educational opportunities. The programmes will enhance the effectiveness of prisons as places of rehabilitation and change organisational culture. The pilot projects will be used to develop a pack that will allow the model to be easily rolled out in other prisons. This will be supplemented by workshops for prison staff, all aimed at increasing understanding of the value of writing and publishing programmes for prisoners.
3. The general public
The project will change public discourse on prisons and prisoners by promoting the literary and artistic work of prisoners, to combat negative perceptions and stigmatising myths. This impact will be achieved through the following media strategy, geared towards providing new angles on old stories of crime through the human stories from the programmes:
- Use of press releases and existing contacts to engage the local press and broadcasting agencies (e.g. the BBC's local TV news programmes) with the book launches in each prison.
- Pitching articles to high-profile newspapers (UK - The Guardian, The Times and New Statesman and New Internationalist; Mexico - La Jornada, Reforma and El Debate).
- Contacting radio broadcasters in the UK, with a focus on Radio 3's Free Thinking and Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Broadcasting House and Start the Week.
- Creating a Prison Publishing Facebook page and Twitter feed with regular project updates.
4. Policy
In gaining the financial and policy support of the Mexican Cultural Ministry to support the Prisoner Publishing project, the researchers have already achieved policy change: it is the first time Jalisco's Ministry of Culture has supported an arts-based initiative for prisoners. In the UK, the project will offer a new art-based model capable of contributing towards the delivery of the Ministry of Justice's main strategic priority: "A prison and probation service that reforms offenders". In particular, we will contribute to an evidence base that is lacking yet important for developing new policies for prison reform, as identified by the Ministry of Justice itself in its "Areas of Research Interest" document: "our understanding of what works to reduce reoffending tends to be high level, with less understanding of what approaches might work best with different types of offender" (2018).
1. Imprisoned people, particularly hard-to-reach prisoners
The proposed workshops use empowering, participative methodologies, meaning they serve far more than a didactic function for participants. Just as the women who participated in the Puente Grande Cartonera project reported (see CFS), prison publishing programmes produce personal transformation and community building in the most challenging contexts. The programmes encourage respectful dialogue even in the presence of conflict and equip prisoners with transferrable skills from writing and reading to teamwork and public speaking. We expect the programmes:
- To improve functional literacy rates in prisons through collective writing and reading activities
- To improve participants' self-confidence as writers and give them the means to disseminate their creative work
- To combat the mental health problems that are so prevalent in prisons by facilitating the expression of needs in an atmosphere of free and open communication
- To give participants a means of self-efficacy and agency
- To enhance cultural enrichment and quality of life for participants
2. The broader prison community
The proposed programmes will improve institutional culture by strengthening arts and literacy provision through low-cost, sustainable designs. The benefits of these programmes will filter out, giving hard-to reach prisoners a voice, increasing respect for them, and making them more likely to engage in other educational opportunities. The programmes will enhance the effectiveness of prisons as places of rehabilitation and change organisational culture. The pilot projects will be used to develop a pack that will allow the model to be easily rolled out in other prisons. This will be supplemented by workshops for prison staff, all aimed at increasing understanding of the value of writing and publishing programmes for prisoners.
3. The general public
The project will change public discourse on prisons and prisoners by promoting the literary and artistic work of prisoners, to combat negative perceptions and stigmatising myths. This impact will be achieved through the following media strategy, geared towards providing new angles on old stories of crime through the human stories from the programmes:
- Use of press releases and existing contacts to engage the local press and broadcasting agencies (e.g. the BBC's local TV news programmes) with the book launches in each prison.
- Pitching articles to high-profile newspapers (UK - The Guardian, The Times and New Statesman and New Internationalist; Mexico - La Jornada, Reforma and El Debate).
- Contacting radio broadcasters in the UK, with a focus on Radio 3's Free Thinking and Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Broadcasting House and Start the Week.
- Creating a Prison Publishing Facebook page and Twitter feed with regular project updates.
4. Policy
In gaining the financial and policy support of the Mexican Cultural Ministry to support the Prisoner Publishing project, the researchers have already achieved policy change: it is the first time Jalisco's Ministry of Culture has supported an arts-based initiative for prisoners. In the UK, the project will offer a new art-based model capable of contributing towards the delivery of the Ministry of Justice's main strategic priority: "A prison and probation service that reforms offenders". In particular, we will contribute to an evidence base that is lacking yet important for developing new policies for prison reform, as identified by the Ministry of Justice itself in its "Areas of Research Interest" document: "our understanding of what works to reduce reoffending tends to be high level, with less understanding of what approaches might work best with different types of offender" (2018).
Publications
Elena De Hoyos Pérez
(2021)
Renacer en la escritura: Manual para la intervención feminista en espacios donde se viven violencias
Title | Alas Palabras |
Description | Collective writing by imprisoned people in Jalisco |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Impact | Permanent publisher in the Cienaga-Chapala prison. |
URL | https://www.desdeelencierro.com/publicaciones/alas-palabras/ |
Title | Escritos de libertad |
Description | A collection of texts by 9 imprisoned women from Ciudad Guzman prison (Jalisco, Mexico). |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Impact | The permanente workshops across 5 prisons in the State of Jalisco. |
URL | https://www.desdeelencierro.com/publicaciones/escritos-de-libertad/ |
Title | Hechiceras de Jade |
Description | A documentary about (formerly) imprisoned women learning to write and deliver their own creative writing workshops, following the Hermanas en la Sombra's feminist methodologies. |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Impact | TBC |
URL | https://vimeo.com/678354346 |
Title | Palabras a la distancia |
Description | A collection of prose and poetry by 11 imprisoned young men from la Granja juvenile detention centre (Jalisco State, Mexico). |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Impact | The writing and publishing initiative has been supported by the prison authorities of Jalisco to become a permanent activity in this prison and across the whole State Prison System in Jalisco. |
URL | http://cartonerapublishing.com/portfolio/palabras-a-la-distancia/ |
Title | Real Retribution |
Description | This is a collection of poems, raps, and short prose deriving from a collaboration between five women at HMP Downview, the librarians Kathryn Walter and Clare Canavan, and the university researchers Lucy Bell and Charlotte Dodds (University of Surrey) and Joey Whitfield (Cardiff University). |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Impact | A long-term collaboration between the University of Surrey and HMP Downview to run regular 6-week creative writing and performance programmes. |
URL | https://www.desdeelencierro.com/publicaciones/real-retribution-raw-n-uncut/ |
Title | Sonar despierta (Daydreaming) |
Description | A collection of prose and poetry by 16 imprisoned women from Puerto Vallarta prison (Jalisco, Mexico) |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Impact | The writing and publishing initiative has been supported by the prison authorities of Jalisco to become a permanent activity in this prison and across the whole State Prison System in Jalisco. |
URL | https://www.desdeelencierro.com/publicaciones/sonar-despierta/ |
Title | Te nombro libertad |
Description | A set of creative texts (poetry and prose) by 4 imprisoned women y 13 imprisoned men. |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Impact | The permanent cartonera workshops across 5 prisons in Jalisco. |
URL | https://www.desdeelencierro.com/publicaciones/te-nombro-libertad/ |
Title | When Times Get Hard |
Description | This is a collection of creative writing deriving from a collaboration between five women at HMP Downview, the librarians Kathryn Walter and Clare Canavan, and the university researchers Lucy Bell and Charlotte Dodds (University of Surrey) and Joey Whitfield (Cardiff University). |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Impact | The anthology won a Silver Award in the Koestler Awards 2021. |
URL | https://www.desdeelencierro.com/publicaciones/when-times-get-hard/ |
Title | Writing from the Shadows |
Description | An animation film by Sophie Marsh, written by Lucy Bell & Joey Whitfied, for BBC Culture in Quarantine |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Impact | Public understanding and awareness of imprisonment. |
URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08z36ts |
Description | As an impact project, the main key findings are through the impact activities and collaborations, and may be summarized as follows: - Mexican grassroots creative writing models and feminist methods are extremely effective in fostering change in the prison system, both at individual level (personal and professional transformation) and at an institutional level (fostering structural change). - In turn, these Latin American forms of grassroots arts-based activism can be adapted to Global North contexts (the UK, in our project) with great effect, with a similar capacity to effect both personal and structural transformation. |
Exploitation Route | We have produced coursebooks and manuals in English and Spanish for other groups, individuals and prison authorities to put into practice their own versions of these programmes. |
Sectors | Creative Economy Education Government Democracy and Justice Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
Description | Due to Covid-19, this project has been completely rethought in order to a/ respond creatively to the impact of Covid-19 on prisoners and former prisoners; b/ carry out the work in full compliance with the strictest Covid-19 measures. At the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, there was briefly hope in England and Wales that some of those vulnerable to the virus in our already overcrowded prisons might be released. But the MoJ suspended the early release of 4,000 prisoners: nearly a month after the emergency release scheme was announced, it emerged that only 33 people had been released. The remaining prisoners were often confined to their cells 23 hours a day, an inhumane practice usually reserved as a form of extra punishment, and then further intensified by a lack of access to phones and complete cessation of family visits. Amongst a population of whom up to 90% are already estimated to suffer from mental health problems, the long term impact of this will be devastating. Indeed, even back in 2019, the ever increasing suicide rates in prison were called out by the HM chief inspector Peter Clarke as nothing less than a "scandal". The UK is thus edging ever closer to an excessive penal system that until now has characterized the US, which has the highest per-capita incarceration rate, and Latin America, where systematically overcrowded prisons are sites of neglect, violence, and human rights abuses. Since the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak, prisoners protesting to demand basic sanitary rights have been met with lethal state reactions in Bogotá, Lima, São Paulo, and more. In less violent, but no less tragic circumstances, other victims of inhuman incarceration are succumbing to the widely known and reported effects of Covid-19. A collaborator on the Prisoner Publishing Project, the formerly imprisoned indigenous Mexican writer Leo Zavaleta, succumbed to the disease on the 1st May. According to the feminist collective Hermanas en la Sombra (Sisters in the Shadows) of which she was a member, "she was tortured during her detention until falling in a diabetic coma. Her diabetes was never treated during her years in prison and compromised her health. Leo bore the scars of imprisonment, which never healed and left her vulnerable to this pandemic which, although apparently "democratic" and undiscriminating, is more likely to take away the weakest, whose bodies are worn down by poverty and structural violence." Against this backdrop, the Prisoner Publishing gained a heightened sense of urgency, to which we have responded by working closely (though remotely) with collaborators in Mexico and the UK. In Mexico, we are working with the grassroots literary groups Colectiva Editorial Hermanas en la Sombra (the Sisters in the Shadows Publishing Collective) in Cuernacava and La Rueda Cartonera, Viento Cartonero and Cartonera Ateneo Tzapotlatena in Jalisco. In the UK, we are working with library and Learning & Skills, and Reducing Reoffending staff in four main prisons: one women's prison (HMP Downview) and four men's prisons (HMP High Down, HMP Cardiff, HMP Nottingham and HMP Winchester). The project has four main strands: building international networks; building capacity; generating resources; influencing state institutions and policy; raising awareness. 1. Building networks: We organized a virtual conference panel (at the LASA - Latin American Studies Association - conference); and a Zoom workshop and skillshare: "International Workshop and Skillshare on Prison Writing and Social Justice" (13-15 May 2020), in which four key prisoner-centred literary collectives from Mexico, Argentina and Colombia presented their work and creative practice to an international audience. Twenty-four prison arts activists attended from five different countries across the Americas and Europe. 84% of participants strongly agreed and 16% agreed that they had learned new things from the event and 75% strongly agreed they had connected with groups from other countries with interests similar to their own. A typical comment in the event feedback read "I learned about artistic and editorial techniques that were new to me. I was interested in the reflections on the artistic practices and the tensions within each project and with the prison authorities. I would like to take part in future networks and to continue sharing experiences". Several new international collaborations have resulted or been supported from these across the UK, US and Latin America. Examples include: • A new research collaboration between the research team and Dr Danielle Strickland (social anthropologist (ITESO Jesuit University, Guadalajara) • New publishing collaborations between Mexican collectives La Rueda and Viento Cartonero and the Argentine network of prison librarians (La Pampa). 2. Building capacity: Across Mexico and the UK, we are working closely through longitudinal action-based research with our project partners to build capacity in their specific communities: • With the cartonera collectives, we have facilitated the first of four 'cartonera' programmes, consisting of six writing, editing and publishing, for imprisoned women and young offenders. Each programme has resulted in a new book written and produced by the imprisoned participants (published online and in cartonera format). In order to guarantee the sustainability of the programmes, we have trained 'inside' collaborators (imprisoned people alongside prison staff) to run their own in-house publisher to continue the programmes beyond our interventions. • With the Hermanas, we have facilitated an online course consisting of 12 virtual sessions for a group of around 10 women in Cuernavaca to run their own workshops. The participants in this case are not prisoners, but rather formerly imprisoned people and 'at risk' individuals (members of 'Mujeres de Luz' from a drug addiction rehabilitation centre), all of whom face problems in the search for employment and social reintegration. As an indication of the impact of the latter, here are some extracts from texts written by participants in which they reflect on their experiences in the workshops: o 'I feel every day that this workshop nourishes me more. I can express myself and do my work with greater clarity and I learn something incredible every day.' o '[From the workshop] I take the satisfaction of another achievement in my life. I take the experience and wisdom of every one of my sisters. I take beautiful shared moments of laughter, of embraces, from a distance' o 'I begin to tell stories about my life and the lives of others. And as I remember I suffer and understand others. In the end, through reading, words have the power to heal because things that were secret no longer are.' • In the UK, we have worked closely with project partner librarians at HMP Downview (a women's prison) to run two pilot creative programmes - one remote, one in-person - inspired by the Mexican collectives. The impact on the 10 participants has been significant. One participant reported, "This course had a massive impact in an incredibly positive way. It was the beacon of normalcy and the tutors created a wonderful safe space for us to flex our creative wings. They kept a balance in a very mixed ability group and pulled words and styles out of us that we hadn't seen in ourselves. I have a rap diva in me! Who knew? Not me, and because I felt safe, it didn't matter that I sounded like a Cornish farmer on speed. What mattered to me was the genuine encouragement from the other 'proper' rappers. They laughed 'with' and not 'at' me. By the third week, Lucy's gentle encouragement to all of us brought a group together through a commonality of words and bound us together through the power of words. That bond still exists, months after, we are all sincere in our reactions when we bump into each other. We come from different landings, so don't mix very often, and it's so lovely to see each other, as a fellow participant of an incredible course. We shared our deepest thoughts and fears and humour, and broke social, offence and age barriers in the process. In that room each week we were able to don the humanity suits, that the modern (please read 'modern' dripping in sarcasm) prison system strips from you when you enter reception, and get a number instead, to identify you. To be treated as a valued human being by the tutors freed us to really engage with the course. I (and I know the others are as well) am so proud of the work I created, the books and CD are a physical acknowledgement I will treasure." The most significant impact, however, is perhaps the fact that the University of Surrey has agreed to form a new partnership with HMP Downview through Widening Participation, to continue the project in the long term. 3. Generating resources: In Mexico, we have collaborated with the grassroots collectives and prison authorities of Jalisco State to set up permanent workshops in the five prisons involved in the project (three women's prisons, one mixed, and one young person's detention facility). In addition to skills training, this has involved setting up spaces with the necessary equipment for cartonera publishing (including one computer per prison). In order to ensure the sustainability of the writing and publishing programmes in Mexico, we have also supported our grassroots collaborators in Cuernavaca to produce a comprehensive manual of their methods and techniques, which will be used across Jalisco's prisons beyond the lifespan of the grant, and will be disseminated widely across Latin America. In the UK, we have responded to the need for new resources to support creative writing programmes at times (like the Covid-19 pandemic) when educational programmes and visits have been suspended or reduced for large periods of time. Through dialogue with prison librarians, Learning & Skills and Reducing Reoffending staff, we have produced two resources specially-designed for imprisoned people: a DVD (also available to download from Vimeo) entitled Creative Writing in Prison: Tips and Activities from Around the World and accompanying coursebook (available Open Access as a PDF). The resources are designed to be as inclusive as possible, in order to engage hard-to-reach prisoners as well as those who would normally engage in educational programmes. 4. Influencing state institutions and public policy In Jalisco state, the Prisoner Publishing project has been part of an important shift towards a culture of rehabilitation, led by the Director of Social Reintegration José Antonio Pérez Juárez under the direction of State Governor Enrique Alfaro. As Pérez Juárez explains: "we are developing a public policy that we call Reintegration: A Second Chance, based on respect for human rights, with discipline, education, training and work, but not with useless punishments. The cartoneros workshops are part of this programme that encourages creativity and reflection." Even more important for the imprisoned people involved in cartonera activities has been the integration of the cartonera programmes into the state's system of 'beneficios de preliberación' ('pre-release benefits'). Benefits, under the national system, are obtained through activities classified under seven main categories: work, education, culture, health, sport, personal and restorative justice. By engaging in activities across these different areas, prisoners can potentially reduce their sentence by up to 50%. Through collaboration and negotiation with the Prisoner Publishing project team, and with cartonera publishers Israel and Sergio on the ground, the creative activity of cartonera publishing has been approved as one means of obtaining the pre-release credits. 5. Raising awareness In Mexico, the Jalisco programmes have been widely covered by state and national media e.g. • Newspapers: El Occidental; El Heraldo de México; El Diario NTR: Noticias AL; NotiVox; etc. • TV: Televisa Guadalajara. In the UK, we obtained Arts & Humanities in Quarantine funding to produce a short animation about the project, called Writing from the Shadows, now available on iPlayer as part of a series called Animated Thinking which is being used as a teaching aid in schools. We are also working on a bilingual anthology of Latin American prison literature and a series of podcasts. |
First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal Economic Policy & public services |
Description | Arts & Humanities in Quarantine |
Amount | £25,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2020 |
End | 10/2020 |
Description | Small grant for imprisoned writers |
Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Prison Reform Trust |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2022 |
End | 07/2022 |
Description | UKRI COVID-19 Grant Extension Allocation (CoA) - University of Surrey and Cardiff University |
Amount | £54,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2021 |
End | 07/2021 |
Description | Collaboration with Ministry of Culture (Jalisco, Mexico) |
Organisation | Secretariat of Culture |
Country | Mexico |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | We have produced cultural activities and outputs that promote peace in this increasingly violent region of Mexico. |
Collaborator Contribution | They have disseminated the outputs, and created three short animation videos with extracts from the writings produced in the prisons as a result of the project. |
Impact | Three short animation films to disseminate the voices of imprisoned women and men. A new partnership between the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Security, with a series of creative activites (embroidering, performance and writing workshops) in Puente Grande women's prison funded and organized by the Ministry of Culture. |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Partnership with Koestler Arts |
Organisation | Koestler Trust |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | We have contributed to Koestler Arts in the following ways: • Participants have been encouraged to submit their work to the Koestler Awards. • The creative writing resources, because of their accessibility, will broaden the number of prisoners who are engaging with arts and literature production, especially those hard-to-reach groups. • Prisoner Publishing is strengthening the network of arts, writing and publishing groups, and foster a research/practice community around prisoner writing in the UK through new educational and literary resources. |
Collaborator Contribution | Koestler Arts has contributed by: • Sharing their knowledge and advising the Prisoner Publishing team on programme design • Helping the team expand their network, and connecting them with ex-offenders who are now writers or artists who have been key contributors to our DVD and coursebook. • Helping to promote the publishing programme and its UK resources through their newsletters. |
Impact | "Creative Writing in Prison: Tips and Activities from Around the World" - DVD and coursebook |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Animated film: Writing from the Shadows |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | In Writing from the Shadows, imprisoned people and cultural activists from Mexico and the UK reflect on the positive effects of writing and publishing on life in and beyond prison. As their poetry shows, creative expression gives people a highly personal means to tell their own stories, construct new senses of self, and leave a legacy that speaks across walls and borders. The film comes out of an action research project which supports grassroots organizations in Mexico with long traditions of working with prisoners and marginalised people, and brings Latin American community practices like cardboard ("cartonera") publishing to UK prisons for the first time. The film is based on the work of the Hermanas en la Sombra, Viento Cartonero and La Rueda Cartonera. The film has sparked off new interest in prisoner publishing, including by a Guardian journalist who interviewed the research team, and a school teacher who invited us to talk to sixth form students about our research (Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School in Barnet). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08z36ts/animated-thinking-writing-from-the-shadows |
Description | International Workshop on Prison Literature and Social Justice |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | In our online event, "International Workshop and Skillshare on Prison Writing and Social Justice" (13-15 May 2020), four key prisoner-centred literary collectives from Mexico, Argentina and Colombia presented their work and creative practice to an international audience. Several new international collaborations have resulted from these across the UK, US and Latin America. Examples include: a new Latin American network and campaign: #liberarlasesjusticia #freedomisjustice (a decarceration campaign for vulnerable women in Latin American prisons); a new research collaboration between the research team and Dr Danielle Strickland (social anthropologist (ITESO Jesuit University, Guadalajara); new collaborations between Mexican collectives La Rueda and Viento Cartonero and the Argentine network of prison librarians (La Pampa). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | http://cartonerapublishing.com/international-workshop-and-skillshare-on-prison-writing-and-social-ju... |
Description | Magazine article (Mexico) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Magazine article describing the writing and skills training workshops carried out by Hermanas en la Sombra for the Prisoner Publishing project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://ichan.ciesas.edu.mx/de-hermanas-en-la-sombra-a-mujeres-de-luz-investigacion-colaborativa-y-a... |
Description | School Visit (Barnet) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | A talk by Joey Whitfield about the Prisoner Publishing project at Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School in Barnet. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |