Prison Radio Around the World:
Prison Radio Programmes on the Public Airwaves
By Siobhánn Tighe
Winter 2015
Supported by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and
the Prison Reform Trust
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Prison Radio Around The World
A report based on the findings of a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust
Fellowship from Sweden, Washington DC, Houston in Texas and
Portland in Oregon.
Contents
WINSTON CHURCHILL TRAVELLING FELLOWSHIPS ........................................... 3
WHO AM I? ................................................................................................................ 3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................ 4
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 7
NPR IN ENGLAND AND WALES ............................................................................. 10
PEOPLE YOU DON’T NORMALLY HEAR ON THE RADIO .................................... 12
JUICY STORIES ...................................................................................................... 16
“THIS SHOW IS FOR PRISONERS”........................................................................ 19
TRANSFERABLE SKILLS........................................................................................ 26
THE IMPACT ON VICTIMS...................................................................................... 28
WHO LISTENS AND WHY? ..................................................................................... 34
CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................... 39
RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................ 42
DISSEMINATION ..................................................................................................... 43
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................ 44
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WINSTON CHURCHILL TRAVELLING FELLOWSHIPS
The Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowships provide a unique
opportunity for UK citizens, from all backgrounds and every corner of the
UK, to acquire innovative ideas abroad.
In the process they gain fresh perspectives on their own field of interest
and return with enhanced expertise, able to be more effective at work
and in their contribution to the community.
The knowledge exchange is two-way, with long-lasting connections
made between Fellows and their hosts, creating valuable overseas
networks.
WHO AM I?
My name is Siobhánn Tighe. I’m a BBC Broadcast Journalist, working in
news and topical programming, mostly across radio. However, from April
2014 to August 2015 I was Head of Prison Radio at the National
Offender Management Service. This was a secondment and involved
working with Ministers, Senior Civil Servants, The Prison Radio
Association, prison staff, serving prisoners and ex-offenders.
Me, outside Clackamas County Jail near Eugene, Oregon
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
My research was into radio programmes on the public airwaves, which
deal with criminal justice issues and include the voice of offenders and
ex-offenders. These are programmes you can hear at home on your
normal radio or access via the internet. This report is based on my
interviews with the people I met and my own observations. It contains
unique personal testimony, which aims to shine a light onto the issue I
am exploring. Therefore my report is more journalistic, than academic, in
its content and tone.
For my Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship, I wanted to find out
about the impact that these radio programmes had, both on the
prisoners and ex-prisoners who were contributing to them as well as the
audience tuning-in. I was also exploring the editorial risks associated
with such programming, such as the risk of offending victims of crime
and the risk of these programmes being misused.
I first went to Stockholm in Sweden. Then Washington DC, followed by
Houston in Texas and finally Portland in the American state of Oregon.
My research was inspired by National Prison Radio, which is a radio
station made by prisoners, for prisoners in England and Wales. It can
only be heard on the ‘inside’, not ‘outside’. This aspect of National
Prison Radio is the core reason why I wanted to explore the exact
opposite, i.e. prison radio programmes which include offender voices,
and can be heard at home, in the car, on your computer, tablet and
mobile.
I got to know National Prison Radio very well when I was Head of Prison
Radio at The National Offender Management Service, or NOMS for
short. I am normally a reporter and producer at the BBC, but the BBC
has an arrangement with NOMS to supply a radio professional on a
rolling secondment to be the civil service “lead” on radio. I was the fourth
BBC person to be appointed and my secondment ran from April 2014 to
August 2015.
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My major findings are these:
 Radio programmes which include offenders, and are heard on the
public airwaves, have the potential to humanise prisoners and exprisoners
 Being part of a radio programme increases the self-esteem of
offenders and ex-offenders
 Ex-offenders can gain a support network from these kinds of
programmes
 Small, independently-funded radio stations may have more
freedom and be less risk-averse when it comes to giving a ‘voice’
to offenders and ex-offenders
 Experienced radio professionals are critical in making sure radio
programmes which feature offenders and ex-offenders are safe,
compliant and adhere to editorial guidelines.
 Accessing prisons to record the voices of serving offenders for
radio broadcast purposes is extremely difficult.
 The survival, longevity and success of a radio programme dealing
with such controversial and contentious issues like prisons and
incarceration is largely dependent on excellent relationships with
prison and probation authorities.
Recommendations
In summary, my chief recommendations are:
 Create a BBC radio programme specifically about criminal justice
issues, which includes the voice of offenders and ex-offenders and
which adds depth to the subject area without being sensationalist.
 The BBC needs to work in partnership and collaboration with
experts in the criminal justice system to create this kind of
specialist programme. Working together, experts should be able to
successfully assess risk, identify editorial and ethical challenges
and find safe solutions.
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 A working-party should be set up to discuss moving forward on this
idea and creating a pilot.
 More generally speaking, the BBC should include more coverage
about prisons and life inside prisons, and should include more
offender and ex-offender voices in its schedule.
 This coverage should extend beyond News, and BBC producers
should be encouraged to incorporate the prison population in other
mainstream output.
 Lessons should be taken from prison-focused radio programmes
which can already be heard on the public airwaves in Sweden and
America.
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INTRODUCTION
I was Head of Prison Radio from April 2014 to August 2015.
Before I was appointed to the post, I was confident that I knew about
prisons because I was up-to-date with the news. Furthermore, as a
reporter in regional television some years before, I had been to
Canterbury prison, now closed, as well as the Sheppey Cluster prisons. I
now realise that I was completely ignorant about prison-life and
prisoners, and I sense that most people in the UK are the same.
It was only when I started working at the National Offender Management
Service that my eyes were opened to an invisible world.
As Head of Prison Radio, I went into prisons weekly and I was
constantly amazed. Everything I thought I knew was routinely challenged.
Yes, there were aspects that concerned me, but I also witnessed a lot of
positive initiatives and discovered untapped talent. I also started to
understand that prison can become quite ‘normal’ after a while. For
instance, it has its routines, friendships are made, paid work is carried
out and qualifications are taught and gained.
Having this unique insight into a world most of us know nothing about, I
felt it was important that other people knew more about prisons and what
they were really like. I felt that increased knowledge about prisons could
only be beneficial and valuable to society.
Therefore, it seemed natural to me that a radio programme could play its
part in this information-building and I started to imagine a weekly, halfhour, professionally-produced, magazine-style programme on a station
like BBC Radio 4 or 5 LIVE, which included the voice of offenders and
ex-offenders, and might even include some National Prison Radio
content too.
Questions around this idea kept running through my mind. Could a
programme like this improve our understanding of this invisible world?
Could it add to the debate about crime and punishment? Could it help
tackle recidivism? Could it build a bridge between us (on the outside)
and them (on the inside), most of whom will be released back into our
community? It was these questions which drove my research.
The radio programme I started to imagine was about filling our
knowledge gap and tackling custodial issues sensibly, sensitively,
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intelligently and without sensationalism, being a counter-balance to
some of the colourful headlines about prisons which appear in the
tabloid press. It would include every type of stake-holder in criminal
justice. It would include prisoners, ex-offenders, prison staff, and
families: people who could share their experiences and expertise. It
would be made by professional radio producers, ideally those who
already have experience of working with offenders
Right from the start, I knew that this idea of mine would be a challenge
and would require steel and courage. That’s because the subject is
contentious, political and controversial in nature, as well as being
editorially complex. However, our society needs more accurate
information about prisons, delivered with hysterics, from a trusted,
impartial and balanced broadcaster, like the BBC.
I am a BBC staff reporter and producer. I am passionate about the
organisation and what it can achieve, and I strongly believe that a radio
programme like the one I have described fits neatly into the values that
the BBC is built on.
BBC Values are split up into six areas of ‘Public Purpose’. The first one
is to ‘Sustain Citizenship and Civil Society’ and states that: “The BBC
should provide news and current affairs that interests and informs
people of all backgrounds, ages and levels of knowledge, enabling them
to engage with the major issues of today …. It will reach out to other
groups who may have moved away from traditional sources of news.”
Its third Public Purpose is to ‘Represent the UK, its nations, regions and
communities’. This means: “reflecting the many communities that exist in
the UK”.
I can see how addressing prison issues more thoroughly and
comprehensively would sit within these BBC values.
I know that some prisoners are too much of a risk to be included in a
radio programme but it is the complicated nature of prisons and
prisoners that I believe needs to be talked about more openly.
It is well documented that many, many people who end up in prison are
there because of poor choices and opportunities. Evidence also
suggests that many have been abused themselves, come from poverty,
have poor or negligible literacy, have addictions or mental health
problems. Prisoners become disenfranchised from mainstream society
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and the prison intervention removes them even more: they are literally
taken away from view. They become hidden, and their voices are buried.
When I was on my travels Pope Francis visited a jail in the States.
During an interview on American television the British religious pundit,
Paul Vallely, described prisoners as, “a constituency in the modern world
that is most neglected by us.” Yet it is a group which has a huge impact
on us, both financially and psychologically.
For these reasons, don’t we owe it to ourselves to understand prison life
better?
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NPR IN ENGLAND AND WALES
Before I start to go into my findings, it will be helpful if I describe how
National Prison Radio in England and Wales works. That way, how it
compares to what I’ve learnt on my travels, will be more apparent.
National Prison Radio, or NPR for short, is a world first. This year, 2016,
The Prison Radio Association, the charity behind it, will celebrate its
tenth anniversary.
Prisoners can hear NPR on their televisions, in their cells. It cannot be
heard on a normal radio. In fact, it cannot be heard outside prison at all.
This is critical to know when reading this report.
National Prison Radio must abide by strict editorial guidelines. It is a mix
of music and speech. It broadcasts 24 hours a day and it is made by
prisoners, for prisoners. The prisoners who present and produce
programmes are supported by a team of radio professionals, employed
by The Prison Radio Association, or PRA for short. Many of them have
BBC backgrounds. The main NPR studio is in HMP Brixton, but there is
also a hub in HMP Styal, a women’s prison.
At the time of writing, it is available in about 144 prisons, but that will
increase shortly.
It is self-funded, although it has recently received some modest help
from the National Offender Management Service (or NOMS for short).
That funding is by no means guaranteed and is reviewed on a yearly
basis.
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The overriding objective behind NPR is to reduce reoffending. The idea
is to get messages out via the radio in a relatable and appealing way.
Every year The Prison Radio Association collects data to measure the
success of the output and the most recent figures say 76% of prisoners
listen.
To give you some idea of the content, in the year and a half I was Head
of Prison Radio, professionally produced reports were commissioned
about education and employment opportunities, the dangers of legal
highs and the damaging impact of domestic violence. These
programmes were intended to help prisoners make informed choices
about their behaviour. On top of that, various organisations which work
in prison, such as The Reading Agency and The Phoenix Trust, regularly
commission programmes too. Also, relatives can send in music requests
via the PRA website, which means that prisoners can feel remembered
by people at home and stay connected. This connection is well-known to
help reduce reoffending after leaving prison. As a listener to NPR you
can access a lot of relevant information, but it can also help with feelings
of isolation too. Prisoner letters written to NPR make this point regularly
and consistently, and in fact NPR was set-up for precisely this reason: to
provide ‘an arm around the shoulder’ when there was a spate of suicides
at HMP Feltham. Finally, for those making the radio programmes, it
improves literary skills, organisational skills, presentation skills as well as
helping to instil a sense of confidence and well-being.
There is also a completely separate radio project called Radio Wanno at
HMP Wandsworth. NPR is not connected to this at all, but Radio Wanno
is a long-running and successful prison radio project which can only be
heard in HMP Wandsworth. As well as this, a handful of prisons offer
radio production courses, however due to strains on education budgets
and pressure on educational staff, it was noticeable during my time as
Head of Prison Radio that these were dwindling in number.
Although you can’t hear National Prison Radio on the public airwaves,
imagine if you could. If you were a victim, imagine if you heard the
person who harmed you on the radio. How would it make you feel? For
precisely this reason, The Ministry of Justice is very, very strict about
allowing any National Prison Radio audio, even a 15 second clip, to be
heard on the ‘outside’. They very rarely allow it to happen. The main
driver of this rule is to keep victims of crime safe and make sure their
pain is not increased.
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PEOPLE YOU DON’T NORMALLY HEAR ON THE RADIO
In the UK it is very rare indeed to hear an offender or ex-offender on the
radio, but every now and again a BBC Radio 4 documentary may get
access. For instance in March 2015, BBC Radio 4 broadcast Inside The
Sex Offenders’ Prison which did include offender voices. Some years
before that there was The Bishop and the Prisoner, also on BBC
Radio 4, where you heard serving prisoners being interviewed. But, as I
said, this is very rare indeed.
The people I met on my Winston Churchill Fellowship believed in giving
prisoners and ex-prisoners a voice, and felt there was much to be
gained both from the offender’s point of view, as well as the audience’s.
One place I went to was the state of Oregon on the west coast of
America, to see a radio programme called The Concertina Wire. It is
broadcast from a community radio station in Eugene, south of the city of
Portland, at the University there. It was set up four years ago by Lauren
Zavrel. Now she teaches prisoners at Clackamas County Jail, and very
unusually teaches groups made up of men and women. However, when
she first created The Concertina Wire, she taught creative writing to just
women offenders.
Lauren Zavrel, the creator of The Concertina Wire
“For me, the show was always, first and foremost, for my students:
the women in my writing class,” says Lauren. “Some had such great
writing skills and such compelling stories. It felt like keeping a cat in a
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box: it was just cruel not to have these stories shared. It would have
meant so much to the person writing them if they were aired and I
thought to myself: 'You deserve to have this shared. This can’t just stay
in your cell, under your pillow. It’s cruel to keep it there.' It felt like a
moral obligation for me to share this work with the world."
So The Concertina Wire was born.
“The idea was originally to get incarcerated and formerly incarcerated
women to write non-fiction memoir pieces, or something about their
hopes, or what they wanted to do when they got out, and to broadcast it,
so that the community could see them as humans. We used, with
permission, written pieces from Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in
Wilsonville and we read those out on the air. The response was really
positive and people were excited to hear this original content. Then we
started to use formerly incarcerated women talking ‘live’ on air, having a
discussion about who they were, their struggles and where they hope to
go from here. So it was powerful for the audience, but also powerful and
transformative for the women taking part.”
Without intending to, The Concertina Wire also seemed to provide
something that was missing for those who had just left prison: a support
network. Ex-prisoners connected with each other through the radio
programme, and it also kept them in touch with the pre-release
community if they wanted to.
“The programme attracted a ton of likes on the Facebook page and
it became a way for the ex-offender population to connect and feel
validated in their new life,” said Lauren.
The show has evolved since Lauren set it up four years ago. It is still
presented by the original host, Carrie Zumbrum, but Carrie does not use
the University studio as much anymore. Increasingly, she makes the
programme at home and publishes it on The Concertina Wire’s
Facebook page. Past episodes are available on SoundCloud. Now, it
has cleverly widened its brief to include interviews with people who have
never been in prison but feel ‘locked up’ because they have damaging
habits like self-harm or they are caught up in a negative situation, such
as being in an abusive relationship. Heavy stuff.
In Sweden, I visited some young offenders involved in a radio project
called Radio Fri. Teenage boys and girls contributed to a discussion
programme, where they shared their thoughts, opinions and experiences.
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Two professional radio producers helped with the actual recording, and
then took the audio away so they could edit it for broadcast.
I spoke to one 16 year old girl living in a young offenders’ institute. She
had been taking drugs since she was 13, as well as mixing with
criminals, running away from home and selling drugs. “I did very bad
things over 3 to 4 years,” she admitted.
So why get involved with Radio Fri? “I was a bit nervous at first about
radio because it’s new to me and I’m not used to it. The microphone
made me nervous, but it was fun. When I sing or play the piano for the
radio it makes me happy, calm and it gives me something to do in here. I
speak about music, poems, about my feelings, what’s happening in the
world, things we go through in life. I get the chance to express myself
and tell my story. By listening to me, people might recognise themselves
in me, relate to me, and not feel alone. If I tell my story people may say:
‘Hey! I’ve been through that, and I’m also in that place. I know what you
feel and I know what you’re thinking’.”
It was clear that it was important to her to share her story and feelings
because that way she felt she could explain herself, as well as be helpful
to others. That empowered her, and speaking on the radio was almost
therapeutic for her.
She went on to say, “We did a radio piece about ‘home’. One of us was
the interviewer, and others answered the questions. We spoke about
what home means. What is home for me? For you? Is it a house? Is it
friends? We talked about what makes you feel secure.”
Another teenage girl, who started inhaling lighter fluid at 10 years old
and had lived in 8 or 9 different places without her mother, wanted to get
involved in radio, but had not done so by the time I met her.
She said, “It’s important for us living here to speak out, and people need
to listen because I’m just as much of a human as anyone else is. People
say they understand me, but they’ve never had an addiction, so they
can’t really understand me. I think it’s important for people to understand
that drugs and criminality are big problems for teenagers.”
In almost perfect English, the boys echoed this and also said that their
radio pieces might help listeners understand them more and learn what
living in an institution was really like. They seemed to recognise how
prison had removed them from public view and radio was a method of
getting involved in society again. Moreover, one boy wanted to explain
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how “good” his fellow inmates were. I interpreted this as him wanting it to
be known what good friends they were to one another. Another teenager,
in for attempted murder, said he wanted to give more details about the
crime that brought him into care and explain his side of the story further.
The Radio Fri producers said this was impossible and it went against
their editorial guidelines. Making ‘prison radio’ is not a platform to appeal
against your conviction they said.
The way in which these prisoner narratives can be transformed into
consumable and sensitive broadcast material requires editorial steer.
Later in my report, there is a whole chapter dedicated to editorial issues.
A poster at the Young Offenders’ Institute for boys that I went to which is an
hour’s drive from outside Stockholm. It says: Respect, Thoughtfulness, Clarity
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JUICY STORIES
As a producer or journalist, you know when you’ve hit ‘radio gold’, as we
put it. It is when you hear that sound-bite, when you sense that emotion
or when you feel you have an exclusive. It can be a great sensation, but
it comes with responsibility. Sometimes you need to question why you’re
feeling it. Is it just sensationalism? Voyeurism even? Sometimes the
journalist has to consider whether you are doing the right thing by the
interviewee. Does he or she know the power of what they have just
said? Will it get them into trouble, make them vulnerable or put them at
risk?
There is no doubt that stories about crime and criminals can be powerful
and compelling but offenders and ex-offenders, especially if they’re
minors or teenagers, can be vulnerable too. And of course, so can the
victims. I dedicate a chapter to victims later in my report.
I wrote about Radio Fri in the previous chapter. It highlights this potential
conflict between drama and responsibility very well.
Radio Fri comes out of Stockholm. The hour-long programme, which is
broadcast on a community radio station on Friday afternoons, is made
up of conversations recorded by young offenders, most of them in their
teens. They are in-care and being looked after by the state because of
their crimes.
Radio Fri logo
In the second stage of production, the interviews are linked together by
presenters in their twenties who are free, but have a history of drugs and
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crime and are now being supported by an ex-offender charity. Radio Fri
is part of a bigger media production-house run by a not-for-profit
organisation called Fanzingo. Their office is in a suburb of Stockholm
called Alby. It is in a converted pigsty which was part of a larger farming
set-up once owned by the inventor and entrepreneur, Lars Magnus
Ericsson. It is now a classy, artistic and sophisticated outfit. Fanzingo is
committed to social justice issues and one of its main priorities is giving
marginalised groups the opportunity to create radio programmes.
Fanzingo’s founder, Samuel Sjoblom, explained to me why he set it up
and the delicate balance he treads when it comes to giving young
offenders a voice on the radio.
Samuel Sjoblom & Arash Dehvari from Radio Fri
"We give a voice to those groups who are unrepresented in the media.
We came up with the idea of working with people behind bars when we
were already making programmes with people with mental health
problems," says Samuel. "The purpose is to build a bridge between
this vulnerable group and the outside. The young people aren't in prison
as such, but they're still locked into these institutions and are taken care
of by society. It's important that we listen and understand these
stories told straight from the boys and girls, rather than them
being filtered through journalists."
Radio Fri know they are sitting on ‘radio gold’. When it launched three
years ago they were all over Swedish TV, radio and newspapers and the
coverage was entirely positive said Samuel. Since then, journalists have
picked-up on some of the personal testimonies broadcast by Radio Fri,
but never negatively. Samuel goes as far as describing the stories they
deal with as "juicy", with the potential of being "really good radio",
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especially if they could afford to put more production effort into the
finished product. But he vows never to "sell out" his young people. "It's
against our values to do that. The radio content we make could be very
high-profile, but is it in the interest of our young people to make a juicy
story? The answer is no."
Radio Fri has a duty of care to its young people so the editorial
guidelines they follow state that the teenagers must remain anonymous
and should not give out too much information that could identify
themselves, including details of their crime. There are also rules about
language and offensive content. Victim issues are a priority, and claims
and accusations about youth institutions cannot be aired.
And what about its audience?
"It's impossible to know how many people listen to us because the local
FM radio station we broadcast on doesn't have the money or tools to
collect data, but we know 1000 listeners pick us up on SoundCloud a
week. One very important audience group is the young offenders'
families who can listen to their sons and daughters and connect and
understand. That's another important bridge to build. But it's not
important to us to be commercially successful or have a large audience
at the moment," says Samuel. "If we can do that, and retain our editorial
values and keep the interests of young offenders at the centre of what
we do, then great, but we need to take it in small steps. Right now, we've
found a balance between being public, but not too public."
What impressed me about Samuel and his team was their dedication to
the young people they worked with. They could have had many scoops
or exclusives, possibly leading to media awards and trophies, but that
was not their priority. They remained true to their objective which was
giving marginalised groups an authentic voice, and not interfering with
what was said and how it was said, unless, of course, there were
compliance issues.
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“THIS SHOW IS FOR PRISONERS”
For programme-makers it is critical to know who your audience is. That
way, you can choose appropriate content and pitch your delivery more
effectively.
National Prison Radio in England and Wales knows exactly who its
audience is: serving prisoners. It also knows its core purpose, which is to
reduce reoffending.
One radio programme in Texas is the same. It is very clear about its
audience and its purpose. One of its volunteers, Dave Atwood, told me
straight. “This show is really for prisoners,” he said.
I went to Houston, Texas, to visit The Prison Show which is a live radio
show which goes out every Friday night on a community radio station
called KPFT. You can hear it at home on your normal radio, or on the
internet, and it is extremely popular with prisoners. The radio station
covers about an eighth of the state of Texas, and about 50 Texan jails
and prisons can hear it.
"Inmates are the most resourceful people,” says Hank Lamb, the main
presenter of the show. “If a guy's got a little, weak radio he'll rig an
antennae to it or hang a wire out the window or hang it up on the bars or
hold his arm up, just right, to listen."
Although it is impossible to tell how many people listen to the show,
letters to the programme give an impression. "We get letters from guys
in prison who have lost their privileges and had their radios taken away
and they tell us how badly they miss it," says Hank.
The show highlights criminal justice issues in general. The first hour has
a regular slot called Death Row News which gives the latest information
about executions and the death penalty, which the show forthrightly
opposes. In the second hour there are ‘shout-outs’. This is where friends,
family and supporters of prisoners can phone in and send their love and
best wishes even to prisoners on Death Row, which is officially called
The Polunsky Unit. Prisoners can only listen and can’t do a ‘shout-out’
back. Dave Atwood explained how the shout-outs work.
"You hear the voices of mothers, fathers and sometimes children
saying, 'Hello daddy! How ya doing? We hope to come up and visit you
next month but we're sending our love to you now'. You know, it
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humanises the whole thing. We have to realise that the people in prison
have made mistakes. Some people have done some pretty bad stuff and
we have to recognise that, but still they're human beings. We want to
work for their rehabilitation; we want them back in society. We want
them to be productive citizens. This show helps citizens understand that
prisoners are human beings too, with families."
The Prison Show, Houston, Texas. The phone-in area with producer, David
Collingsworth in the Stetson.
Everyone on the show is a volunteer and many are ex-offenders
themselves. The producer, David Collingsworth, is free but still on parole.
He looks tough on the outside, but when I asked him if he ever got a
‘shout-out’ when he was inside he became genuinely emotional. "No one
ever called in to give me a call-out. I'd lay up in my little bunk with my
headphones on and listen to all the people calling in to The Prison
Show and they became my family. It was really neat to hear them say to
other inmates: ‘We love you. We miss you. We won't be able to come to
see you, but just know that you're in our thoughts’. And I'd get all choked
up," he said.
"If your loved-ones care enough about you to call out on the
radio, telling you how much they love you, that's just awesome, man,
and I don't care how big and bad a convict you are: you're going sit there
and cry about it".
David was tearful when he talked to me about this. His honest response
made me very aware of how dependent a prisoner can be on family, and
20
how relationships can be heightened, intensified and also put under
enormous strain because of incarceration. The radio service seemed to
help soften the distance between family members.
David also regarded himself as a champion for prisoners, and he was
keen to fix problems they made him aware of through their letters or his
prison visits.
“We’re not making excuses for the crimes that have been committed,” he
said, “but we’re advocates. We’re stepping in the gap. Their punishment
is to be sentenced to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, not to
be punished when they’re in there, or to be beaten, raped or killed by the
heat or cold in the prisons.”
Having an advocate like David, a role he took upon himself, may help
prisoners and their families feel supported, less isolated and less
stigmatised. His radio programme has the potential to make them feel as
if somebody cares and is on their side.
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KEEPING THE SHOW ON THE ROAD
As Head of Prison Radio at the National Offender Management Service
(or NOMS for short) one of my most important tasks was making sure
that National Prison Radio stayed on the air, and nothing jeopardised its
survival. This meant that it needed to abide by strict NOMS editorial
guidelines. Just a few examples of those guidelines include: there
should never be anything offensive on the air, music-wise or speechwise; prisoners should only use their first names on air, and crime
should never, ever be glamorised.
Therefore, I asked every programme-maker that I met on my Winston
Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship about their editorial guidelines and
how they made sure their programme was never taken off-air.
In Houston in Texas, it was critical to David Collingsworth, the producer
of The Prison Show, that nothing damaged the relationship he had
successfully established with authority figures in law enforcement. David
was extremely proud of making those contacts and felt that he had
established trust with them. Even though the programme is independent,
editorially and financially, he needed them to come onto the show to talk
about treatment programmes, prison regime issues or to
answer questions about a particular criminal justice issue. Having a
smooth, mature and non-adversarial relationship between the show and
the powers-that-be was important to David from a personal point of view
too. To him, it was evidence that he had ‘moved on’ and had become
someone who could interact on an equal footing with people in
responsible and powerful positions
The Prison Show is ‘live’ and has a phone-in component, so part of
David’s role was to be alert to unpredictable and random editorial
problems.
David told me, that being an ex-offender, he was automatically tunedinto anything suspicious or criminal, and he kept his ears open for any
coded messages that might be passed via the radio show. "We have a
dump button. When families come on and don't talk about family-related
things we get them off the air. We had a guy come on talking about airconditioning one night. What's he doing?! We got him off the air. We
were suspicious. We're not here to tell inmates how to escape."
However, when I was there watching the show go out, one caller phoned
in with a ‘shout-out’, and was put straight on air, even though he was
22
speaking Spanish. I asked David whether he could understand. David
admitted he couldn’t. A potential problem then: how could David really
be sure that messages were not passed from the outside to the inside, if
he didn’t understand the language?
Another radio programme that deals with prison issues is Cross Roads,
which is on a community radio station in Washington DC. The station is
WPFW 89.3 FM and its tag line is ‘Jazz and Justice’. Its mission
statement says: “WPFW is dedicated to programming which reflects
progressive social change and democracy”. It also aims to: “contribute
to a lasting understanding between individuals of all nations, races,
creeds and colors, and to promote the full distribution of public
information.”
Both WPFW 89.3 and KPFT in Texas are part of The Pacifica
Foundation. This is a network of radio stations, founded in 1949 by two
pacifists. It is non-commercial, funded by listeners and is known for its
liberal and progressive political orientation. It works to a set of bylaws
and regulations and likes to broadcast content you would not find
anywhere else on the American airwaves.
Roach Brown is the presenter of Cross Roads. Now in his seventies, he
was given a life sentence in his twenties. He is a volunteer like everyone
else at the station. Like David Collingsworth in Texas, Roach relies
primarily on his life-experience and sixth-sense to deal with editorial
challenges. He strongly believes that he can pick-up on any issues.
.
Roach Brown, presenter of Cross Roads, a prison programme on a local radio
station in Washington DC. He's with his wife, Mertine.
23
Roach’s radio programme invites listeners to call in, including serving
prisoners. I suggested to him that he needed to keep sharp for anything
legally problematic or just strange and suspicious. “I use my ears to see,”
he reassured me, his way of saying that he was confident that he could
spot any problems.
As I watched the programme go out, I wondered how he made sure that
callers didn’t use his programme as a platform to publicly contest their
sentence or plead their innocence. To me, that was a real possibility
during the phone-in, because callers were put straight on-air without an
initial conversation or without a producer taking their number and calling
them back (which is what happens at the BBC). If a prisoner called in
wanting to contest their sentence, I could see three problems with them
being put straight on-air. Firstly, only his or her side of the story would be
heard. Secondly, there could be an impact on any victims listening.
Thirdly, and very simply, it would, more than likely, be a tedious listen.
“We’re not here to deal with individual cases on the air but we have
resources that we can plug callers into,” said Roach. “Actually, we want
to broadcast from prisons around here and speak to prisoners, but we’re
trying to work out the right format because most guys want to talk about
their individual cases and it’s hard to get them to look at another
perspective. If we broadcast from a prison, we don’t want to focus on
just a few cases and we don’t want to make it all maudlin.”
But Roach can’t afford to be naïve. Prisoners and ex-prisoners may want
to use him and his position as a radio-host for their own agenda. Many
may want to manipulate him or get him on-side for their own reasons. “I
run into that all the time, but I don’t want to be a part of it. I’m conscious
of game-playing. You learn how to read someone,” he said.
In contrast to Roach, who gave up his own time to present Cross Roads,
the producers at Radio Fri in Sweden were trained professionals and
employed as such. They had the expertise, tools and peer support to
identify editorial problems and deal with them appropriately. They had
also established a lot of trust with the authorities. They were able to
record with the teenager offenders because of the good relationship they
had built-up with probation services and the people in charge of the
young offenders’ institutes they visited, who continued to grant them
access and believed in the radio project.
However, when I was there, I witnessed a temptation by the teenagers
to use the opportunity of interacting with Radio Fri producers (as well as
24
visitors, like myself) to vent their annoyances and frustrations. For
instance, one teenage girl told me about a housemate who recently tried
to hang herself because she was being bullied by the more established
members of the house-block, and she confessed to being one of the
bullies. Although it sounds like a strong story, using that vignette on the
radio is editorially difficult, because airing it could incriminate her in a
way that she is unaware of, and if she listens back to it and reflects on it,
it could reinforce any negative feelings she may have about herself.
Also, if true, it reflects badly on the place she is being held and how it
operates, and would have serious legal consequences.
A second teenager told me that she wanted to get involved in radio to
talk about the corruption she believed happened at the place she was at.
These kinds of claims are described by Radio Fri staff as “trash talk” and
cannot be included for broadcast. One, they are unsubstantiated and
potentially libellous and two, this kind of “trash talk” could destroy the
relationship built up over years between Radio Fri and the authorities.
That in turn could risk Radio Fri's very existence. However if the Radio
Fri producers hear allegations like this, they encourage the girls to share
them with staff so they can investigate.
Meanwhile in Eugene, Oregon, the presenter of The Concertina Wire,
Carrie Zumbrum, who is an ex-offender herself, set out two programme
rules which she said helped her keep her show on-air.
Firstly, she has a parental advisory warning at the beginning of the show
because her programme deals with very heavy and potentially disturbing
material.
Secondly, she is adamant that her radio programme should never
glamourize crime. She, herself, doesn’t talk about her crimes and neither
do her contributors. Carrie’s story itself could be made into a blockbusting movie. She is an ex-offender, who made thousands and
thousands of dollars from internet fraud; she was a gang member; ran
an escort agency, and her son was recently murdered. However, when it
comes to her programme, she is clear that crime should never be
promoted.
“We don’t allow boasting. If you’re gonna boast, I don’t need you on my
show,” she said forcefully.
These kind of self-imposed rules provide helpful criteria for editorial and
programme control.
25
TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
The primary objective of National Prison Radio in England and Wales is
to reduce reoffending. For the prisoners who work as presenters or
producers, it is all about getting crucial skills that make them more
employable on release, such as knowing how to communicate effectively,
staying calm and organised, developing good literacy skills, meeting a
deadline and creating a product to a particular standard.
This is also part of the mission for Radio Fri, the radio programme I went
to in Sweden.
Radio Fri is an hour-long programme which goes out on a community
radio station in Stockholm. Two professional radio producers, Nadia Ben
Belgacem and Arash Dehvari, go to young offenders’ institutes to record
interviews and group discussions with teenagers. Then Nadia and Arash
edit the recordings and add some music to enhance them. The final
stage is writing the programme links with the two presenters.
Gabriel and Jasber present a Radio Fri show
When I was there watching the links being recorded, two young men in
their twenties were presenting. They were Gabriel and Jasber. Gabriel
had done it before but it was Jasber’s first time. There was a lot of
huffing and puffing, tripping over words and stalling in the
middle of sentences. Links had to be recorded several times before it
was ‘a wrap’, but they got there in the end with the guidance,
encouragement and patience of Nadia and Arash. Before recording,
Nadia and Arash wrote the script as all four of them listened back to the
teenagers’ interviews on sofas and armchairs.
26
The show is recorded at a place called Ex-Cons which is a drop-in
centre and all-round support centre for ex-offenders and people with
drug problems. (And just an ironic aside: Ex-Cons is in a
converted police station!)
Gabriel, who’s 24, had not been in prison he said, but he knew what it
felt like to be hemmed-in because his drug-taking and drug-dealing
meant he had been in a residential drug-treatment centre. Meanwhile,
Jasber was lucky to be at Ex-Cons in the first place, because only a few
days before I met him, he was in court charged with assault. He
was found not guilty, but he admitted with a knowing smile, that it was
only because he had a good lawyer. He was very honest about his
violence and his involvement in crime, currently, as well as in the past.
So why commit to making a weekly radio programme, putting yourself
through the stress of presenting and reading-out loud? Nadia and Arash
told me how they could see presenters grow and develop over time.
“The people who like presenting radio programmes, stay,” said Nadia
Ben Belgacem. “One person has been doing it for three years. He’s
totally fluent when he’s speaking now, and he really connects with the
audio. The people we work with are encouraged to reflect on the
material that we’ve recorded. That’s how they’re practising empathy. Our
big aim is to help people work better in a group, to practise empathy
skills and self-reflection, enhance their language and communication
skills, and strengthen their self-esteem. That last point is really big for us,
and that’s why we let everyone get involved. If we start to select people,
and not allow people to be involved, then we’re not helping with their
self-esteem.”
Gabriel and Jasber hoped they would become more employable through
the experience of making a radio programme, not necessarily in the
media industry, but more generally. Gabriel said that before Radio Fri he
was shy, but he is now able to talk in front of people and even give
presentations about Ex-Cons. “Everyone needs to challenge their fears,”
he said.
Radio Fri was very much in awe of National Prison Radio in England and
Wales, but the ventures are similar in two important ways. Both have
offenders and ex-offenders working with professional journalists or
programme makers, and both are using radio to develop critical skills
needed for the labour-market.
27
THE IMPACT ON VICTIMS
National Prison Radio in England and Wales cannot be heard outside
prison. That is to protect victims of crime and make sure their pain is not
increased. When I was Head of Prison Radio, even though I knew the
material could not be heard on the outside, I still found it very useful to
ask myself key questions whenever I reviewed audio for compliance and
appropriateness. I would ask myself: If this was ever heard on the
outside, what would be the impact? How would a victim feel if they heard
this interview, or heard this person on-air? How would it affect the
public’s trust in the judicial system?
Therefore, throughout my Fellowship, I was very sensitive to the victims’
point-of view. I wanted to see how issues around victims were managed
and perceived in different jurisdictions.
The Prison Show in Texas said they had never received a letter of
complaint from a victim, although they told me they would like to include
more victim-based stories and issues within the programme.
David Collingsworth, the producer, and himself an ex-offender and still
on parole, said, “We have to be cautious about the victims, and we’re
not making excuses for the crimes that have been committed. I need to
do a show about victims’ rights and victims’ advocacy. There’s a
rehabilitation programme called Bridges To Life. I did it when I was on
the inside and I really enjoyed it. What it tries to do, is show that the
victim and the offender are two sides of the same coin. Most offenders
will not reoffend when they get to know a victim. It doesn’t have to be
their victim, just any victim, so they realise the victim’s human too. They
may think: ‘Yeah, maybe I was out stealin’ and robbin’ but I shouldn’t
have done it to that person because this is how it affected them, this is
what they went through, and they may still be going through it.’ “
When I was visiting The Prison Show in Houston, there was a group
called Journey of Hope which was also passing through. They were all
victims of crimes. Many had been through the most horrendous
experiences and yet believed in the power of forgiveness. They were
also vehemently opposed to the death penalty. They were in Texas to
protest at the Pulounsky Unit, the official name of Death Row, where an
execution by lethal injection was due to be carried out.
28
I wanted to take the opportunity to ask them how they would feel if they
heard offenders and ex-offenders on the public airwaves. I thought that if
anyone was entitled to an opinion about that, then they were.
Marietta Jaeger-Lane's seven year old daughter was abducted and
murdered. Little Suzie was taken from her tent when the family was on
an idyllic camping trip in Montana. This was back in 1973. The
murderer could have been given the death sentence, but was spared it,
partly because of Marietta's wish that it should be overturned. "That man
was just as precious as my little girl", she said. Quite remarkable.
Marietta Jaeger Lane, whose daughter was murdered
When I meet Marietta I told her about National Prison Radio in England
and Wales and she was very impressed. Then I asked her to think about
the following scenario: "One day you come home, relax, switch on the
radio, and there's the person who caused you so much pain. He's talking
on the radio. How would you feel?" I asked.
"Well, I think it's really important for the health and healing of the victim's
family to know that an offender is a real-life person," said Marietta. “He’s
not just the terrible action that was committed but he's a whole person,
and there are other aspects of his life which are good and can be
developed."
If I’m honest, Marietta’s response felt rehearsed, but that is not so
surprising when you think of the many, many presentations she has
given about what she has endured and how she has coped. So I
pressed her a little more.
29
"You wouldn't be offended or hurt?" I asked.
"If I was to walk into the house and suddenly hear the voice of the man
who took my little girl on the radio, I would be grateful for the opportunity
to get to know that person."
"Really?"
"You know, forgiveness takes time,” said Marietta who, I am sure, was
responding to my astonishment at her calm and rational outlook, which
seemed super-human. “I think the more we know about the offender the
more understanding and compassionate we can be. A lot of offenders
are going to be released out into the community and I would much rather
know, via the radio, that they can read or write, or they've had anger
management and counselling classes so that they have a better chance
of being a good next-door neighbour, rather than one that you're terrified
off.
"I think a radio programme about criminal justice issues is a concrete
idea,” she said with force. “I mean, we're talking about real-life people.
It's important for us to know what kind of life prisoners are living, and
also to have a programme which tells us about the injustices in the
criminal system.
"Most people have a gut-level reaction to prisoners and are really
ignorant of prison life, and they need to hear about it. I always say: If you
think prison life is cushy, then go and sit in your bathroom, close the
door and stay there for a month and then see how much fun it is."
Marietta seemed to see the value of talking about what goes on in the
hidden and secretive world of prisons and also in hearing offenders onair. She felt it would inform and educate us on the outside, and with that
knowledge, we could respond appropriately when prisoners were
released.
I also spoke to Suezann Bosler from Florida. Her father was stabbed 24
times and died in her arms. She was stabbed 6 times and is lucky to be
alive. The man who committed this dreadful and violent crime had come
to their home looking for drug-money. Her father was a religious minister,
so the family was used to random strangers knocking on their door.
30
Like Marietta, Suezann was very impressed that England and Wales had
such a thing as National Prison Radio, and furthermore, she could see
the value in extending the idea and having a radio programme on the
public airwaves which featured offenders and ex-offenders and
addressed criminal justice issues generally.
"We need to educate people,” she said. “We need to start from ten
year olds. In fact, we need to reach ears even younger than that about
everything: the death penalty, the jail system, the justice system, the
police system, the deterrents, the racism, the cost. They need to know
all about it. And not just from movies. People need documentaries
and interviews with people who've come out of prison. And also with
prisoners' families so they can hear their suffering too. We need to hear
from the children of the people on Death Row and those in jail."
I wanted to ‘ground’ our conversation and get something real out of it, so
I asked Suezann for her advice: “If I was producing a prison radio
programme to be broadcast on the public airwaves would I need to
worry about offending you or not?"
Suezann Bosler, whose father was murdered
A stark question, but one that was always in the air when I was Head of
Prison Radio. Her reply reflected her Christian and social-justice standpoint.
31
"You don't have to worry about me or people like me at Journey of Hope.
It's people not like us that you need to worry about more."
A very shrewd point from Suezann, and one which forced me to
challenge my core belief around this project, which is: that a radio
programme on the public airwaves, dealing with criminal justice issues
and featuring the voice of offenders and ex-offenders, is a positive thing.
It may well be, and some may consider it very noble and much-needed,
but – if I am honest with myself - who would listen? Would it only be a
liberally-minded set, who are socially-conscious anyway? How would it
reach out to those who don’t want to see, hear or talk about prisons or
prisoners?
"At Journey Of Hope,” said Suezann, “we want things to be brought up,
even if people are uncomfortable about these kinds of criminal justice
issues. People are afraid of them but - doggone it - these things need to
come out. They need to be talked about, debated, and documented. As
my Dad used to say: whatever issue it is, learn both sides."
Suezann was strong in her belief about why these things had to be
talked about, and was able to summarize it neatly.
"It's about less violence, less child abuse, less reoffending and victims
being cared for," said Suezann.
It is important to recognise how exceptional Marietta and Suezann are.
Others in their group share their forgiveness and compassion, and the
way they all exhibit these qualities is remarkable, but many readers of
this report may say: but how representative are they of victims? It’s a
very good question. Of course, it is hard to say and all victims are
individuals who respond in their own way, but meeting Journey of Hope
made me wonder whether we underestimate the resilience of victims,
and in our desire to protect them, do we suppress their voice too?
Back in Oregon, I asked Carrie Zumbrum, the presenter of The
Concertina Wire, about the victim issue.
She can see it from both sides of the fence. She’s an ex-offender herself,
but she is also grieving for her son who was recently murdered. I asked
her how she would feel if she heard her son's murderer on the radio.
32
“I would be devastated,” said Carrie. “I would be, like: How does this guy
get time on the air to talk about this?"
Carrie Zumbrum, presenter of The Concertina Wire
"What if he wants to talk about how he's turning his life around, or
explain that he's getting educated in prison?" I asked Carrie, trying to
highlight the possible restorative nature of such an interview.
"That would still be pretty harsh,” Carrie said. “I understand your
question though: I’m putting myself in listeners’ shoes.”
To minimise the risk of offence, she told me that listeners are alerted to
who’s appearing on the show before tuning in. “For The Concertina Wire,
a week ahead of time, listeners know who's going to be on the show
through our Facebook page. But sometimes we do get repercussions
about some stories." Once they did an interview with a motorbike gang
made up of former criminals. One listener was offended, claiming they
had failed to change their ways despite what they said. The Concertina
Wire dealt with it by talking to that listener off-air about their concerns.
Carrie flags up very clearly the challenges of making a prison radio
programme like this, which is broadcast on the public airwaves. She
has offenders and ex-offenders on her radio programme because she
believes they should have a forum to speak. But as a mother,
still grieving for her murdered son, she knows what impact hearing
offenders and ex-offenders on the radio could have on victims of crime,
and on their friends and family.
33
WHO LISTENS AND WHY?
In order for a radio programme to have an impact, surely it needs an
audience. You can create the most informative and compelling radio
possible, but for it to make a difference, someone needs to switch-on or
tune-in.
So another question I kept asking myself is: Who would listen to a radio
programme about prison issues on the public airwaves?
Serving prisoners were loyal listeners to The Prison Show coming out of
Houston, Texas, and of course it appealed to their family and friends
who used it to send a ‘shout-out’. When I visited the show, phone calls
came through thick and fast and its Facebook page was very active too.
At Radio Fri in Stockholm, one of the professional producers, Nadia Ben
Belgacem, told me that she gets a sense of her audience from the letters
they get and their Facebook page.
“Some people write in because they recognise their own story through
what they’ve heard on air,” said Nadia. “Then there are relatives, friends
and parents who have written to us. They tell us they now know more
about their child, and feel they can communicate better with them. Then
we get those you don’t have a problem with criminality or drugs but they
want to know why kids end up like this. They tend to encourage us and
write: ‘Way To Go!’, ‘You did that really well’ or ‘That was an interesting
story’. And I try to communicate with the listeners too via Facebook and
by posting behind-the-scenes photos and short quotes. That makes
people write in more and that gives us a lot of energy.” I know from
experience that audience interaction and feedback generates more
stories and content, which generates more engagement.
The creator of The Concertina Wire in Eugene, Lauren Zavrel, knows
there’s an audience for the show mostly through Facebook and,
unfortunately, because of some complaints. Lauren is realistic about
who tunes-in. "Not everyone is going to be warm and fuzzy about a
show which is hosted by an ex-offender, includes ex-offenders and
has ex-offenders as a big part of its audience,” admitted Lauren.” You’re
going to have some backlash with a show like this.”
We return to the point that Suezann Bosler made in the previous chapter.
I suggested to Lauren that The Concertina Wire is not necessarily going
to appeal to a ‘lock ‘em up and throw away the key’ mind-set.
34
"People who listen to KWVA (the station that broadcasts The Concertina
Wire) are going to be more savvy to alternative media outlets. These
aren’t the same people who turn to Fox News, right?” said Lauren.
“I first proposed the show to another station,” said Lauren, “more
mainstream and with more listeners, called KLCC. It's the NPR (National
Public Radio in America) affiliate in Eugene, but they never returned my
calls. So of course it’s its own niche. We are reaching listeners who are
already interested in finding unique and varied programmes that you
can’t hear anywhere else."
Lauren passionately believes that a programme like hers serves a
function, especially in a society which has such a confused relationship
with custody issues. "People are curious. We really have this sort of
romantic relationship with prison-culture in our country. We also have a
very high incarceration rate and a lot of people’s loved ones are
incarcerated, but there are also a lot of people in the United States who
perceive the whole offender population as this big scary monster: these
horrible, violent people who we should lock up and throw away the key.
There are certainly people who belong behind bars, plenty who are
dangerous, lack morals and have no empathy with others, but in my
opinion, there’s a very large part of our incarcerated population who
don’t fit into that category."
I went to visit another show in Oregon called Prison Pipeline, which is
broadcast on a left-of-centre community radio station called KBOO. It is
a weekly show, covering anything to do with criminal justice issues. The
person who showed me around was called Amy Johnson, and she was
motivated to volunteer for the show because her brother is currently in
prison in New York State. She was very clear on the show’s objective.
“Most of all, we're trying to humanise people in prison, and the goal for
our collective is to change the justice system," she said.
Prison Pipeline is heard in nearby Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, a
women’s prison, and the men's prison which is Oregon State
Penitentiary. It can also be heard by anyone in the community listening
on their normal radio or via the web. It is this immediacy, as well as the
potential to catch people by surprise, which for Amy, is one of its
strengths.
"One nice thing about radio in the United States is that people are
driving in their cars and when they're listening to the radio
35
they stumble across some information or music they haven't heard
before,” Amy said.
Amy Johnson, whose brother is in prison
“Our show is on at a pretty prime driving time." She laughed
mischievously at that. "So I always feel there are some people tuning-in
who aren't necessarily expecting the information they're getting from us,
and then they're touched by what they hear."
Everyone I spoke to who is involved in this kind of programming, felt that
there is a need for the community to increase their understanding about
prisoners and what happens in prisons. In Washington DC, I went on a
bit of a tangent to explore this point further. I did so because I came
across a literacy project which was trying to build a bridge between
offenders and the community. This bridge-building objective lies at the
heart of my idea which is to create a regular, magazine-style radio
programme, ideally broadcast on the BBC (BBC Radio 4 or 5 LIVE for
example) about prison issues.
Another interesting thing I learnt in Washington DC is that the District of
Columbia, as well as Philadelphia, is starting to call ex-offenders by
another name. They are now being called “returning citizens”, and this
goes to the highest level. The Mayor’s Office in DC for example, even
has a department called The Mayor’s Office on Returning Citizen Affairs,
or ORCA for short. To me, this term is instructive because it implies
some kind of social contract between two very different groups:
offenders have to contribute and build trust when they come back into
society, whilst the community is obliged to accept them back.
36
In Washington DC there’s a not-for profit organisation called Free Minds
Book Club. One of their many initiatives is organising regular events
called WRITE NIGHTS. This is where poems and short pieces of prose
written by serving prisoners are critiqued by the community and then
sent back to the prisoners. Present at the events are always three or
four returning citizens who are there to integrate with everyone and tell
their story. The event I went to, which was held in a church hall, was
attended by about 50 people who gave up an evening after work to be
there.
What struck me about this event was that two very different groups were
coming together, and hopefully building those bridges I talked about and
increasing trust and understanding as a result. You could say that radio
programmes do that too.
I explored my idea of a radio programme, dealing with criminal justices
issues and featuring the voices of offenders and ex-offenders, with Tara
Libert, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Free Minds Book Club,
and previously a television news producer.
“What we’ve found through this project is there’s a huge need for the
community to understand,” she said. “They see the impact of crime and
are desperate for knowledge. They know there’s a problem but don’t
know what to do.
A WRITE NIGHT, where the community gives feedback on
prisoners' creative writing
37
“I would love to see it grow into a radio project. The benefits would be
immeasurable. And another point: we’ve had several victims come along
to our nights. Obviously they were on a search for some healing and
restorative justice. They hear the young men, the ex-offenders, and what
they are going through. They are not their perpetrators, but it helps them
get some peace.”
They listen to young, ex-offenders like Robert, who is 25 years old. He
was in prison for 8 years and although he is remorseful, he is not
regretful.
“I say I don’t regret it because, doing what I’ve done, a whole lot of good
came from it,” said Robert. “I had to go to prison for what I did but while I
was there I accomplished things. I started reading, which opened up my
mind to a whole lot of things. When I was there I got more grounded. I
got an education and some vocational training. It just opened my mind to
so many beautiful things like self-improvement.”
Ultimately Robert believes prison saved his life. If he had not gone to
prison, he thinks he would be dead by now because of the lifestyle he
was leading. Furthermore, prison helped him get an education and
change his mind-set. He was one of four ex-offenders (or returning
citizens) who were at the Write Night that I went to. He was very clear
about what he was able to offer his audience.
“The only thing I can give them is just to show them, that even though I
was in prison and broke the law, there’s still good in me, and there’s still
good in those young brothers whose poetry you’re reading. I know
prisoners are considered trash, or worthless, or that nothing good come
from them. But what I can say to people here, and what I can teach them
is: Look what’s in front of you right now. Forget about the statistics.
Forget about what the world-view is on prisoners or young, black males.
Look at what you have in front of you right now, and see how successful
we can be!”
How powerful it would be, to hear that on the radio.
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CONCLUSIONS
The testimonies within my report are powerful, compelling, thoughtprovoking but also complex. I hope they have drawn you in, but imagine
if you could hear these words. What would it add if you could hear
someone’s accent, their hesitancy, their vulnerability, their sense of
humour? Perhaps you could even judge how sincere they were. Radio
gives us something that even an actor reading out these words for
broadcast, couldn’t give.
Hearing the voice is more powerful, immediate and intimate. It allows
you to pick-up on emotion and feelings that are struggling to be
expressed. The voice has the power to grab your attention.
I am hopeful that there is an audience for this type of radio content,
particularly an audience which wants to be informed. I believe there is
room within our UK radio schedules for a regular programme strand
about prison issues which includes the voice of the offender or exoffender, as long as it is produced professionally, sensitively and without
sensationalism.
The most overwhelming conclusion from my research is that these kinds
of prison radio programmes really do try and humanise people behind
bars, or those who have just come out of prison, and they generally
succeed. They manage to go beyond the superficial, giving us (the
listener) something surprising and thought-provoking. From the
contributor’s point of view, it seems that prisoners and ex-prisoners who
take part in radio feel they are being heard, which can be empowering,
can increase their self-esteem, which in turn prepares them for release
and makes them more work-ready.
Many of the people involved in the programmes I visited were exoffenders themselves. I picked-up on a sense of ‘wanting to be useful’,
whether to people still inside prison or to the community they have
returned to. There was also a strong sense that these programmes
provided a support network, or ‘go-to’ place, for those who are now
released.
My Winston Churchill Fellowship showed me a wide variety of radio
content, from the amateurish but well-intentioned, to the highly-produced
and professional. I have witnessed programmes that seemed to have no
editorial guidelines at all (Prison Pipeline in Portland for instance didn’t
39
even have an editor due to its egalitarian stance) compared to others
with tight, professional guidelines such as Radio Fri.
All the radio programmes I visited, with the exception of the one in
Sweden, relied on volunteers. Many of them were motivated to give up
their free-time because family members or close friends were ‘inside’
and it gave them a way of staying close and supporting them. They also
tended to be left-of-centre in their politics, socially-conscious and some
held a strong, Christian faith.
However, there was a down-side to this. Due to the heavy reliance on
untrained volunteers most programmes I visited were not as editorially
rigorous as I am used to, and I noticed that they even found it hard to
identify risks. The most professional prison radio programme that I
visited, Radio Fri in Sweden, had qualified, experienced and salaried
staff supporting the offenders and ex-offenders they work with, providing
quality control and making sure guidelines were adhered to.
All the programmes I went to visit had a strong campaigning strand and
felt that it was an essential part of their brief to challenge and change the
criminal justice system, appeal against perceived injustices, fight for the
abolition of the death penalty and ‘give a voice to the voiceless’. This
stance put journalistic impartiality and objectivity at risk.
It was also very apparent how difficult it is to get the voices of serving
offenders on tape, partly because of security issues and the time it took
to get into a prison. Radio Fri managed to do this, but only with young
offenders, not with adult prisoners. The Concertina Wire and Prison
Pipeline made one-off programmes from prison, but because it was so
hard and time-consuming to do so, the vast majority of programmes
relied on ex-offender voices.
All the programmes were played-out on small, independently-funded
radio stations, which expressly wished to give a voice to more
marginalised groups in society. These stations did not seem to consider
it a risk to put offenders or ex-offenders on air or provide a platform for
prisoners’ families to reach out to them. Furthermore, they seemed to
carry on with very little backlash from the community.
However, despite this freedom, it was clear that even very small prison
radio programmes prefer to have good relationships with the wider
community, especially with the prison and probation authorities, rather
40
than adversarial ones. They know that this way, they have more chance
of surviving and flourishing.
41
RECOMMENDATIONS
I would like to recommend the following:
 My ultimate recommendation is to create a Radio 4, half-hour,
weekly, magazine-style programme about criminal justice issues
which adds depth to the subject area without being sensationalist.
This would complement regular legal programme strands such as
Law In Action and Unreliable Evidence. Like these two
programmes, mine would be broadcast in seasons (i.e. across
allotted weeks within a year’s schedule: not across 52 weeks of
the year).
 The BBC needs to work in partnership and collaboration with
experts to create this kind of specialist programme. Experts
involved should include:
1. experienced radio professionals who are knowledgeable about
compliance issues
2. radio professionals who have experience in working with
offenders and ex-offenders
3. ex-offenders who have experience of making radio in prison
 A working-party should be set up to discuss moving forward on this
idea, and creating a pilot. It should include individuals with
knowledge and creativity such as:
1. BBC commissioners and producers
2. Prison Radio Association
3. NOMS
4. Ministry of Justice Press Office
5. Criminal justice and victim charities
6. Academics and criminologists
 More generally speaking, I recommend that the BBC includes
more coverage about prisons and life inside prisons, and tries to
include more offender and ex-offender voices in its schedule.
 This coverage should extend beyond News, and producers should
be encouraged to incorporate the prison population in other
mainstream output. Examples could be: a prison related Poetry
Please, Book Club, Daily Service, even Farming Today on BBC
Radio 4.
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DISSEMINATION
I have made radio reports which have already been broadcast on BBC
Radio 4 and BBC World Service. The self-contained reports have
focused on single-issues and particularly compelling testimonies that I
recorded on my Winston Churchill Fellowship. They have been
broadcast on:





The Today Programme, BBC Radio 4
PM Programme, BBC Radio 4
Pick Of The Week, BBC Radio 4
From Our Own Correspondent, BBC Radio 4
Newshour, BBC World Service
I have written articles for:
 Ariel, the BBC’s internal magazine
 The Catholic Herald
These are my plans over the next three months:
 To write an article for The Prison Service Journal, co-authored with
Dr Victoria Knight, Senior Research Fellow at De Montfort
University
 Meet the Director of the BBC Proms, David Pickard, to explore the
possibility and appropriateness of the BBC collaborating with the
prisoners and ex-prisoners as part of its social corporate
responsibility work.
 To get more prison stories on BBC Radio 4 output including The
Today programme, PM and Law in Action.
 A presentation of this report hosted by NOMS, with a mix of invited
guests who have an interest in this area
 Build on my knowledge of prisons here and abroad so that I
become the “go to” person at the BBC when it comes to prisonrelated content.
 Continue to share information and contacts about prison issues
with colleagues at the BBC
 Be available to write more articles for any other interested
publications, such as Inside Time, the NUJ Magazine and The
Guardian.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to everyone who has supported, championed and
facilitated my Winston Churchill Fellowship. Thanks go to:
The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust
Prison Reform Trust
National Offender Management Service
Prison Radio Association
BBC Radio 4
The BBC's Mission and Values
Steve Urquhart, a WCMT Fellow
Radio Fri
Free Minds Book Club
Cross Roads on WPFW 89.3
The Prison Show on KPFT 90.1FM
Journey Of Hope
The Concertina Wire
Prison Pipeline
Clackamas County Jail, Oregon
Dr Victoria Knight
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