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Sitting on the train, on his way home from school each day, my dad would always look up at Wormwood Scrubs, one of London’s most infamous prisons. Its high walls and foreboding front gates. He wondered about what went on inside and what the prisoners had done to end up in there. I suppose it served as an incentive for him to work hard at school?
Dad told me of two boys at his school. One called John who was very clever. He went to Oxford university, married a doctor and sent his son to Eton college, the most elite school in Britain. And one boy called Sean who was not so clever. Sean left school and ended up in prison for seven years.
Charities are most successful when they have a cause that people are keen to support. Dolphins, polar bears and pandas always do well. Similarly, sick children, famines and an array of life limiting illnesses like cancer.
But prisoners, not so much – the thinking being that prisoners made bad choices and they did bad things. So, they deserve to be punished and our money is better spent elsewhere.
And this might be valid but it is not very productive for society - not if we want nicer neighbourhoods and less crime. And it isn’t very generous either when we factor in the circumstances of many of the people who fill up our jails.
A child in an abusive home is a victim and is deserving of understanding and support. They need rescuing. But once they’ve committed crimes, they cease being a victim. Their poor start in life becomes irrelevant.
And this is a problem if we want prisons to be corrective facilities – with released men and women not reoffending, blighting their lives and everyone else’s.
This is why the Brothers Trust is proud to support a little known charity called Storybook Dads (SBDs) founded by a brave and forward thinking lady called Sharon Berry.
Sharon worked as an educator at Hannings Wood prison in South West England.
Education being the most obvious route to anyone’s success, the lack of numeracy and literacy skills of prisoners is a glaring issue and a fundamental disadvantage for prisoners. A factor of their often chaotic backgrounds and being from dysfunctional families - a cycle which is set to continue with their own incarceration.
Prisoners often grow up without male role models – and this means they lack the skills themselves to become successful dads. This cycle repeats and needs to be broken.
Sharon also observed that prisoners fared much better in prison when they maintained contact with their families and in particular with their children.
But such contact can be difficult. Prison visiting times are restrictive. Prisons are not always appropriate places to bring young children to and prisons can be many miles away.
So Sharon started the Story Book Dad’s charity, whereby the prisoners would read and record a story to be played as a bedtime story. Something so simple and which many children take for granted.
Self-esteem is a term we hear a lot about. It goes hand-in-hand with confidence - an essential ingredient of success. Basically, it is feeling good about yourself. Being proud of your output – which is hard to acquire for people languishing in prison with no output at all.
Where to start with listing the advantages that these recorded stories can create…
Self-esteem is an obvious place to begin.
Then the joy for the children who love to hear them and particularly being read by their dad who they can feel connected to and proud of.
The educational element that comes with being trained by Storybook Dads. The literacy skills in being helped to read and the computing and editing skills to create the recordings.
And success for society also – it is demonstrated that prisoners who maintain a connection with their children are 6 x less likely to reoffend. Less crime, less family breakdown and more likely to improve the life chances of children.
More Johns and less Sean’s stories – to use the example of my dad’s school mates.
One of the prisoners who Story Book dads helped was Alan Crickmore. Alan is an ex-solicitor who was sentenced for fraud and is not the stereotypical inmate. Highly educated and able, Alan embraced the opportunity provided by Story Book Dads. On his release, he continues to edit stories that are read and recorded by prisoners from all over the UK and is a spokesman for the charity and has even recorded a TED talk which I urge you to seek out. Needless to say, Alan has not reoffended and he states very firmly that his connection and support from with his wife and children was essential for him regaining his self-esteem and becoming a valued contributor to society.
Story Book Dads has a solid base at Hannings Wood prison and Dartmoor Prison, where it was founded. Here, their editing suite receives recordings from prisons all over the UK. Prisoners have become highly skilled at editing the stories for errors; adding sound effects for audio recordings and visual effects and pictures for videos.
The prisoners are paid a small but important wage by the prison and supplemented by Storybook Dads, as are the home-editors, men like Alan who continue to work for the charity after their release.
As well as the recordings, SBD’s has also branched in to other provisions for prisoners to forge bonds with their prisoners’ children: making Challenge Charts for kids, Calendars and Picture Frames.
In the 20 years that SBD’s has been going, its success has helped many thousands of prisoners and countless children. Of the 25 prisoners who’ve worked as home editors for SBD’s, only 1 has reoffended. A remarkable achievement and I wonder how many children’s lives have been advantaged by it. Kids who are often from highly disadvantaged backgrounds who we should all want to help.
This success has been noticed by the authorities. Governors from other prisons are hearing about SBD’s and its positive impact it is having and they are keen to establish similar programmes for their inmates.
Sharon’s ambition is for all prisons in the UK to have access to such facilities and this includes women prisons also and the mums who are separated from their kids.
Prison is a place we all have opinions about. Some of our favourite films are prison dramas: The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Midnight Express to name just a few.
But whether we like it or not, prisons are part of our complete society. We all want less crime and more successful and happy people and this cannot be accomplished if we ignore prisoners and their plight and the impact this will have on their families and a wider society.