Tom Eberhardt has 26 years' experience working in different prisons in Norway, from being a prison officer to a governor and working within other management positions within the Norwegian Correctional Service. He was the governor of Bastøy Prison for six years until 2020. Bastøy prison is a low-security prison on Bastøy Island around 75km away from Oslo. The prison houses people who are sentenced for things such as murder and rape, among other things. Tom speaks about what sets Bastøy prison apa...
May 24, 2022•32 min•Ep. 13
Eddie has spent a total of 20 years in prisons in England for different offences but hasn’t committed a crime in over 16 years now. Eddie now does work in some prisons in England. In this episode he speaks about the impact of the new psychoactive substances (NPS) in prison known as Spice, the importance of utilising people with lived experience in prisons and the importance of education in prison. Eddie shares about how he feels education is not as readily available as it was when he was inside ...
May 10, 2022•47 min•Ep. 12
Paul Boggie had a heroin addiction for seven years and managed to overcome this addiction almost eighteen years ago. He went on to work for the Scots Guard and protect the Queen. Paul now goes into prisons and educates people in prison and prison officers about addiction and mental health. He speaks about his addiction, his work in prison and about the book he published in 2020 called Heroin to Hero. He also created an audio version of the book which was recorded by people in prison and prison o...
Apr 26, 2022•50 min•Ep. 11
Naman Jawaid spent time in prison in England for fraud which he tells us stems from a gambling addiction he developed. Naman speaks about his experience of prison and his difficulty of accessing help for his addiction in prison, leading us to discuss prison meeting two of its main aims of deterrence and rehabilitation. He also speaks about the people he met and how even though a person might have done a horrific thing they can still be good people, causing us to think about the harm of labelling...
Apr 12, 2022•51 min•Ep. 10
Arne Nilsen is a psychotherapist in Norway. He spent time working at Bastøy Prison as a psychotherapist and as a governor. He also has experience of working as an international advisor to prison services in different countries. Today he speaks about his time working at Bastøy and about the importance of respect and responsibility for people in prison. He discusses the 12 step change wheel he has developed for how we can transform prisons from static security to dynamic places of change and growt...
Mar 29, 2022•37 min•Ep. 9
Halden prison has been featured in the media as the world’s most humane prison. Are is the governor of Halden and Tonje is the training supervisor, responsible for supporting new recruits throughout their training. They discuss the work that is happening in Halden and how it differs from some other prisons in Norway. They speak about the impact for both people in prison and prison staff of more humane prison conditions. They also discuss prison officer training in Norway and how this has evolved...
Mar 15, 2022•46 min•Ep. 8
Fritzi is a prison reform activist in the USA and founder of Compassion Prison Project (CPP). CPP's mission is to transform prisons in the USA and internationally into places of healing and education, so that the most traumatised people in our society can be cared for and supported. This is done through projects with incarcerated individuals and prison staff around adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma-informed practice. At least 98% of incarcerated people have at least one ACE and oft...
Mar 01, 2022•46 min•Ep. 7
Brian spent his entire career working in corrections in Missouri, USA. He speaks about what sets a treatment facility apart from other prisons and explains how the therapeutic community model works. Brian discusses how this type of facility can really help transform the lives of incarcerated individuals with addictions. Particularly when previously incarcerated individuals who were on the programme in Ozark, come back and actually teach the programme to people currently in prison. This can help ...
Feb 15, 2022•52 min•Ep. 6
Dr David Honeywell is an academic and an author. He has also spent a number of years in and out of prison. David said that access to education and looking inwards helped him address his offending behaviour, rather than prison itself. He speaks about how desisting from crime isn’t a linear path and he feels it’s an ongoing journey of policing himself to ensure he continues to desist from crime. David shares his story in the hope of inspiring others to see that even when you’re at rock bottom and ...
Feb 01, 2022•52 min•Ep. 5
Rick's experience of the criminal justice system spans four decades and he is a recognised leader in prison reform. He was appointed Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections in 2013, after his predecessor was assassinated by an individual who was released into the community directly from solitary confinement. Many reforms around the use of solitary confinement occurred during Rick's tenure, after he spent time in solitary confinement himself. In this episode he speaks about t...
Jan 18, 2022•46 min•Ep. 4
Dr Lukas Carey spent one year in prison for commissions he received while working for local government in Victoria, Australia. He is also a teacher, coach and academic. Lukas talks about the difficulties experienced before, during and after imprisonment. He also talks about the struggles people with convictions face when trying to obtain employment post release from prison, regardless of how experienced they are in the field they're applying to. As employment is considered to be one of the thing...
Jan 04, 2022•55 min•Ep. 3
John Reed seeks to reduce loneliness and social isolation in prisons in England by holding poetry workshops, telling stories through music or simply having conversations. John didn't know much about prisons until he started working in them several years ago. He feels that if he had the knowledge he has about prisons now, when he was young, his number one career choice would have been to be a prison officer. In this episode he shares a poem written by a person in prison, talks about IPP sentences...
Dec 14, 2021•47 min•Ep. 2
Brian Koehn has 28 years' experience working in corrections in the United States. For 14 of these years he worked as a warden overseeing entire prison establishments. Brian founded Social Profit Corrections this year with a vision to transform American prisons into places of reform, rather than punishment. Today we talk about the root cause of the challenges in corrections in America and how Brian believes we can change this to improve the system for the people who live and work there. Instagram...
Nov 23, 2021•50 min•Ep. 1
Listen to this short introduction about why I decided to create this podcast and what you can expect from it.
Nov 22, 2021•57 sec
