A working partnership

19May10

Today we headed up to Stirling to visit Cornton Vale prison. This was our first visit to the prison where we will be leading our residency in June.

Having had the opportunity to visit two prisons, HMP Perth and HMP Polmont Young Offenders Institute, this prison has a very different layout, and we received a really warm welcome from the staff.

Having done some research already as to what Cornton Vale was like, it was great to get inside and see what it was really like, or at least see as much as we could. The layout of the prison is a lot more open. The women stay in ‘houses’, small building that resemble low level council flats. These are built amongst lots of greenery and there is space around all of them. The windows have view of the green, there is no wall, but a fence instead which you can see through the top sections. The officer informed us that the women are house with seven rooms to a single kitchen, so there is a level of independence. Although they are housed like this and this sounds pretty good, the actualities of it are somewhat different. From the way that it is described, you would imagine that the women could roam freely around their house, but there are still elements of control in place, the doors are locked, they request permission to leave, their food is served up from a central location etc. The ‘normal’ expectations of a prison I guess.

I did not know what to expect meeting the education department, but we prepared with a list of questions we wanted to ask. Walking into the prison, it felt organised, we were issued with badges which has been arranged with our names on. It may sound daft, but it good to walk in feeling welcomed and feeling as though the prison was well prepared for us, it gives off a really positive first impression.

We were escorted to the education block, walking outdoors amongst the houses and one of the senior wardens who was leading the group was asking questions of our experience of prison and informing us about this prison. After having a brief chat with the lady in charge of education, Kaye,  with the senior warden, Kate and Bryan, Kaye felt that it would be important to have the officer responsible for welfare and addiction in on the conversation about who would be recruited for the project and what the project would be.

We took in an idea for a stimulus so that we had something to discuss and work with. We wanted to work with the idea of Memory and Communication, and after discussions with the team, we are expanding this to include Change. The important thing for us in taking a frame in is that it is open for the group, and open enough for us to work with and adapt to the group’s needs. We also wanted to take in something that the prison could latch on to, that felt as though it could link in to any issues they wanted us to deal with, whilst also making sure that we knew that we would want to facilitate something in that region. It didn’t become a compromise, it became a partnership, each side bringing their own expertise and knowledge.

It was great to go into a context and be trusted in role as an expert, appreciated,  yet they also understood that we were on a learning journey and wanted to support us too. What was really interesting from the conversations around the table was that I felt as though I could discuss the terms of the project, what it will be, what it won’t be, and how we will go about things. The staff spoke of how they have had psychologists work as part of a process before alongside a company(I think it was their work with Geese) and how there was a concern for what happens to the women after, and how these conversations can open up areas that are difficult for the women. I spoke about the roles of psychodrama, acknowledging from only research and a lab, and how we understand the processes of that as opposed to investigative performance making, and how we would work with light and shade in terms of memory, seeking for what they aim to achieve alongside potentially difficult subject matter. We want to make the group feel hopeful amongst it all. We do not want to be irresponsible as the prison need to allow us to be in position of trust that they are granting us.

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