JUSTICE with prison philanthropist Edwina Grosvenor One Small Thing

In this episode we explore suspended sentences and what a presumption against short prison sentences really means. With the election this year, it is not clear which policies will be upheld if there is a change in Government, however recently Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk announced intentions to introduce a presumption against sentences of less than 12 months in England and Wales, in favour of these short sentences being suspended in the community.
 
Experts Dr Shona Minson and Dr. Cyrus Tata discuss the effectiveness of this policy in Scotland since it was introduced over a decade ago, finding little impact on reducing custody rates. They explore the proposed legislation in England and Wales, challenging assumptions around it’s suggested impact, and highlighting that without both clarity of vision and proper investment in community support, prison will often be used as the default.
 
We explore how vital community support services, such as women’s centres, are for women involved in the justice system, 66% of whom receive sentences of less that 12 months and would therefore have their sentences suspended under the new presumption.
 
Learn more about Dr Cyrus Tata https://www.strath.ac.uk/staff/tatacyrusprof/ and find them on Twitter @CyrusTata1
 
Learn more about Dr Shona Minson https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/people/shona-minson and find them on Twitter @ShonaMinson
Twitter - @OSTCharity
This podcast is created and produced by The London Podcast Company. 

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Introducing our new series of JUSTICE where we will be exploring community justice solutions for women. What are community justice solutions? And why are they important for women? For the first time, this series will be co-hosted by Edwina Grosvenor with One Small Thing’s Women’s Involvement Advisor Lilly Lewis.
 
Along with expert guests we’ll delve into different sentencing options, and initiatives aimed at keeping women in the community, as well as prevention and diversion. Importantly, we’ll be highlighting why it’s vital we stop sending women to prison unnecessarily, and focus on providing support within communities. 
 
Our JUSTICE podcast series exploring community justice solutions will be out this Summer. To keep up to date with all the latest episode releases subscribe to JUSTICE, and follow us on X @OSTCharity.

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In this week’s episode, we continue our exploration of transformational spaces by looking at an example of trauma informed design from further afield. Edwina speaks to Samantha Donnelly, an architect and lecturer at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. Samantha is also a PHD Candidate, her thesis focusing on how trauma informed design can benefit the experiences of women, children and staff in domestic abuse refuges.
 
Edwina and Samantha discuss how trauma informed design, and buildings can impact the lives of people who are in vulnerable situations. Samantha shares more about some of the issues she has encountered as an architect in designing spaces for women in refuge, as well as the design solutions she has found to supporting women to feel safe in their surroundings. 
 
Learn more about Samantha Donnelly’s work here: https://profiles.uts.edu.au/Samantha.Donnelly/about
Read more about the One Small Thing charity here.
Twitter - @OSTCharity
This podcast is created and produced by The London Podcast Company. 

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In this week's episode, Edwina speaks to Are Høidal, Senior Advisor for the Norwegian Correctional Service. Are has over 30 years’ experience of being a Governor in Norway’s prison system, first in Oslo Prison, and then in internationally renowned Halden Prison for 14 years. Are was heavily involved in the radical transformation of the Norwegian Prison Service in the 1990s, which led to the dramatic reduction in recidivism which now stands at a world leading 20%.
 
The changes in the 1990s saw the Norwegian prison service professionalise the frontline workforce and radically change their training. Another key element of this was designing prisons to be places of rehabilitation, and to simulate life outside of prison as far as possible. Halden Prison is a prime example of this. Designed to simulate a village, the architecture aims to minimise residents' sense of incarceration, avoid psychological pressures, conflicts, and interpersonal friction, whilst maintaining security.
 
In this episode Are shares his experience of working in Halden Prison, how the environment differed from Oslo prison, and whether he thinks Halden, despite the international praise it has received, can ever be considered a ‘healing space’. 
 
Are has written a book, ‘The Norwegian Prison System, Halden Prison and Beyond’. Learn more about his book here.
Read more about the One Small Thing charity here.
Twitter - @OSTCharity
This podcast is created and produced by The London Podcast Company. 

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In this episode Edwina explores prison design and architecture. Throughout history prisons have been places purposefully designed to be oppressive and punitive. However today, there is growing consensus that conditions inside prison should not be part of the punishment, and that if custody is appropriate at all, prisons should in fact be spaces that support change and growth. The question remains - can spaces designed to deprive people of their liberty ever be conducive to healing? And to what extent?
 
In this episode we explore these questions with Yvonne Jewkes, Professor of Criminology at the University of Bath. Yvonne’s research area is prison architecture and design, and she has consulted on prison design projects around the world. In this episode we explore Yvonne’s work designing the new women’s prison in Limerick, Ireland. Yvonne reflects on the process of working on this project, and the completed results, and speaks more broadly about the tension between designing prisons for women, and advocating for less women in prison.
 
Yvonne has written a personal and professional memoir, An Architecture of Hope: Reimagining the Prison, Restoring a House, Rebuilding Myself, which will be published by Scribe in Autumn 2024.
 
You can learn more about Limerick Prison here:
https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/limerick-womens-prison-an-architecture-of-hope
Follow Yvonne on Twitter @YvonneJewkes
Read more about the One Small Thing charity here.
Twitter - @OSTCharity
This podcast is created and produced by The London Podcast Company. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first episode of our Healing Spaces series, we discuss whether healing spaces within the justice system are possible, and if so, what this could look like. 
 
Edwina speaks with Lilly Lewis, One Small Thing’s Women’s Involvement Advisor about her experiences in the justice system and the importance of considering physical space when supporting women’s recovery from trauma.
 
In this episode we also meet those involved in the design of Hope Street, our pilot residential community for justice-involved women and their children. Dr Madeline Petrillo, Associate professor of Criminology from Greenwich University has been researching the co-production design process we used, and she is joined by Mike Worthington former director of Snug Architects and lead architect on Hope Street. They discuss what they have learnt about designing a space for women affected by the justice system that aims to be trauma informed. We also hear from one of the women involved in the consultation processes for Hope Street, and her impressions of the physical environment when she visited the final building at the opening event this year.
 
Read more about Hope Street: https://onesmallthing.org.uk/hopestreet
Learn more about Madeline’s work here: https://www.gre.ac.uk/people/rep/las/madeline-petrillo
Learn about Snug Architects: https://www.snugarchitects.co.uk/
Read more about the One Small Thing charity here.
Twitter - @OSTCharity
This podcast is created and produced by The London Podcast Company. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.