{"id":7860,"date":"2021-05-27T10:14:13","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T10:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/?p=7860"},"modified":"2021-05-27T12:06:50","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T12:06:50","slug":"the-forgotten-part-of-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2021\/05\/27\/the-forgotten-part-of-society\/","title":{"rendered":"The Forgotten Part of Society"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reading graduate, Dr Sarah Lewis, believes there is so much more to people than their worst mistake \u2013 a belief that drives her work in prisons. Dr Lewis talks to CONNECTED about providing positive opportunities for prisoners and how they became the forgotten part of society during the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"As the Director of Penal Reform Solutions<\/a> \u2013 an organisation that specialises in promoting growth, positive psychology and transformation in prisons \u2013 Dr Lewis designs and delivers programmes that aim to develop and improve prison environments to achieve greater safety and well-being.<\/p>\n

Dr Lewis\u2019 passion for her work comes across clearly as she explains what motivates her: \u201cThere\u2019s something about seeing people in prison and the strength and potential they have that inspires me. I\u2019ve never experienced so much respect and kindness as I have in prisons. If you create a safe and positive environment, you can bring the best out in people.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cMy life mission is to promote and raise awareness of the goodness that still exists in these people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

CONNECTED talks to Dr Lewis about her journey \u2013 from a psychology student at Reading to a life-affirming career, the devastating impact COVID-19 has wreaked on prisoners, and her initiative which aims to drive greater collaboration with universities.<\/p>\n

A process of elimination<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Dr Lewis studied BSc Psychology<\/a> at the University of Reading and reveals that finding her true calling wasn\u2019t always plain sailing.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI worked really hard at Reading and had some amazing lecturers \u2013 the teaching quality was brilliant. I did three subjects in my first year and, to be honest, I pretty much failed psychology that year compared to my other two subjects, but I enjoyed it so much that I was determined to keep going with it.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cPsychology is all about how people think, and I knew from an early age that I wanted to work with people.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

“Aged 18, I worked in a psychiatry unit and got attacked so I ruled out a career in that area. I\u2019d always wanted to be a forensic pathologist but due to a hand disability I also had to rule this out.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter graduating from Reading I got a job in a prison but found it really tough, so I decided to do my PhD on therapeutic correctional relationships and lectured for a while at Portsmouth University. In 2004, I went to Norway and visited the prisons there and that was it; I figured out what I wanted to do.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIn a way, my career turned out to be a process of elimination until I had my epiphany in Norway, when I suddenly knew what I wanted to pursue.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cNorwegians talk about \u2018who do we want to be our neighbour \u2013 an active citizen who helps and supports, or someone who is institutionalised?\u2019 This really resonated with me; the majority of prisoners will come out one day and walk among us, so we should give them the best chance possible to focus on living meaningful lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Changing the conversation<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Since 2004, Dr Lewis has worked with and researched probation and prison environments, setting up her own company \u2013 Penal Reform Solutions \u2013 in 2016.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cOur mission is to reduce social harm and promote social good in a very inclusive manner.<\/p>\n

\n

“We aim to change the conversation about punishment and challenge the idea of a punitive system, looking at how we can pursue a positive way to transform people and add meaningfulness to their time in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dr Lewis\u2019 academic expertise is key to her work, but she insists that working with practitioners and those with a lived experience, including former and current prisoners, is the most important element.<\/p>\n

She explained: \u201cOne of our real success stories is a man named Kam \u2013 when I met him in prison he wanted to work in bricklaying, but it turned out that he secretly aspired to be a writer and director. We provided him with the opportunity to write a screenplay in prison and, now he\u2019s been released, he\u2019s going to university to study this.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so proud of all the people we work with in prison. Our programmes help prisoners to become strong people who are confident in terms of their goals. We continue to provide support once prisoners are released, and my phone is always on for that conversation.<\/p>\n

\n

“Progress looks different to each person, but they are all moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The hardest year<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Dr Lewis shares an insight into the impact of COVID-19 on prisoners, calling 2020 the hardest year prisoners have ever faced.<\/p>\n

She said:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cDuring the pandemic prisoners were locked up for 23 hours a day, they were only allowed showers every two weeks, they lost contact with their families and the outside world, they lost all employment opportunities, all temporary release and parole was cancelled, and there were no transfers in or out.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThese conditions massively impacted growth and progression. What became more challenging as the world started to unlock in the summer of 2020, is that prisons weren\u2019t able to move forward to match this. We received a lot of difficult letters and distressing, heartfelt phone calls from our team in prison who we couldn\u2019t work with during this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo try and do something to help we sent CDs into prisons with mindfulness recordings on them, and we sent activities in. We also tried to amplify the voices of the families who were unable to communicate with their loved ones, with no end in sight as there was no planned exit strategy for prisons.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked how she felt about government support for prisons during this difficult time, Dr Lewis revealed: \u201cThe government did very little in terms of instructions about prisoners. For example, pregnant women were told they would be released as a priority, but in reality only 12 were released.<\/p>\n

\n

“Generally speaking, prisoners were a forgotten part of our society during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cPrisons have done very well at preventing a high death rate and avoiding the worst outcome from the pandemic, but at the expense of completely locking prisoners up. And it\u2019s not over yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Widening engagement<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Despite all the challenges caused by the pandemic, Dr Lewis is eager to get back into prisons to continue her positive work. She is also proud to be working with universities, creating opportunities for both students and prisoners.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cWe currently have four university interns working with us and I hope to increase that to eight a year. We try to mix up the background of our interns a bit, for example we currently have a human geography student and a criminology student working with us.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe also work with universities on widening participation. We encourage and support prison leavers by educating them about the application process and offering advice during their higher education journey. Kam, who I mentioned earlier, has secured a university place and we couldn\u2019t be prouder.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe growth alliance is all about connecting people up, so if anyone wishes to support the projects we do, be a part of it, or just find out more information, please get in touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find out more<\/a> or get in touch<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading graduate, Dr Sarah Lewis, believes there is so much more to people than their worst mistake \u2013 a belief that drives her work in prisons. Dr Lewis talks to CONNECTED about providing positive opportunities for prisoners and how they became the forgotten part of society during the pandemic. As the Director of Penal Reform […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":170,"featured_media":7865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[54,85,34,41],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Forgotten Part of Society - Connected<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reading graduate, Dr Sarah Lewis, talks to CONNECTED about providing positive opportunities for prisoners and their experience during the pandemic.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2021\/05\/27\/the-forgotten-part-of-society\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Forgotten Part of Society - Connected\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reading graduate, Dr Sarah Lewis, talks to CONNECTED about providing positive opportunities for prisoners and their experience during the pandemic.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2021\/05\/27\/the-forgotten-part-of-society\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Connected\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-27T10:14:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-27T12:06:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2021\/05\/shutterstock_image-17.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"juliasmalley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"juliasmalley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2021\/05\/27\/the-forgotten-part-of-society\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2021\/05\/27\/the-forgotten-part-of-society\/\",\"name\":\"The Forgotten Part of Society - 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