Some Green Shoots

This caught my eye and serves to remind me that with adequate staffing, insightful governance and the freedom and willingness to innovate, good things can happen and in some surprising places:-

Organic gardening helps inmates kick drug addiction

Physically and mentally, growing plants without chemicals has a transformative effect. Anyone who has spent time gardening knows the restorative effect it can have. There is something about dirt on one's hands, the pulling of weeds, and the creation of something beautiful and alive that draws people back, year after year.

So it's no wonder that gardening is being used to rehabilitate prison inmates battling drug addiction. One particular location, at HMP Rye Hill in England, has seen its Mandatory Drug Test failure rate go from 30 percent on average to zero in one year since implementing an organic gardening program. Food Tank reports on the program's stellar success, saying the HMP's horticultural program has

"improved self-esteem and self-control, better health and wellbeing, a shared community and improved communication among inmates who work toward a common goal, and behaviour changes inside and outside the prison."

There are numerous reasons for this, as outlined in a report commissioned by HMP. Gardening creates a space that is beautiful, peaceful, and conducive to reflection. It's a place where the inmates work at their own pace, with minimal presence of guards.

"Participants repeatedly write [in their diaries] about the pleasure, tranquillity and sense of freedom they feel as a result of working outdoors. Participants frequently reported feeling better for being outside and in touch with nature (even during the winter months)."

The physical activity involved in gardening leads to improved sleeping patterns, increased energy, and an overall sense of wellbeing, which translates to healthier lifestyle habits, such as quitting smoking and going to the gym more often. And as individuals struggling to free themselves from chemical dependencies, they value the philosophy behind organic cultivation.

The gardens give the inmates something to be proud of and to talk about when they meet family members. It builds a sense community within the inmates themselves, as all must work together for a common goal. Researchers reported seeing prisoners

"supporting each other in a myriad of ways, including supporting with specific tasks in the garden, making each other beverages, supporting with literacy and numeracy skills and also recognising when someone on the programme was having a difficult day offering emotional support."

HMP's sounds like a wonderful program that could be a model for many other prisons, mental health institutions, hospitals, schools, and other educational facilities around the world. It's living proof that we should never underestimate the power of the earth to heal, ground, and recalibrate us as humans.

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About Rye Hill

HMP Rye Hill is situated in the village of Willougby, near Rugby, in Warwickshire. A PFI prison which opened in 2001, it is a category “B” training prison, acting as a national resource for sentenced male adults who have been convicted of a current or previous sex offence(s). The capacity of the prison is 625.

The sentence requirement for HMP Rye Hill is for prisoners who have been sentenced to over four years and have at least 12 months left to serve. No more than 15% of the population must be in denial of their offence. The philosophy of our prisons is to rehabilitate offenders and equip them to re-integrate into mainstream society on release. We seek to normalise prison conditions as far as possible and reflect life in the outside community. Our aim is to create an environment in which staff and prisoners feel safe, and causes of prison stress are minimised.

Central to our philosophy is the relationship between staff and prisoners. Our training and operational practices emphasise the need to treat prisoners with dignity and respect. G4S staff build positive and supportive relationships with prisoners in their care. We create a constructive regime through provision of suitable education and work programmes. We actively encourage prisoners to address the causes of their offending. This is achieved by the provision of a range of Offending Behaviour Programmes, active sentence planning procedures and by providing appropriate employment and training opportunities.

We provide an environment which is modelled on the terms, conditions, practices and standards both offered and expected by industrial employers. We give prisoners real work experience which reflects the ethics required in business. G4S provides opportunities for prisoners to gain national vocational qualifications that assist prisoners to find work on their release.

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This from a G4S press statement 23rd October 2018:-

WHERE DEBATING MATTERS: BEYOND BARS AT HMP RYE HILL

Is space exploration a £15 billion benefit to the economy or a luxurious waste of time? This is just one of the topics that prisoners at HMP Rye Hill tackled at the inaugural Debating Matters ‘Beyond Bars’ competition. Debating Matters—described as the UK’s toughest debating competition—made its debut at HMP Rye Hill last month. In front of an audience of their fellow prisoners, the ‘Beyond Bars’ competition celebrates and rewards participants for constructive and well-thought out arguments, and the enthusiasm was palpable.

“When I started, I thought space exploration was great,” said Nick, a prisoner at HMP Rye Hill and participant in the competition. “But then I did some research and changed my opinion; now I think it is a waste of time and money. I know I can change your mind too.”

What is Debating Matters?

Debating Matters ‘Beyond Bars’ is an innovative and challenging debate competition aimed at engaging prisoners in rigorous and well researched public debate. It was launched by The Academy of Ideas in 2016 and aims to unlock the potential of inmates by promoting research, listening and communication skills, and encourages them to think about the world around them. It also promotes teamwork and “gives us (prisoners) the opportunity to see other people’s views,” according to Jason, another Debating Matters participant at Rye Hill. “It is proactive offender management,” he said. “It can help solve prison officer issues like violence because it helps us communicate in a more measured and useful way.”

Competition time

The competition followed a standard debating setup: teams of two face off on opposing sides of a statement—one in agreement and one against—where the winner is judged by whomever makes the most compelling argument. The teams at Rye Hill were put through their paces, facing tough subject matters including; accepting the risks of contact sports, filtering out fake news on social media and whether space exploration is a waste of time and money. The best two teams went through to the final to debate whether “monuments to controversial historical figures should remain.”

After the teams made their opening statements, the topics were opened to the audience—and it was obvious that they were prepared. During the debate, “space exploration is a waste of time and money,” the audience questioned everything from the impact that scaling back would have on employment, international relations and scientific research to whether the money saved from space exploration would be redirected to fund global issues, and the role of private companies in the future of space exploration.

“Debating Matters emphasises the importance of taking ideas seriously and presents a unique opportunity for prisoners to engage in creative problem-solving,” said Pete Small, Director of HMP Rye Hill. “It was great to see everyone get involved. I was impressed by all of the teams that participated in the competition; their dedication and enthusiasm just goes to show how important these kinds of events are.”

Three guest judges from all walks of life and professional backgrounds—including a senior lecturer, a writer and retired health professional—scrutinized and cross-examined the arguments. They praised the quality of the debates, the breadth and depth of knowledge, and teamwork that was displayed throughout the competition.

The grand final was a culmination of expectation and excitement, as the teams energetically commanded the debate; should we remove historical monuments because they are a physical rallying point for protests, or is it acceptable to effectively wipe out periods of history? Ultimately, the winners were crowned thanks to their “rigorous, ingenious and persuasive” argumentation.

Claire Fox, director of the Academy of Ideas, praised the quality and standard of the debates throughout the day. “It is the start of something,” she said. Jason and Nick agreed; they had already pitched several new topics for future debates to Pete Small earlier in the afternoon!

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This from the Independent in December 2015:-

Rye Hill: Inside the prison changing the landscape for serious sex offenders

Woodwork and painting, lettuce growing and landscape gardening. These are not the first things that spring to mind when imagining life inside a sex offenders’ jail, yet you’ll find them at HMP Rye Hill. Run by the private security firm G4S, the Category B training prison, just outside Rugby, was transformed 18 months ago from a mixed-population prison to one solely for serious sex offenders.

More than 90 per cent of the 623 inmates are serving sentences of at least 10 years. And around 65 per cent are guilty of sex offences against children. Its population is set to rise, given that sex offenders are the fastest-growing part of the British prison population. With space for just two more inmates as things stand, a planning application has been made to extend Rye Hill enabling it to cater for more than 1,000 inmates.

The Independent was given a guided tour the day before government inspectors publish a report on Rye Hill after the first unannounced inspection since its transformation in summer 2014.

Nick Hardwick, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, said it was “a positive inspection” and that Rye Hill had “some real strengths”, such as its activities centre, its gardening projects and its offender management. One area for improvement was health care. More than 100 prisoners are aged 60 or older – the oldest is 86 – and some are now suffering from dementia, diabetes or other age-related illnesses. Six prisoners are terminally ill.

Given the nature of their offences (perhaps it’s of little surprise that 60 per cent of prisoners receive no visits from family or friends), many people will question whether they deserve improved conditions. Yet that is not the view of staff here, led by Richard Stedman – who at 35 is the UK’s youngest governor.

“We are fundamentally about reducing risk,” he says, a theme he returns to throughout our tour. “With a much older prisoner profile, you see a much more passive population, physically, but it is a population who are much more sophisticated and much more able to manipulate to condition and groom other prisoners.

“They will also try their best to manipulate staff. So we have had to completely rethink the way we train and encourage our staff to engage with prisoners, because that literally changed overnight [with the prison’s transformation].

The inspectors said they were concerned the prison was not sufficiently alert to the risk of prisoner-on-prisoner sexual grooming, something Mr Stedman acknowledges.

“When someone comes out of a cell with a black eye, it’s very obvious that someone has been assaulted. [Grooming] is a much more hidden risk and those behaviours and issues become visible over weeks, months and years, so that comes back to the relationship that staff have with the prisoners – and they are much more able to know what signs to look for.”

Inside the activities centre, older inmates and those with mental health issues are finishing their three-hour morning session. “Some people just come down here for the social aspect,” says Clare Witt, head of activities, “because otherwise retired prisoners would just be locked in their cells all the time. We have just eight people who are retired and don’t attend any work or education and that’s their choice. It’s not enforced.”

The landscape garden, where higher-risk prisoners on the substance-misuse residential unit spend up to six hours a day, has been built from scratch by the prisoners themselves – taking them away from any problems they might have on their wing. Mr Stedman says: “The value and impact that the garden makes on some of our most complex prisoners is an absolutely critical element of what we do.”

About a third of the inmates are still in denial over their crimes, which is one of the reasons only 59 have completed Rye Hill’s sex offenders’ treatment programme this year. The aim next year is to have 96 complete it. Louise Sharpe, the programme’s clinical lead, said the one-year course is aimed at inmates with a higher intellect and looks at what has made someone offend. “We would look at their sexual interests, relationships problems, how they feel about themselves and their lifestyle.”

Prisoners often arrive at Rye Hill with no trust in authority and no trust in what staff are trying to do. Re-engaging and rehabilitation is a slow process but time is not an issue – few people ever leave prison. They either die here at Rye Hill or move to a Category C jail.

Mr Stedman says: “What we do in prison isn’t just about locking people up and security. You have to combine that element with the work that is about change and creating that environment where people can change. And that doesn’t happen overnight.”