Yesterday I Went To Prison!

It was a bright sunny Wednesday morning when I arrived at HMP Moorland, it felt very strange putting my bag in the boot of my car with my phone, watch, contents of my coat pockets, belt from my trousers, the only thing in my possession was my passport and car key as I walked towards the main entrance.

Laura, based in Aircon Groups Yorkshire branch, who co-ordinates the maintenance of air conditioning and refrigeration in over seventy prisons was there to meet me.

We stood in the queue waiting our turn, handed over our ID, signed a form to say we didn't have anything from the list of items in our possession, smiled at the camera and then collected our lanyards waiting for the holding area door to open.

Laura admitted she was really nervous and not sure what to expect but I was strangely excited to see what was behind the high brick walls and enormous wire fence.

We were escorted in a group to the first meeting point, the non-denominational church, on approach the corridor walls were painted with religious emblems in a variety of bright colours, and upon entering through gates and heavy doors that had to be unlocked and then locked behind us we approached a table where we could help ourselves to tea or coffee. Blue plastic cups, large, thick, white plastic spoons to stir in the powdered milk and plates of biscuits on blue plastic plates, which we later found out were all made on site.

Staff from other prisons were mingling amongst representatives from Make UK and people from industry, like us intrigued as to how a Prison could be transformed into a manufacturing site offering inmates employment and training whilst in Prison.

The Governor introduced herself and spoke to the group about the Prison and what she was trying to achieve with the support of her team:

"The Judge administers the punishment! We offer hope"

There are so many negative connotations about a person going to Prison, we all make assumptions wrongly or rightly and we all have a belief about what Prison is, probably influenced by our parents and grandparents, but really do Prison's offer hope?

YES, YES, YES they do! Our tour continued, Laura went in one direction with her group, I went in the other with mine, we went to the Tailors first, a large warehouse space with cutting machines, large fabric roles on frames, rows of sewing machines and men busy at work, some making men's sweater, some women's sweaters, others stitching the edges of blankets. This workplace is teaching tailoring skills on a mammoth scale, fulfilling orders for the prison service, making dog beds for an animal charity and using donated fabrics to create Christmas Stockings which are sold and the funds donated to the British Heart Foundation.

Next we went to the injection moulding plant where not a scrap of plastic is wasted, today they were fulfilling orders for the prison service, tomorrow they would be fulfilling orders for a business who have given them a contract and when they get time the tutor is helping a group of inmates create the pattern for a pair of sliders, he explained, "we can make anything, the lads are really hardworking and they want to have a go and try new things" It was a hive of activity with four machines on the go.

Walking through the yard we saw the bales of cardboard, cubes of crushed cans, pallets of sorted plastics and as we walked in to the warehouse inmates were sorting and separating waste, mop heads were hung to dry, and inmates were brushing the floor to keep the area tidy at all times. A man in a grey sweater came over to speak to us, he said before he went to prison he used to run a recruitment company, he was passionate about running this waste plant not because of what good they were doing for the environment and how they were saving the Prison Service hundreds of thousands of pounds but because he could help people. Admittedly the waste plant attracts the least qualified inmates, more often unable to read, write or speak English so he watched them at work and then started to give them half days to study, he would help them identify courses that will help them on the outside, ESOL, English, Maths as a start but he was also very confident that every single person who works in his waste plant could get a job on the outside working in this industry.

And, that was the whole point of this day, to see how Prison's can work with industry, they have a bricklaying school and take prisoners out on licence to work on building sites, businesses sponsor areas where there goods are produced, the RNIB have books translated into braille by inmates who have passed the relevant qualification whilst in HMP Moorlands, they have a marketing suite, signwriting studio, a PAT Testing workshop, a TV studio from where they run an internal TV channel, gardens and greenhouses cultivating vegetables for the prison kitchens, the list goes on...

On returning to the room where we started the tour I saw Laura, "still nervous?" no she replied and proceeded to tell me about the questions she had asked the inmates and what impressed her the most - Inspirational, YES!

Does the Prison offer Hope? YES! I was lucky to have the resettlement manager in my group, since the workshops opened they have managed to go from 6% of prisoners leaving with a job and a place to live to 96%. That is some achievement.

If you are interested in outsourcing work to the Prison Service please get in touch and I'll introduce you to this amazing team, if you would like to go on a tour contact Make UK and if you can offer a job to an ex-offender you will be enabling them to use their skills, keeping them off the streets, enabling them to earn a wage, have a bank account and support their family...