First Impressions - Portraits from Prison is curated by prison arts charity the Koestler Trust, which encourages offenders to change their lives through taking part in the arts, and challenges negative preconceptions of what offenders are capable of. The Trust’s curation showcases a selection of portraiture and sculpture entered into the 2017 Koestler Awards from across the UK. The artwork displayed is selected to highlight the skills and talents of people in prisons and other secure settings.
The exhibition’s private view at St Martin-in-the-Fields will take place on Tuesday 8th May (18.30-20.30), presenting talks from prisons experts and audience questions to the panel. Rory Stewart MP, Minister of State for Prisons, and Juliet Lyon CBE, Chair of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody, will address the question 'Can Prisons Work - for offenders, for victims, for taxpayers?', alongside Professor Nick Hardwick (former Chief Inspector of Prisons and former Chair of the Parole Board), and Dame Anne Owens (former Chief Inspector of Prisons and Chair of Trustees for the Koestler Trust).
The event closely follows the publication of the Ministry of Justice’s quarterly report, which shows violence against prison staff and among inmates in England and Wales has reached record highs. Prisoner-on-prisoner assault rates increased by 11% from 2016 to 2017 (21,270 prisoner-on-prisoner assaults in the 12 months to December 2017), while assaults on staff in 2017 were up by 23% compared with the previous year (8,429 assaults on staff in 2017).
Professor Nick Hardwick, former Chief Inspector of Prisons and former Chair of the Parole Board said: “The issue of whether prison works needs to include whether it works for the most serious and high-risk offenders, and we should ask the question from the perspective of the victim as well as that of the prisoner.”
Juliet Lyon CBE, Chair of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody said: “The prison service is our least visible and most neglected public service. Prison can work as a place of last resort in the justice system for people whose offending is so serious or dangerous that they cannot serve their sentence in the community. Prison cannot, and does not, work as a capacious social service for people with unmet mental health needs, struggling with homelessness, debt, domestic violence or addiction.
“By overusing and overcrowding our prisons we do nothing to prevent the next victim.”
John Plummer, Coordinator of CTiW’s Prisons Mission said: “I am deeply ashamed of British prisons. A prison in which inmates are locked in a cell for 23 hours, day after day, is not contributing towards improved mental health, education, rehabilitation, restoration, or crime reduction.
“The Prisons Mission takes its learning from prisons back into churches to encourage informed discussion and drive progress: it's crucial that we share accurate information about life behind bars and the need for fundamental changes."
The Prisons Mission, an initiative of CTiW, provides support and assistance identified and needed by the multi-faith Chaplaincy Teams in prisons. It also aims to ensure that prisoners, while out of sight, are not out of mind.
The Koestler Trust is the UK’s best-known prison arts charity. It encourages ex-offenders to change their lives through taking part in the arts, and challenges negative preconceptions of what ex-offenders are capable of.
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