Introducing Jail Tales...
The nick, the slammer, the inside - there's loads of ways of talking about prison but we very rarely talk about what it's really like. What about real people? Looking beyond the media headlines, how does it actually affect your life and those around you? That's what the new Jail Tales project on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Three aims to answer through a series of online videos, animations and . And it's compelling stuff; with everything from left at home, to a glimpse of the police on patrol and an inspiring boxing club set up to give young people a choice.
But the most moving video for me is actor and rapper Ashley Walters' return to Feltham prison. Have a look at this....
Ashley Walters: Back for The First Time
Go to the Jail Tales homepage for loads more great videos and check back here soon for some exclusive content on the blog. Also there'll be a Jail Tales documentary coming soon to ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 1.
Dana Stevens is content producer for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Three online.
But the most moving video for me is actor and rapper Ashley Walters' return to Feltham prison. Have a look at this....
Ashley Walters: Back for The First Time
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Go to the Jail Tales homepage for loads more great videos and check back here soon for some exclusive content on the blog. Also there'll be a Jail Tales documentary coming soon to ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 1.
Dana Stevens is content producer for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Three online.
Comment number 1.
At 21st Mar 2010, Nina Champion wrote:Well done ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ three in setting up the thought provoking "jail tales" series. I saw Ashley Walters recently in the play "off the endz" and he is a real acting talent - and that is what I find so hard when I work with prisoners and young offenders - there is such a huge amount of undiscovered talent in our prisons and YOI's which is just being wasted.
Prison can occasionally unlock this talent - be it for art, poetry, drama etc by the fantastic role of some good education departments and charitable arts organisations such as The Koestler Trust and Only Connect - but many prisoners are banged up for 23 hours a day or regularly moved from prison to prison so don't get this chance.
For those that do discover a talent, they often lack the support after leaving prison to make the most of this new found skill or passion to turn their lives around.
Ashley Walters has succeeded and is a great role model - but we all need to take responsibility for putting pressure on government to make this the norm and, even better, to provide sufficient opportunities to unlock those talents early in vulnerable young peoples lives, to prevent them being locked up later in life.
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Comment number 2.
At 6th Apr 2010, me wrote:Really i do have sympathy for your under publicised early life
BUT dont you think for one moment
if some under talented media student was not using you to keep there mediocre career afloat
you would be back in the cesspit that spurned you and you would be no different than the 1,000,000
other s you have cheerfully left behind you as you embark an you'r mercifully short-lived career as a
**
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Comment number 3.
At 6th Apr 2010, mieke vrijhof wrote:Good stuff! Regrettably Trail-Blazers, the mentoring charity that started in Feltham in 1998 and was the first charity working with young offenders inside prisons and through the gate in the community after release, has not been mentioned in any of the clips seen so far or mentioned in the Help and Advice section.
Now working in a number of YOIs in the UK the charity achieves a re-offending rate of only 9% in young men who have taken part in the mentoring programme. Compared to the 70+ % quoted by the government during the same first 2 years after release this needs to be acknowledged as a huge success for a small charity and a fantastic achievement for the young men who signed up for mentoring!
For more information, visit www.trail-blazers.org.uk
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