The partnership consisted of one university, one community group, one NGO dealing with training for unemployed people, one school for prisoners, and four prisons. The countries involved were Ireland, Norway, Romania, Italy, Spain and Portugal. The participants brought a skill base and experience to the project which was multi faceted. The experience included those of teachers,teaching in and outside prisons at second and third level, being a prisoner and also an ex prisoner, being a senior administrator in prison and in university, being a Public Representative and psychologists. The group undertook workshops with themselves and prisoners in music, art and cooking and tracked the effect such activities have on self esteem. The group examined practice in each country. The conditions and education pertaining to each type of incarceration were examined i.e. short term imprisonment, long term imprisonment, open prisons, closed prisons, maximum security prisons, mother and child units. The method of research used workshops and seminars and in specific cases used the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenburg, 1965).
Romania
The mobility to Romania was undertaken during the period 2 to 6 November, 2009. We visited Ploiesti Penitentiary and examined key aspects of the relationship between civil society and the prison. Here the authorites had developed contacts with the business world and with the inmates of other prisons. This dialogue was organised by the prisons psychology department. It had resulted in raising consciousness among the male prisoners of their responsibilities towards their future partners. This was a system where the prisoners were offered unpaid training in local firms.
We engaged in courses taught by the prison staff to prisoners in a community context both inside and outside the prison. During the second day, a seminar was held on education, sports, arts and culture activities in the prison. During the third day a questionnaire was developed, and answered by the participants, regarding self-esteem. We planned the timeframe for future mobilities. An art workshop was conducted by Brian Maguire with the prisoners the following year during 15th to 19th March 2011. This workshop consisted of a number of paintings made by a group of prisoners under the direction of the teacher and was followed by a visit to the city Art Gallery which was showing Art made by Romanian Prisoners. The participants completed the test with the Rosenburg Self esteem Scale. The third day was spent visiting an open prison on the outskirts of the city and conducting a tutorial with the one prisoner who spent his time making paintings.
Portugal
The Co ordinator held a workshop from the 12th January to the 14th January 2010 with the Portugal Partner to determine the methodology. During the workshop with the teaching and psychology staff of the prison the various activities in work were identified and a method of dealing with the needs of the partnership with reference to art workshops. It was agreed that the prisoners would perform a concert in contemporary music written by themselves. From 23 to 26 March 2010, all partners visited two closed prisons (Caxias and Pinheiro da Cruz). We participated in a music performance as an audience and engage in dialogue with the prisoner performers after the concert. These musicians were a self educated group facilitated by two members of the teaching staff. This form of peer learning is seen by the partners as an example of best practice. We examined aspects of cultural educational and work activities in both prisons. We agreed to use Rosenberg Sc method of testing self-esteem after much consideration in a worksop. We applied the test to ourselves in the first action using the test.
Norway
The Norwegian mobility was held 7 to 11 June 2010. We visited Verdal open prison where we examined their operation of Restorative Justice. This is an open prison with under 100 inmates at any time. The length of sentence is mostly 40 days or less though a few serve 3 months. The atmosphere is very relaxed with open gates. The work which prisoners do is wood based and involves working with making pallets and also more crafted objects including a number of jacussis. We also looked at the outdoor work which staff of the school do with the inmates. We visited the 2nd level Furuskogen prison school located outside the prison where 3 offenders participated in a culinary workshop presented by the Italian partners which was scored with the test. The school is attended by prisoners who travel from the prison on public transport to and from the school. The work of the school is very student centered and it has developed a short course based on self portrait and autobiography which allows intervention in terms of a students needs just prior to release. These short courses are considered by the partners as best practice.We examined key aspects of the interdisciplinary approach used by the Norwegian authorities i.e. schools, parole boards, mediation boards and prisons. There was a full presentation by the Parole staff. We conducted a mid-term review of the mobility program. One item should be mentioned that the local Electricity Company generously sponsored some of our activities.
Spain
The mobility to Valencia, Spain was held between the 7th and the 11th of March 2011. We visited Piccasent Prison, where we had the opportunity to work as teachers. We participated in a seminar, "Building self-esteem in prison. Is it possible?" This seminar showed trends of increasing and decreasing prison population in Europe. The UK and Spain have the highest number of prisoners on a pro rata basis. We attended a lecture on the prison's rehabilitation programmes with Spanish statistics in the European context. We saw the extensive way the prison was using local craft ceramics to educate and decorate. We visited the mother&child unit and spoke with a number of inmates who have their children with them until it is time for the child to attend school. The atmosphere in this section of the prison was particularly bright, with very positive relationships between the inmates and the staff. We attended a theatre performance with a mixed gender audience of offenders. This aspect of the prison was interesting in that it was the only unit which allows some mixing between men and women prisoners. The Chief Governer of the prison hosted meetings and a lunch for all the partners.
Italy
From 4 to 8 October 2010 a mobility was held in Sciacca, Sicily, Italy. We met multicultural Italy, with an introduction to the Albanian culture in Contessa Entellina. We learned how their society strengthens and maintains social cohesion, creating a sense of local identity. We met in formal session the mayor of the town in the town council chambers. The primary issue for this village is how it can retain its young people or at least offer them the choice of staying. This town has retained its language and customs from the 16th century and is connected to two other Albanian villages in Sicily and others in the south of mainland Italy. The local organisation Agenti e operatori dello sviluppo socioculturale was our patner. This agency was founded to protect the identity of the village through cultural action and to promote employment possibilities. The connection to our prison systems is the many minority cultures which are held in jail throughout Europe. The experience of Contessa Entellina will inform our policy for educating those minority prisoners. This policy should begin with respect for the minority language.
We visited Sciacca Prison, heard about the prisoners own drama workshops. Brian Maguire presented an art workshop to the 3 prisoners who worked on a daily basis making paintings. The vast majority of the prisoners in this closed prison (under 100) were involved in theatre. This came about because the Governor, determining that as the nature of the architecture of the jail - an old convent in the middle of the city - meant that the staff inmate ratio was 1:1, there was no need for the inmates to do any work, that the men needed to be occupied and so he chose theatre as the best way to achieve this. This was seen by the partners as best practice.
We visited Centro orientamento e Formazione Human Resources, C.O.F.H.U.R. This organisation was formed some years ago as a response by newly graduated psychologists to youth unemployment in the city of Sciacca. It provides training and support for young people in it skills and in seeking work. The partners learnt about the methods of reaching young people who are neither in education or work. We conducted the art workshop with all partners and scored the results on the Self Esteem tests. In June 2011, 20 to 22nd, the co ordinator held a workshop with CO.H.U.R. to determine in some detail the method used to provide support and to see how it compared with the normal preparation for release of prisoners. It should be noted here that when the group visited Ireland it met with local government in an area which faced similar problems to Sciacca. The outcome of that meeting and the workshop with the co ordinator in June 2011 led to the position that it is essential that local government, professionals and voluntary bodies work as one to tackle these problems. This is similar to the experience in Contessa Entllina and also the attitude in Romania.
Ireland
From 7 to 10 June 2011. During the first day we visited PACE, an organisation offering education, training and other forms of support to current and past inmates. We learned about the Irish system, and exchanged ideas, particularly those related to a holistic approach to increasing self-esteem and re-integration of inmates into the community. The prisoners on day release attended the workshop which discussed the experience of imprisonment across Europe. The Irish prisoners questioned 3 areas ;
1. the existence and response to violence in the prison
2. The existence of family and intimate visits
3. The existence of a prisoner self help group (A buddy system) to help prisoners who are being released.
It emerged in discussion the item 2 existed in the south and east of Europe but not in ireland.it emerged that item 1 was a concern and that in most cases it was dwelt with by imposing harsher conditions on the person.It emerged that while some countries were considering this at present. The debate was lively and involved with many partners reporting in the valuation of the importance of hearing the prisoners voice in our work. Brian Maguire conducted an art workshop with the prisoners and staff of PACE.
During the second day of the mobility we visited Portlaoise Prison where we visited both ordinary and Republican high security inmates in different parts of the prison. We experienced classes and training given by the Irish prison education system. This involved visiting the NCAD art course in E Block and visiting the VEC 2nd level coursed in the school. A workshop was given by Brian Maguire to prisoners, prison staff and partners.
The final day of the mobility was a workshop for partners in which the learning of the previous days was captured and also in which the partnership was considered. The meeting was addressed by the head teacher of the Portlaoise Prison School, an ex political prisoner Pat McNamee - a retired member of the Legislative Assembly of Northern Ireland - and finally Eddie Cahill - an ex prisoner and member of the Irish mobility group to Norway. Very different perspectives were put forward by both the ex prisoners and discussed with an emphasis on the class nature of education outside the prison. The independence of the school was asserted by the head teacher.
Outcome
The partnership allowed the comparison of different methods, rules and systems of educating offenders. We found a distinctive difference between the Norwegian model, the Irish model and those of southern Europe and Romania. Each system had its strong points and week points (except Norway which was strong in most areas). By taking what was best in each region and learning from each other the European prison system could be vastly improved.
In particular the commitment of Romania to engagement with local business in providing training to offenders in the community is an example to all other countries. The integration of post release services in Norway, the operation of Restorative Justice by the prison, are obvious examples of best practice. The use of local craft tradition and theatre, together with the integration of men and women in the prison in Spain are innovations which could be followed Europe wide. The pedagogic approach in Portugal using peer learning and the arts (Music) was the best educational practice witnessed in the program. The use of 3rd level institutions to deliver education (Mary Immaculate College, NCAD and Open University, UK) in Ireland together with the engagement of prisoners through seminars in this report was unique and could contribute to developing high standards in education in Prisons. The prisoners were particularly concerned with 3 issues :
1. the establishment of self help buddy system to assist them in non offending after release
2. the right to intimate family visits (available in Southern Europe)
3. The question of violence in prisons
The partnership ticked the 6 boxes detailing the Grundtvig Program objectives, 1,2,3,4 and 6 were met by the program of events, the mobility participation by the countries was large, with Norway being the best in terms of numbers, We used Italy's participation to provide a control group asking what is done with the citizen who is young and unemployed but not in prison to allow a comparison with how we prepare offenders for release. The relationships established should outlast the period of the program. The Objective 5 is met by the Irish partner hosting the reports on its research pages web site http://www.ncad.ie/research/sense_of_being.shtml The Romanian partner has hosted a blog on its web site : http://costi-senseofbeing.blogspot.com
The outcome of the research undertaken by the Portugal Partner is as follows:The Rosenberg Test was administered to 141 participants (N = 141), involving people placed in the open and closed regime. The test was administered at the beginning of the activity and in the end of it, too. 9 activities were used by the six partners involved in the project. The duration of these activities ranged from 1 day, 3 days, 1 month and 4 months.
- An analysis of the results indicated that the activities with shorter duration were provided to increase self-esteem participants.
- We do not intend to generalize the results of our study beyond the group of participants involved in the project. Although the overall result obtained does not show significant values for increased self-esteem after completing the activities, if we analyze the individual results, we can see that several participants increased their self-esteem after the completion of the activities they were involved. And this fact is very rewarding for all of us!
- Most participants did activities with pleasure, engaging them with enthusiasm. And when the participants are encouraged to perform these activities until the end, the result achieved is very rewarding for all parties involved.
- After individual analysis of the results we can conclude that most of the participants involved in the activities used by the partners saw their self-esteem increased after the implementation of these activities. We have no data to be able to say whether self-esteem of these people remains high over time, but it is gratifying to know that we can build self-esteem through the use of activities related to art and sport, with visible results after the achievement of tasks. This conclusion is very important to us because we work with people for whom traditional activities often do not arouse any interest.
- And if we can make people feel better with themselves, then we are help these people to relate better with the world around them! And probably we will build a better world with a little help. This little help makes a big difference.
The mobility program allowed a number of disciplines to engage on the issue of education and imprisonment across Europe. We found in each country examples both of best practice and also identified areas of improvement. The life of a prisoner in europe is as varied as the cultures of Europe. It is our fervent hope that this work we have undertaken in the past two years can contribute to a European prison experience which benefits the prisoner and and leads to a safer society.
Co Ordinator, Prof. Brian Maguire NCAD 17.09.2011
