On December 5, 2023, an audience gathered for a Quaker outreach event at Wandsworth meeting house. We were to hear from the then Quaker prison chaplain, Liz Bridge about her work in the HMP Wandsworth.
No one was prepared for what happened that night. What Liz told us was electrifying, not quite believable. How could it be that the shocking conditions and misery Liz was describing were happening right on our doorstep? Why were others who must surely have known wat was going on, not speaking out? Surely the doctors and lawyers must know? What about the families of serving prisoners?
After the talk, there was discussion among the attendees, in an atmosphere of palpable shock and horror.
One person asked: Where is the voice of the prisoners and the prisoners’ families?
A woman replied: We are the voice of the prisoners’ families; we have sons in that prison and are here to talk to anyone who wants to talk to us.
Two weeks later, I and my friend Martine Lignon (a trustee of the Prisoners’ Advice Service) met these two mothers of sons held in Wandsworth Prison on remand.
We asked: What do you want to tell us? and we recorded what they said. During the interview, their sons telephoned from the prison; we recorded everything they said. Later, I transcribed the interviews. That became the starting point of our project.
We then set about getting testimony from prisoners in and recently released from both men’s and women’s prisons, and from their relatives and friends. What they told us is to be found in our Report, which has been edited by Rebeccca Grant, with a Preface by Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and an Afterword by Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe, University of Cambridge. Our Report includes Liz Bridge’s powerful and moving testimony.
Our Report Voices from the Inside has now been published.
These voices should be heard and noted. They demand, and we too should demand, change.
We are grateful for the support of The Oakdale Trust in carrying out this project
The full report can be read here.
Dr Rona Epstein
Honorary Research Fellow, Coventry University
Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the Law School, University of York.
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