🔥 Justice Alert: Dichotomy of Lived v Learned Experience

I first stepped foot in a prison in 2010; I was invited to be a community witness for a victim awareness course at HMP/YOI Hollesley Bay, around 40 minutes’ drive from my home. The environment was unfamiliar and so were the attendees. At that time, I was approaching my final year at University studying for BSc (Hons) Criminology, as a mature student, and I needed to figure out what my next steps should be.  Each presentation I prepared as part of my coursework steered towards the justice system, prisons in particular. The first being a 10 minute talk on the Corston Report, by Baroness Jean Corston, published in the light of 6 women dying within a year in Styal prison.

I still remember the feedback I received as it was rather disheartening “Who is interested in women in prison?”

It soon became clear to me that very few were interested in prisons at all, both fellow students and lecturers.

Undeterred I carried on, highlighting where possible the appalling issues within the prison estate.

So, 15 years on, I have had the privilege to visit every category of prison up and down the country including the Women’s estate. I have delivered training in prisons, monitored a Cat D prison and became the Chair of an Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), attended numerous prison art exhibitions, toured prisons on the invitation of Governors, watched graduation celebrations for those that have completed courses in a Cat B, listened to guest speakers in prison libraries, judged a debating competition in a Cat C, written and edited policy documents and have published countless blogs that have been read and shared in over 150 countries. I have tirelessly spoken out for reform, and my work has been mentioned in the House of Lords.

I have seen the desperation, and I have felt the fear in prison, yet I have never resided in a prison.

“Well, what do you know?”

This question often ringing in my ears, as though I have just popped in from another planet.

“You don’t have lived experience”

A statement that is levelled against me far too many times to remember along with being White, A woman and Middle class…etc.

“Why is your writing so negative, instead of writing about problems, come up with solutions?”

It’s true, I don’t have a certain kind of “lived experience”, I’ve never stood in court accused of a crime and pleaded guilty or not guilty. I’ve never attended court awaiting my fate when the sentence is being read out.

I have sat and watched trials in the Supreme Court, the High Court and the courts in my local area. I have attended inquests and have given evidence, but most importantly I have been there for others, in court, supporting and comforting.

We all have lived experiences in some form. Personal lived experience of the justice system gives valuable insight, but does it make you an expert?

Surely, we can all work together to bring about much needed reform in our all too often failing system.

I believe there is a place for all who share a desire, a passion and determination to transform our criminal justice system into a fairer and more just structure. To give those that are or have been in prison the tools to rebuild or even build their lives for the first time. To give hope and a future.

Should lived experience and learned experience go hand in hand?

Do you think both are credible experts to whom we should be listening?

However, recently we have read about an individual with lived experience that became a valuable member of a prominent reform organisation, given responsibilities and then defrauded their employer.

This wasn’t a small amount, it was over £300,000. The organisation – Prison Reform Trust (PRT). They had appointed an individual with a previous fraud conviction for a senior role involving financial responsibility. Little by little right under the nose of the board of trustees, with the then Chairman who is now the Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending. The current CEO, the former Head of Women’s prison estate was quick to say: “We would like to assure our supporters that no programmes or services were affected by this incident, and the charity remains committed to its mission to create a just, humane and effective prison system”.

Basically the money wasn’t missed?

That quote came from this statement on 19 May 2025 which has now been removed from the PRT website, so I have included a screenshot of it.

So where were the safeguards?

This case reminded me of 2021 when I received the Prison Reform Trust (PRT) booklet to commemorate their 40 years, after having attended their celebration in London. A short time afterwards I read the former CEO of The Howard League, Frances Crooks (farewell) piece.

PRT and The Howard League are two organisations that work for reform, two organisations that basically admitted they had failed in what they set out to do.

So why is so much money ploughed into them through donations, grants, membership, and legacies?

Both have an annual salary bill of over £1M, astonishing isn’t it. Yes, they have initiated some important campaigns, but our prisons are still in crisis and reform is taking too long.

So, what is going wrong?

Does the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) squeeze organisations and charities by limiting their progress and their ability to instigate change? Many rely on either their approval or their funding.

As you can deduce, I’m not here to popularise organisations, or to popularise individuals.

I am fiercely independent and intend to stay that way.

But I have many questions.

Was the system designed to be ineffective or designed to perpetuate harm?

Should prison be a place for healing as I have heard others say, or a place for true reform of itself or individuals?

Do we try and change something that does not want to change, does not want reforming, where politicians gaze briefly at and when those in a position to do something, don’t?

It is a place where inspectors inspect and issue recommendations, a place where monitors monitor and issue recommendations.

Endless reports and endless reviews.

Endless round table meetings.

New committees formed.

Let’s just step away for a moment.

I hear big voices, big egos and big personalities shout out, but no one can hear anything anymore.

Has society closed their ears to the noise?

Has society closed their eyes to the mess?

I will say again “Our prisons are in crisis and reform is taking too long”

Vision is often personal, but a cause is bigger than any one individual

People don’t generally die for a vision, but they will die for a cause

Vision is something you possess, a cause possess you

Vision doesn’t eliminate the options; a cause leaves you without any options

A good vision may out live you, but a cause is eternal

Vision will generate excitement, but a cause generates power

[Adapted from Houston (2001)]

You can have lived or learned experience, but what is your cause?

If the cause is yourself, this is not true reform, it is perpetuating the system with a sense of power.

If you have a cause and integrity you are seen as an interrupter.

But the greatest power is humility either lived or learned.