After 102 prisons, 17 months, and 17,210 miles, meeting 2,067 officers, prisoners and managers, the Trust’s Director Simon Shepherd has finished his Good Book of Prisons tour, finding out about the good things going on across the closed estate in England & Wales.
The aim of what’s been a very long journey was to show the world that whatever you might hear in the media, there are good things going on in every prison. While that’s not to say that there aren’t problems, and it’s clear the last few years have been especially challenging, constant negative coverage saps morale and impacts on performance and retention – and that’s something we hope The Good Book of Prisons will help to challenge.
The 2018-19 Butler Trust Award Winners and Commendees have just been announced. The Awards once again reflect some of the best – and often very moving – examples of the dedication, skill, and creativity found throughout the criminal justice system. Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Patron of the Trust, will present our Winners with their Awards and Commendations at our Award Ceremony, to be held later in the year.
During a year in which prisons again made negative headlines, the Butler Trust’s Director, Simon Shepherd, has been quietly exploring the opposite: what’s positive about our prisons? In an ambitious undertaking, he’s visiting every closed prison in England and Wales to ask individual groups of prisoners, officers, and managers, an unusual question: “What’s good about this prison?”
Although Spring took her time turning up, she arrived in some style – with the early-May Bank Holiday the warmest since the holiday began in 1978. With the World Cup getting closer, temperatures climbing, and long Midsummer nights, we started to wonder if the famous – in our office, anyway – last minute rush of nominations would happen this year. England were headed for the Round of 16 by the time our deadline was reached and once more, you did us proud: cheering along the best and brightest people working around you, from all four corners of the kingdom, you only went and broke the record for the most nominations ever – 383 in total!
