A personal journey of hope

Welcome to my new website. It’s been 7 years since I first realised that people in and released from prison were capable of helping themselves to move forward with their life in a positive way, through the power of hope theory. At the time of my realisation, hope theory was relatively unknown in forensic applications, bar a handful of research papers. Since then I’ve been researching it and developing my own thoughts and ideas about how it can be developed to help people. This led to the publication of my self-help book for people in prison called, ‘Freedom is in the Mind’. I wanted to publish this early to document my thoughts on hope for people in prison, and to help others to transcend their current situation using hope theory. It has now been distributed to many prison libraries, is in Broadmoor Hospital and helping neurodiverse people at HMP Grendon.

I am trying to get the message out by writing articles on forensic hope, including an article written for The Probation Institute which focuses my ideas on how probation centres can become places of hope, where the people who use them drive their own self-development, rather than the probation service imposing rules and activities (which rarely works).

My previous research looked at a range of hope factors experienced by people who had been in prison. The study was based on 5 people who were located in different countries. This research provides a platform on which to grow our understanding of the nature of hope for people in prison, as it is most likely to be different than people in the general population.

My current resarch at Durham University is centred on the experience of hope for people released from prison, and its relationship with the desistance from crime. To what extend does hope allow and support these people to move on with their life, and stay out of prison? The pilot phase of this research has now been completed using a small number of people, and will be used to develop the next phase of the research.