The collective spirit of hope
On November 5th, 2024, I delivered a keynote speech on the power of hope at an event called, ‘Raising Awareness for Prison Reform’ at Bucks New University - an event I co-organised with Dr. Nicola Mallowan and Katrina Heath.
The event was well attended, and there were a number of speakers with Lived Experience of prison. People got up and spoke about their highly emotive, personal experiences. It was clear that the event featured people that were living, breathing examples of hope. People who had battled against all the odds to become beacons of hope - all aspiring to change the criminal justice system. These people included Gethin Jones, Dwaine Patterson, Marc Conway, Caroline Cook, and Toseef Khan.
Of course, for many years, people have wanted to improve the system. As Gethin Jones pointed out on the day, things have become an ‘echo chamber’. The focus is shifting towards changing the public’s perception of people in prison. This will hopefully be powerful enough to become the social shift that persuades our politicial system to change, as the public opens its eyes to important facts such as:
Prison costs the taxpayer too much money that could be spent on more value-add public services
Prisons can make our communities less safe, not more safe, as people are eventually released
It was the first time that I had met many people I had connected with virtually for years, and felt the enthusiasm for change. I admire the collective spirit of hope of all the people in attendance at this event, but we should not underestimate the task ahead. Social change is a slow process, but for something as worthy as justice for all, it has to be one worth pursuing.
On a personal level, I felt disappointed with my delivery, but this was the first time I had presented in front of so many people. I had promised so much, but this experience will teach me to improve in the future because the knowledge from my research is too important not to. I would like to thank everyone who took an interest in my research, and I promise to return with a much fuller performance and impact.
