Prison stories – the story so far

A description of the effect of hearing stories about the criminal justice system

by Jamie Wrench 13th January 2011

May 2009, in York. In the main hall, momentous decisions were being taken about same-sex marriage; at roughly the same time, somewhere at the unfashionable end of the campus, in a room big enough for sixteen, sought in vain by some and discovered late by others, the Crime Community and Justice group unveiled their ‘Learning from Experience: personal narratives from the criminal justice system’ project to the applause (yes, really!) of twenty-five people – and I was one of the gatecrashers who sat on the floor.