My Scoop.it Pages

It has been a while since I last blogged! I have been busy with my new Scoop.it pages - http://www.scoop.it/t/tasmania-prison-service-exposed
and http://www.scoop.it/t/prisoner-learning As well as a new facebook group "Families of Tasmanian Prisoners" and a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tasmania-Prison-Service-Exposed/1391174591113317

Stakeholder perceptions of prisoner learning

Stakeholder Perceptions of Prisoner Learning

The purpose of this research project is to explore the perceptions of a wide variety of stakeholders of the Tasmanian Prison Service to discover their thoughts about what prisoners learn during incarceration. By interviewing a wide range of people it is hoped that many perspectives and opinions will be gained and understood. The project will explore what people believe prisoners learn during formal learning events such as programs and education as well as the informal learning which occurs during daily prison life. The project seeks to understand what learning stakeholders think is valuable and assists in producing positive personal change within prisoner; what the benefits of this learning is to the individual and wider community; and how this learning can be enhanced within the prison environment. 

What prisoners learn during incarceration impacts their likelihood of returning to crime after release, their ability to reintegrate into the community and thus impacts community safety. Providing positive learning experiences to prisoners during their incarceration has positive outcomes for the community as a whole.  It is hoped that by exploring the perceptions of key stakeholders about prisoner learning during incarceration that knowledge of best practices for prison policy and practice may be expanded. This project provides an opportunity to build on previous works and to explore the perceptions within the Tasmanian community of prisoner learning.

The research will seek to answer the following questions in regards to prisoners learning experiences during incarceration:

• What do stakeholders believe prisoners learn during their incarceration?
• What learning is valued by stakeholders?
• How can valued learning be enhanced?
• What do stakeholders believe are the benefits of valued learning?

 The main objectives of this research are to

• reveal the networks available to prisoners which provide for positive prisoner learning,
• to understand the learning of criminal skills which occurs within prisons,
• to understand the influence of stakeholder support for prisoner learning and
• to assist in the development of policies and programs which support positive personal change within prisoners.

How the Project Will Be Conducted

The project is being supervised by Professor Rob White and Professor John Williamson and is being conducted by Miriam Scurrah as part of her PhD in Education. 

Sensitivity, confidentiality and anonymity are vital ethical considerations in a research project such as this. In order to mitigate risks individual interviews will be conducted and participants will be informed that they are free to withdraw at any time and free to refuse to answer any questions, in addition personal information will be withheld from publication. 

The research will also be advertised within local courthouses, neighborhood houses and other community and business organizations, along with advertisements in local newspapers and through the internet. Individuals will also be invited via letter and email. It is also possible for people being interviewed to recommend others who the researcher may be interested in interviewing.

Documentary and statistical data available in the public forum will be collected, along with requests for specific information, if required, from government departments through the Right to Information Act 2009.

Individual face to face and telephone interviews will be conducted with a wide range of key stakeholders. Interviews will take approximately one hour and the researcher may request follow up interviews.

If requested, people interviewed can request a copy of their transcribed interview. If you would like to discuss any aspect of this study or would like to be involved please feel free to contact Miriam Scurrah on ph 0448184224. A detailed information sheet is provided to each person interviewed.

This study has been approved by the Tasmanian Social Science Human Research Ethics Committee.  If you have concerns or complaints about the conduct of this study should contact the Executive Officer of the HREC (Tasmania) Network on (03) 6226 7479 or email human.ethics@utas.edu.au.  The Executive Officer is the person nominated to receive complaints from research participants. You will need to quote H11400.

PhD Progress

Well it is official, I am a PhD student! Having completed a draft of my methodology chapter last year I have moved on to working through my preliminary plan. I have also drafted the documents for the ethics process (no doubt this will be a long process as it was last time). The literature review is struggling along - the reading is the easy bit and something that I have been doing for years, but now it's time to put pen to paper. It is exciting to be underway on a project that I have been planning since I started my honours year. This year though it seems that I will mostly be doing the ground work - ethics application, application to all the agencies involved and the literature review, but no doubt this will keep me busy.

Great progress on the National Prison Book Program

We have been overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of donations which we have recieved so far, it has been amazing. Prisons have also been responding to our letter asking if they would like to recieve books and educational materials, so we now have prisons participating in Tasmania, Northern Territory, ACT, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. We are urgently in need of additional storage space in Melbourne and also volunteers across Australia to help pick up, sort  and package books up for distribution to prisons. We still also need sponsorship from transportation companies - so if you can help let me know at prisonfoundation@email.com

I am also about to change jobs moving from my training designer position at Kmart to the Australian Human Resources Institute where I will be designing and delivering professional education up to graduate certificate level. I am looking forward to the move to a smaller organisation - corporate life is not what it is cracked up to be, especially in regards to being able to maximise the value that you can bring to an organisation.

I have also officially accepted my offer of candidature so I will be starting as a PhD student in early January.

National Prison Book Program

What a busy week, after a successful pilot of the book program we are now in full swing!

What Is It?
The National Prison Book Program provides prisoners with free reading materials. Our aim is to provide books to prisoners and enhance prison library and educational services. Unfortunately many prisons cannot keep up with the demand for educational resources and books, we provide these materials to improve the lives and communities of prisoners to greatly reduce the likelihood of their return to the prison system. Our aim is to create a safer community and a more humane prison environment.

Types of Books We Need
Donations must be in good condition. Typically, books that are over 25 years old cannot be used, as they are often outdated or in poor condition. We can use most non-fiction and fiction in new or very good condition. The following subjects and genres are in demand:
· English dictionaries and thesauruses
· Textbooks
· How to start a small business.
· Law books
· Health
· Trades (i.e. woodworking, automotive, etc.)
· Mysteries and thrillers
· Westerns
· Love poetry
· Art books
The number of prisoners that we can help is limited only by the number of books we have and our ability to pay the postage to mail the books.

Books We Cannot Use
Due to limited storage space and strict prison regulations, we cannot accept the following types of books.
· Encyclopedias and similar hard-cover book sets
· Magazines
· Books about tattooing or anything that may be considered pornographic
· Textbooks printed before 2000
· Books printed before 1970
· Books that have stickers that cannot be removed
· Books in poor condition (missing pages, torn/missing covers, etc.)

Where To Bring Donations
Donations can be posted to us at PO Box 490 Chadstone. We can also organise the collection of books in the Melbourne area and the Hobart area. Please call 0448 184 224 or email us at prisonfoundation@email.com.

Book Drives and Book Drop Off Sites
Please contact us if your business, church, or other organization would like to serve as a book drop off centre and/or hold a book drive!

What Else Can I Donate?
We also have a need for the following materials:
· Educational materials suitable for prisoners
· Courier services
· Printing services
· Padded envelopes
· Packing tape
· Gift cards to bookstores and office supply stores
· Cash

How Can I Get Involved?
· You can organise a book drive at your school, university, at work or at your church or club. We can provide you with posters. Ask your local radio and TV stations for community announcement spots to advertise your book drive.
· We are seeking people to assist with setting up community drop off points.
· Donate your time to help us pick up books in your local area.
· Spread the word! Link to our website or put information up about what we do (we can provide you with posters and brochures) in your local community.
· If you have other ideas let us know!

Podcasts from the National Conference on Australian Prison Issues

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National Conference on Australian Prison Issues

The conference was a great success and details are now available at http://www.prisonissuesconference.webs.com/

Hard couple of weeks

Well the last two weeks have been very diffficult personally as I experienced the workings of the criminal justice system first hand - well at least through my son. It is not an experience I would like to repeat.

Still waiting for confirmation on my enrollment in the PhD - they are still finalising supervisors on their end. Almost completed the Graduate Certificate in Criminology with only one assignment and the two exams to go.

It's only a couple of weeks now until our first conference - lots of registrations coming in now. Just need to finalise the catering and I think we are all set to go!

Progress

Well the weeks just seem to fly by. I am in the process of finalising my enrollment into the PhD which is exciting and have confirmed Rob White as a coordinator along with someone from the Faculty of Education, probably John Williamson.

The conference organising is going well with speakers now confirmed after a couple of last minute withdrawals and registrations are continuing to come in - but we need more so I will have to spend some more time marketing the event, particularly within the universities and corrective services.

I have finished preparing my talk for the ACEA/Reintegration Puzzle conference in WA, I am the last speaker on the last day so hopefully everyone will still be awake - if not I will be waking them!! I have also submitted my paper for the Critical Criminology Conference for peer review - fingers crossed they like it as it's the first time I have done something like this.

The last two days have been incredible. I have recently attended the Critical Criminology Conference http://www.arts.monash.edu/psi/news-and-events/critical-criminology/. I presented a paper entitled Outside the Curriculum. The event was an amazing experience, I met and spoke with some of the leading minds in criminology in Australia - Chris Cuneen, Eileen Baldry, Rob White and so many others, it was truly wonderful to have people around who were interested in my research and so supportive and encouraging. I also met one of my criminology teachers from Charles Sturt University which was great. It was fascinating listening to the research of others and I felt a little awestruck at the incredible research that is going on in the field. Rob White has agreed to be a co-supervisor on my PhD which is fantastic news as he is well connected and well respected by Tasmanian Justice agencies.

The two days also made me realise how isolated and potentially isolating distance learning can be and how you miss out on so much informal learning because of the lack of peers and mentors you have around you to talk to. This is something that is very relevant to my research and also something which I need to be more active in addressing as a student.

Indigenous Imprisonment

There is something horribly wrong in Australia, something that is unnoticed by many people like myself - the horrendous over representation of indigenous people in our prison systems. Except for the fact that I study in this area and have an interest I would not have known the shame of what is happening. So I have started a campaign www.16times.webs.com and hope that it catches the hearts and minds of others.

Last week as part of my research I watched a short film Lonely Boy Richard http://www.afc.gov.au/filmsandawards/filmdbsearch.aspx?view=title&title=LAWAND
and I found this great study guide http://www.filmaust.com.au/programs/teachers_notes/8533lonelyboyrichardnotes.pdf which talks more about the issues involved.

We are looking at partnering and discussing this issue with indigenous organisations and the Australian Prison Foundation is putting together a policy document to go with the campaign.

ACEA- Reintegration Puzzle conference

I got confirmation today that I will be speaking at the ACEA-Reintegration Puzzle conference in Perth, WA on prisoner learning. I am very excited! I now have two presentations of my research this year - although obviously I am not presenting the whole lot to them both - focussing on barriers for the ACEA conference and on informal learning for the Critical Criminology conference.

Preparations are going well for the National Conference on Australian Prison Issues, I think I have all the speakers confirmed now and will finalise the agenda this week.

I hand in my methodology chapter next week and I have started working on the ethics review forms and documents. I have amassed so much literature over the past two years, that the literature review feels like a massive undertaking and I am procrastinating a bit with actually getting everything in order and into Endnote - but it must be done - and there is soooo much reading, never mind the notetaking and synthesis. Big job!

National Conference on Australian Prison Issues

Today I went to visit the venue at Deakin University and also began finalising the list of speakers of the event. So far we have A. Professor Peter Norden A.O., Professor Rob White, Dr. Debra Smith from the Bridge Foundation, Greg Barns, Andrea Kincade, Mike Fitzgerald, and Kerry Cotterill. I am really excited about the event as it's coming together really well.

I have also been working on a couple of assignments for my Graduate Certificate in Criminology which I am studying at Charles Sturt University. This semester I am doing two units - Psychology and Law and Criminological Practice. I think this study will really add depth to my PhD and hope to continue to a Masters alongside the PhD. This semester I am also working on a methodology chapter and next semester working on ethics approval and the literature review. I am really excited about this, although I know that it will be a long road!

The turns of life

Well, I originally started to experiment with blogs to understand how they could be used in learning and to keep a record of my journey through life. But I never really caught the bug so to speak. But I think that possibly if I used it to record my PhD process and to blog about my passion which is prison, then I might actually use it!

Since my last blog ages and ages ago (feels like a lifetime!) I have embarked on prison research, initially for my honours thesis in adult and vocational education. My title was 'Learning on the Inside in Risdon Prison'. This research has led to me starting a non profit organisation www.australianprisonfoundation.webs.com and now we are working on the first National Conference on Australian Prison Issues for October 21st, 2009 at Deakin University, Melbourne www.prisonissuesconference.webs.com.

We ran a successful competition on prisoner library services and would like to create resources to send to prisons in Australia to encourage prisoners to use their library. Our new campaign is focussed on indigenous imprisonment www.16times.webs.com.

I have also been invited to talk about my research at the Australian Critical Criminology Conference in Melbourne http://arts.monash.edu.au/psi/news-and-events/critical-criminology/index.php which I am really excited about.

My PhD will focus on stakeholder perspectives of prisoner learning.

Starting my own business, studying full time and working full time has kept me very busy over the past months - however it has been an exciting journey.

Welcome to my blog

I would like to welcome you to my blog. Here I will be providing you with an insight into my thoughts and keep you up to date on what is happening.