Reflections from an Unlocked Graduate: a first-hand account of a work placement with Give a Book and PRG

Working with Give a Book and Prison Reading Groups

As a participant on the Unlocked Grads scheme, I work as a full-time Prison Officer in a high-security male establishment alongside studying a Masters in Applied Custodial Leadership – a course designed to get ambitious grad students into the Prison Service (and hopefully keep them there!). As part of my Masters, I had the opportunity to do a two-week placement with the fantastic Give a Book team where I helped out at the office, took part in a stock day and, most importantly, visited several London prisons to shadow GAB’s dedicated Prison Reading Groups (PRG) facilitators in their reading groups. From the multitude of insights I gained, looking back on the experience, here is one which really sticks out to me:

“Reading groups are what their members need them to be.”

For my first reading group, I was truly thrown in at the deep end with the boisterous attendees at a London-based prison for young men. The morning reading group consisted of around 8 twenty-something class clowns, none of whom had finished the book (!) and some of whom appeared to have no interest in reading it at all. It was chaos – constant shouting over each other, leaping out of seats, fart jokes and general silliness. It took me back (with a sense of dread) to my TEFL days when I would drag unruly kids through my flimsy lesson plan with tears in my eyes (working the landings is WAY less stressful in my opinion!).

For me, this utter chaos was alleviated by two factors: firstly, as a Prison Officer, I have learned to embrace that feeling of, ‘I don’t know what the hell I’m doing!’, and secondly, I had long-time GAB partner and skilful group facilitator David Kendall as my guide. David has years of experience working with some of society’s most challenging and vulnerable individuals and, like many of those who work in prisons, seems to take chaos in his stride. David let the group be what its members wanted it to be. Turn-taking was not going to happen here! It was LOUD. As they wore themselves out over the couple of hours, David artfully wove themes from the book into the discussion and gave opportunity for those people who had actually had a go at reading the book to give their opinions. Some book discussion was had, but something more important happened… For these men, it was a chance to get out of their cells and mess around for a couple of hours with their friends. Though this might seem trivial, a space away from the jarring, sometimes hellish reality of prison life, is invaluable. PRG groups are not supposed to feel like a school classroom, and this one certainly didn’t.

Contrast that with another reading group at a Cat B Local jail, where dedicated GAB Chief Exec Victoria and another long-time GAB associate, Jenny, led a thoughtful literary discussion on a Japanese dystopian novel where loss and memory – themes particularly poignant to those deprived of their liberties – were delved into. A generally older and more settled bunch, here each member related to the novel in his own way and took turns to listen to his fellow members. While this group looked more like your traditional book club, I believe it is no more valuable than the first group I attended.

The grim reality of prisons breaks people down, and reading groups can be a glimmer of hope, of simple enjoyment, for people who may feel they have nothing. At another group, a soon-to-be-released group member expressed his gratitude to PRG:

“In this place, book group has been the highlight of my month. Thank you.”

Rebecca Smith