“It’s quite a weird feeling coming out and just literally being out here. It was quite nice to be able to just… I didn’t find it daunting coming out. It was a little bit exciting at first, if you know what I mean, to be able to come out here… I feel like I get … More Tom says: “you don’t really appreciate things until you haven’t got them…”
“Drug abuse got me here. I just got in a bit of a bad place for a little while and things went a bit wrong. Now, no more drugs. Get on with it now. There were no drugs for 15 months before I came to prison, I can’t see it being any different. I’m very … More Fred says: “Just to have that normality again is just… it’s a godsend coming here, rather than being in there.”
“I’m coming towards the end of my sentence and felt that coming out to LandWorks would give me a very good introduction into future employment and future understanding of how life is going to be for me post-release. I turned it down [before] and I used to have a laugh with the boys and give … More Billy says: “without time in prison… you’d have never got me here in a million years”
“I phone my wife probably four times a day. I always call her in the morning to make sure she’s got to work. I like to know she’s in work. When she’s gone to work I phone her mobile, but in the evenings, it’s on the landline. I put so much money on phone credit, … More Matt says: “I always say it’s worse for them on the outside, definitely worse for them…”
“It’s like in Prison, you start talking to someone, you know within a few minutes whether they’re full of shit, whether they’re telling the truth, whether they’re making up … you know, everything comes in that first few moments and it’s “bye” or you keep talking. Those are the options. Going home’s going to be … More Lee says: “It just took a little bit of time for me to realise that there are nice people in the world…”
“I’ve been giving this a lot of thought because when people are reading the PeN Project, there’s an assumption about people in prison. I’m here to burst that assumption because whoever is reading this, the assumption will be that I’m from a low education background, that I’m from a sink estate somewhere, that I’m on … More Quentin says: “I couldn’t do another year, put it that way. Not a chance. It’s tougher than I thought.”
“I’m going home as you know, I’m going home at the weekend and I’m out in about six weeks. And as great as that is, and it is great, it’s fantastic, but it brings a whole new set of fears that I didn’t know about, that no-one tells you about. You just think you’re going … More Quentin says: “I never want prison to be normal…”
“When I come out of prison I’ve got somewhere to live. I’m hoping to go back to teaching if I can. I used to do that and loved it. If I can’t do that or I need to earn money from day one, then the answer is I don’t really know. I’ve got a couple … More Benny Says: “I’m not broken, I’m just changing. I am transforming…”
“It’s a learning curve. If I was bitter and angry, I wouldn’t be on the resettlement wing and coming out here. I’ve come through the whole system, not one nicking, haven’t even said ‘boo’ to a goose… When I actually get released in December, I leave on the Friday and I start work on the … More Lee says: “As soon as you say you’re an ex-convict, “next”, that’s the way it goes…”
“There are the things that the courts never gets to hear, because the police say you are this, this is what you are. I’m a hard-working person and this is what I do, but all they heard was ‘this is what he is’ and ‘that’s what he is’ and ‘this is because we think this’. … More Lee says: “For 18 months I’ve been sat in that prison with a stagnant mind. I need something to do and here it is…”
A window into LandWorks 