Evolving Prisons

Professor Frank Baumgartner is a political scientist who has spent years analysing the death penalty. He tells us about the bigger picture: how factors like the race and gender of a victim can influence who receives a death sentence, how people who win an appeal can be sentenced to death again, the enormous financial costs involved, and the inconsistencies that shape how the system is applied. Kai...

Professor Scott Sundby is a law professor who has spent more than 30 years studying capital jurors - the ordinary citizens tasked with choosing between a death sentence and life in prison. He takes us inside the jury room to reveal what it’s really like to sit on a capital case, the intense pressures and moral dilemmas jurors face, the regret some carry for years, and how the experience can leave...

Chiara Eisner, an investigative journalist who interviewed 26 execution workers to understand how their work affects them, tells us how she gained access to these workers - despite their identities often being kept secret - how they are selected for these roles, and what she learned about the physical and mental health toll execution work can take on those involved. Kaigan Carrie is a criminologis...

Dr Joel Zivot, an anaesthesiologist and intensive care medicine doctor, tells us about one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding lethal injection: that it is a painless form of execution. He shares a pattern he discovered while reviewing hundreds of autopsies of people executed by lethal injection - a pattern that challenges what we thought we knew about how lethal injection affects the body,...

This is episode 6 of a special 6-part series exploring the mental toll frontline professionals carry as they do vital work to protect all of us. Sean McCallum is a crisis intervention and trauma consultant, and a watch manager in the UK fire service where he's served for 23 years. In this episode, Sean shares his view on why some experiences are traumatic for some individuals but not others, what...

This is episode 5 of a special 6-part series exploring the mental toll frontline professionals carry as they do vital work to protect all of us. Lea Vaughan was a Hazardous Area Response Team paramedic and one of only three medics to treat victims inside the arena during the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017 - the largest casualty she'd ever faced. In this episode, Lea reflects on the night of the...

This is episode 4 of a special 6-part series exploring the mental toll frontline professionals carry as they do vital work to protect all of us. Craig Wylde became a prison officer in 2006. Just four years later, at the age of 28, he was stabbed by a prisoner and left with life-changing injuries that forced his medical retirement. In this episode, Craig speaks about the attack and the long, painfu...

This is episode 3 of a special 6-part series exploring the mental toll frontline professionals carry as they do vital work to protect all of us. Philip Ingram MBE joined the British Army in 1984 and served until 2010, leaving as a colonel. In this episode, he reflects on several difficult moments during his career, particularly his time during the Iraq war in Basra. He speaks about the trauma of l...

This is episode 2 of a special 6-part series exploring the mental toll frontline professionals carry as they do vital work to protect all of us. Wayne Campbell joined the police service in Northern Ireland in 2004 and spent much of his career as a detective, including overseeing the family liaison response for some of the country’s most devastating incidents - from homicides and fatal road acciden...

This is episode 1 of a special 6-part series exploring the mental toll frontline professionals carry as they do vital work to protect all of us. James Bull has been a firefighter for 25 years. In 2017, he made the brave decision to speak publicly about his experience of PTSD - a step that led to a three-year journey with a documentary film crew, capturing the mental health realities of the emergen...

Ray and Vi Donovan's son, Chris, was murdered in 2001. They made the extraordinary decision to meet all three of his killers through restorative justice. They tell us about the heartbreak of losing Chris, navigating the justice system and how it felt meeting each of the three boys responsible. Explore the work Ray and Vi are doing through the Chris Donovan Trust . Evolving Prisons links Website: e...

This is the 100th episode of the podcast! Thank you for listening and supporting these conversations. Sarah Ellis is a barrister and forensic criminologist with a particular interest and specialism in coercive control, stalking and homicide. She explains the concept of the homicide timeline and how coercive control can escalate over time. Why is coercive control still so often misunderstood or ove...

Rob McKeon has sat on the parole board in England & Wales since 2012. He's reviewed the cases of over 5,000 prisoners, making decisions on whether they are ready to be released, including those convicted of murder, serious violence and sexual offences. We discuss the biggest signs that a prisoner might be ready to re-enter society, how some prisoners try to sabotage each other’s chances of rel...

Will Potter is an award winning investigative journalist and author. He delivered a Ted talk about secret prisons in America which received millions of views. We chat about these prisons, called communication management units, how Will was able to enter one and the psychological toll that his work as a journalist has taken on him. Evolving Prisons links Website: evolvingprisons.com Instagram: @evo...

Dr Shahed Yousaf is a GP who works in prison and with the homeless community in England. How is healthcare adapted to reach those without a fixed address? How does he navigate working with imprisoned patients who'd be better served in a mental health facility? What are some of the most surprising things he's seen in prison? And what personal toll has prison work taken on him? You can buy a copy of...

Paul Cosgrove is a former investment banker who later became a prison officer. He tells us about his experiences working with prisoners convicted of financial crimes, the attitude some of these individuals had towards their crimes, some of the most challenging things Paul has had to deal with and how transitioning from investment banking to prison work changed his views on materialism and success....

Recorded live, this episode features two prison officers who have worked in one of the UK's first community custody units for women. They share their experiences of transitioning from a male high-security prison in Scotland to working in a facility built on the belief that women should be imprisoned in more trauma-informed, community-like conditions. We speak about the contrasts between working in...

Ian West served 35 years in the prison service in England, working in ten prisons and governing four. He tells us about the special secure unit of HMP Belmarsh where he worked with some of the highest-risk prisoners in the country, the difficulties of changing the thinking of some elderly prisoners and what it was like to govern a prison through the Covid-19 pandemic. Evolving Prisons links Websit...

Dr Rebecca Myers was a forensic and prison psychologist in England treating prisoners who had committed sexual offences. She is also the author of the book, Inside Job . Of the individuals in society who admit to being sexually attracted to children, why do some people give in to those sexual compulsions when so many others don't? How does she measure success in this line of work? And how does wor...

Craig Gottschalk was a wildlife biologist who went on to work in prisons for 12 years, first as a prison officer and finally as assistant director. He is now assistant ombudsman, investigating complaints from people in prison. Craig shares the signs to look out for before somebody becomes violent, taught to him from his days as a biologist. He tells us about an encounter with a former prisoner who...

Luke Mitchell is serving a prison sentence in Scotland for the murder of Jodi Jones. He claims he is innocent and numerous documentaries have aired questioning his guilt. Why do some people think he is innocent? How do the media remain respectful of Jodi's family when reporting on these matters? And how might prison be for Luke, since he doesn't accept he committed this crime? I speak with Naomi C...

Roughly 20,000 children in Scotland experience parental imprisonment each year. But what unique challenges do families of imprisoned individuals face? How do they navigate the emotional and practical realities of life during the Christmas season? I chat with Professor Nancy Loucks OBE, Chief Executive of Families Outside, to explore how the impact of imprisonment extends far beyond the individual...

Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, USA, was one of the most famous prisons in the world. How did the prison function in the 19th century and beyond? And how was Christmas celebrated there throughout the centuries? We chat to Damon McCool, the Senior Manager of Programme Development there now that the prison is a tourist site, to find out. Evolving Prisons links Website: evolvingprisons.co...

Anne Okkels Birk grew up on the grounds of a prison in Denmark as her dad was a prison governor. She went on to work for the prison service and is now a criminologist. She shares what this experience was like growing up, some of the challenges Danish prisons face, why sending prisoners to Kosovo isn't a good idea and lessons we can learn from the Holocaust and other genocides. Evolving Prisons lin...

Leroy Pearson worked as a prison officer in 3 prisons in England. He shares the ways in which his mum going to prison when he was at school shaped his behaviour as an officer, the barriers he faced as a result of his entire immediate family having criminal convictions, and the challenges he had as an ethnic minority prison officer. Connect with Leroy Instagram: @talkwithbiggz Evolving Prisons link...