Growth Uncut

What if the people who understand the justice system best are the ones who have lived through it? In this episode of Growth Uncut , Dr Sarah Lewis is joined by Michael McCusker , Engagement and Advocacy Manager at The Turnaround Project in Belfast. Michael shares his personal journey from involvement in the justice system as a young man to becoming a leading advocate for lived experience leadershi...

What if no one had to leave prison alone? In this episode of Growth Uncut , Dr Sarah Lewis is joined by Sid Singh to introduce the Growth App, a bold Justice 2.0 innovation designed to transform the journey from prison to community. Born out of lived experience and years of work in criminal justice reform, the Growth App acts as a digital bridge between people leaving prison, charities and support...

In this conversation, Dr Sarah Lewis and Edit Törs explore the principles and practices of restorative justice, its challenges, and its connection to the evolving concept of Justice 2.0. They discuss the importance of dialogue, the need for a more humane criminal justice system, and the potential for restorative justice to address both individual and institutional harms. The conversation emphasize...

We invite Heather Whitehead, a former prison leader, to talk about how she wants to upgrade Justice. Heather discusses the challenges leaders face and why we need to change leadership culture, to grow our senior staff. To learn more about Justice 2.0 visit www.growtransformbelong.com To find out more information about Heather, follow her on Linkedin or visit her website- https://www.hwleadershipco...

Becky White talks with Sarah Lewis about the exciting work she is doing to support culture change from a 'victims' perspective. Focusing on authentic relationships, quality standards and providing a meaning voice for those impacted by the Justice System is the focus of this J2.0 Series. A great watch for those interested in how change from commissioner/government level can make a real diff...

Jamie Rogers and Dr Sarah Lewis thrash out the issue of staff training and how we can practically make the Criminal Justice System a learning culture. We have seven new professional development courses to support practitioners in working with people in the Criminal Justice System so please visit www.growtransformbelong.com We value any donations to help continue our podcast!

Yes we want to upgrade Justice but what are the things we want to let go of? Join Dr Sarah Lewis, Kam Stevens and Dan Reynolds as they discuss Justice 1.0, as part of a Linkedin Live event.

What are the top lessons we have learnt from training hundreds of Criminal justice professionals, internationally? We dive into this topic and talk about how we have integrated these lessons into our work, as we promote Justice 2.0, calling for an upgrade to Justice and an investment in people. Dan Reynolds and Kam Stevens join Dr Sarah Lewis in this session.

We held a linkedin Live event and wanted to share it with you. We discuss Justice 2.0 in a bit more detail and how you may be able to get involved. With Dr Lewis and Kam Stevens, we share our hopes and discuss some of the challenges we might face.

Justice 2.0 is a collective campaign to drive positive changes in the Criminal Justice System, calling for an upgrade to current thinking and acknowledging the need to raise awareness around Criminal Justice within our communities, so we can serve them effectively. It highlights the key ideas around the campaign, the rationale, the plan of action and some of the challenges.

Kam Stevens, Adam, Steve Farrell and Anita Dockley join Sarah Lewis to discuss our research in Hope in Probation. Alongside Jake Phillips, we delivered this project to uncover the state of play in our Probation Service around their experiences of hope. We wanted to consider how Probation can become more hopeful and capture the voices of staff and people on probation, in an authentic way. We discus...

The Hope in Probation Research Project was completed by; Professor Steve Farrell (University of Nottingham); Dr Jake Phillips (University of Sheffield Hallam);Dr Sarah Lewis, Kam Stevens and Adam from Penal Reform Solutions and Anita Dockley from Justice Futures. This podcast discusses the benefits of lived experience researches in this research and provides advice to other organisations who are p...

Justine Best works with us as a research consultant and shares with us her lived experience of care and how her works gives her hope, as she instils hope in others. If you want to find out more about our work please visit www.growtransformbelong.com or email us on info@growtransformbelong.com to connect with us and collaborate!

Carianne is one of my favourite people in the world and her role focuses on growing our staff, quality assurance and training. Carianne talks about her role, working with the team and discusses her preventative programme, which is currently being delivered in educational settings. If you want to know more about our work please visit www.growtransformbelong.com or www.penalreformsolutions.com and i...

This special episode features a discussion centred around our research for the Commission on Crime and Gambling Related Harms, which was launched by the the Howard League for Penal Reform.  Justine and I join Steven, from Betknowmore, to summarise and reflect on the findings from our report.  We talk about the recommendations and the way forward, as we work together to reduce harms in prison. Plea...

This episode discusses so much!  Belonging, hope, joy and the complete conviction Kam Stevens has for social action, impact and justice.  Not just for those in prison but for prison staff, who both deserve more support and care. 

This episode focuses on the role of faith and hope within penal reform, prisons and social action. As our newest member of the team, it was a great opportunity to get some reflections around us as an organisation. If you want to find out more about us please get in touch: sarah@penalreformsolutions.com or sid@growtransformbelong.com

This episode explores some of the key topics around young people and our commitment to prevention as well as intervention.  We talk about some of the challenges around generational differences within the Criminal Justice System and suggest that drawing on our differences will bring about new insights, greater compassion and cultural change!  If you want to learn more about what we do or want to ge...

We have created a new series where I get the privilege of speaking with the PRS (Penal Reform Solutions) team about their passions and hopes for the future.  First off, is our newest member, Dan Reynolds, who talked about his passions around staff wellbeing.  Find out about the challenges Dan faced as a prison officer and what he feels in important for staff now and in the future.  ...

This episode talks through the key findings of the MAPPA thematic analysis from the PRS team, commissioned by the Inspectorate of Probation.  It reflects of the experiences of the research team and explores a number of key solutions that can bring about effective change within the Criminal Justice System.  The podcast is created and produced by Penal Reform Solution, an organisation that...

This episode features David Haze and Dr Lewis from the PRS team, discussing the recent Inspectorate of Probation Project, which examined the views of those subject to Electronic Monitoring (EM).  This easy to access version of the report hopes to provide a quick overview of the findings and proposed solutions, to enrich the EM experience, to make it more meaningful and effective.  We hop...

The awesome team at Penal Reform Solutions carried out an analysis into how the Criminal Justice System impacts on the mental health of service users. Our mission was to capture the experiences of service users, as part of a wider project commissioned by the Inspectorate of Probation. We wanted to create an accessible way to tell you about the findings, our recommendations and our reflections...

Our next Series is going to focus on the Growth Alliance.  The Growth Alliance is a collection of passionate individuals who want to make a collective impact, promoting social good and reducing social harm for all.  This Series will host different people who are affiliated with the Growth Alliance, to share their views on social reform and collective responsibility.  We decided to s...

Tom Eberhardt was the former Governor of Bastoy prison and discusses his learning and growth in this role.  He highlights the importance of staff within a prison context and discusses what it was like to Governor one of the most exceptional prisons in the world.  Tom also talks about his current work in the US and his views of growth, illuminating the importance of accepting change and learning fr...

Ralph Lubkowski is currently a Prison Governor in England with a commitment to Growth, making him a key Avenger of social justice!  Ralph talks about why he started work in prisons, and shares his inspirations and challenges.  I will be working with Ralph over the next 3 years to implement the Prison Growth Project and feel excited about the journey ahead.  This draws a close to thi...