National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance News | February 2017

The newsletter for arts organisations working in criminal justice

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In this month's issue...

National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance news
Events and training
Arts and criminal justice news
Resources & publications

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National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance news
A new narrative: the impact of creative writing on people with experience of the Criminal Justice System

There's still time to book a place at our Annual Meeting. The event, which is happening on 1st March, 2-6pm in London, will look at the impact creative writing, such as poetry, script writing and fiction, has on the lives of people who have had experience of the Criminal Justice System. A range of performances and readings, followed by a panel discussion, will explore the power of storytelling from those with experience. The event will highlight how writing has initiated personal change and how creative work is shaped by experience. Click here to book your free place.

Vote now in our 2017 Steering Group elections

Online voting is now open for our 2017 Steering Group elections. This year, there are four spaces available on the Steering Group and 17 candidates standing. The Steering Group members are vital to the work of the Alliance; they help us set our priorities, agree the budget and respond to any changes in government policy in relation to arts and criminal justice. You can vote online until 9am, Tuesday 28th February. Paper voting will also be open during our Annual Meeting for those who do not vote online. Please note one vote is allowed per organisation. Click here to read the candidates' statements and to vote.

Want to include something in the next newsletter?

We will be sending our next newsletter on Thursday 30th March. Please email kate.davey@clinks.org with any submissions by Tuesday 21st March.

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Events and training
The Listening Room

Until 4th March 2017 | Old Red Lion Theatre, London | £12.50 - £17

A new verbatim play by Harriet Madeley, this is a stirring exploration of life, death and justice. The Listening Room features the true stories of five people whose lives have been transformed by a single violent crime. Years after trial and punishment, each one of them was given the chance to meet the person on the other side. Click here to read more and to book.

New Open Clasp production celebrates International Women's Day 2017

7th - 17th March 2017 | Manchester and Newcastle | £10 - £14

Open Clasp's new production Sugar will be previewed over two weeks for International Women's Day 2017. This is an exciting opportunity to see the play in the first stage of development. The play exposes the routes into prison, life behind bars, and the revolving door that catapults women back. It has been devised with women in HMP Low Newton, Women's Direct Access Homelessness Service and women on probation attending a Women's Hub through Changing Lives at West End Women & Girls Centre. The play will travel to three venues in Newcastle and one in Manchester. Click here for more information.

Synergy Theatre Project's festival of plays

Until 18th March 2017 | London | £15-£20

Synergy Theatre Project are running a festival of new plays by ex-prisoners. 'Homecomings' features premieres of two new plays about people getting out of prison and heading home to the places and things that landed them in trouble. Sonya Hale's tense domestic thriller, Glory Whispers, and John Stanley's dark comedy of dishonourable thieves, The Monkey, headline a month of plays, talks and readings. For information, please call the Box Office on 020 7978 7040.

Beyond the Door: the Koestler exhibition for the West Midlands

Until 26th March 2017 | mac Birmingham | Free

Beyond the Door is an exhibition of artwork, writing and music from prisons, secure hospitals, and by people on community sentences in the West Midlands. The exhibition has been curated by a group of young people under the supervision of Walsall Youth Justice Service, with support and guidance from the Koestler Trust and mac Birmingham. The curating project involved a number of workshop sessions that included art and music activities. The young people learned about curating, engaged with a range of artwork and met arts professionals, before carefully considering over 500 entries from the West Midlands to the 2016 Koestler Awards. Click here for more information.

Qualified Reader Leader training from The Reader

28th - 30th March 2017 | Bristol

The Reader is looking for people interested in becoming qualified Reader Leaders to bring Shared Reading into your workplace or community, including prisons. They are running training courses to become a Reader Leader over the next few months. Reader Leaders help tackle illiteracy and promote self-confidence through reading. In HMP Frankland 48% of group members had shown improvement in openness to future non-offending and aspiration since joining the Shared Reading group. A prisoner and Shared Reading group member at Hydebank said: "I take the poems away with me and read them out to the other women on the landings." Click here for more information.

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Arts and criminal justice news
Safe Ground Fathers Inside programme participants are 40% less likely to re-offend

Arts charity Safe Ground has received its latest Justice Data Lab report, which for the first time includes an analysis of their Fathers Inside programme. The report highlights the significant impact of Fathers Inside. Only 24% of men who took the programme re-offended within a year of release, compared to 40% of their counterparts who did not take it. Click here to read more.

Justice Secretary launches new prison and probation service to reform offenders

Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) will replace the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). HMPPS will have full responsibility for the operational management of offenders in custody and the community, including strengthening security in prisons, tackling extremism and building intelligence about criminal gangs. Supported to recruit an extra 2,500 officers, the new service will launch leadership and promotion programmes for prison and probation officers to further professionalise and build pride in the service. The new operationally focused service will be supported by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), taking on responsibility for overall future policy direction, setting standards, scrutinising prison performance and commissioning services. Click here for more information.

Speech on criminal justice reform by the Secretary of State for Justice

On 13th February, Secretary of State for Justice Elizabeth Truss outlined her views on sentencing and the size of the prison population at the Centre for Social Justice. She said that the answer to prison overcrowding is to make sure we have "the right resources, the right workforce, the right buildings and the right regimes." She also mentioned the Prison and Courts Bill, which is due to be published in February, which will enshrine in law the key purpose of prisons, which is to reform offenders, and that responsibility for this will lie with the Secretary of State. Click here to read the full speech.

Share your experiences of Transforming Rehabilitation

Clinks, in partnership with NCVO and Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC) have launched a new survey to track the voluntary sector's role in Transforming Rehabilitation (TR). If your organisation is either engaging in TR or is affected by these reforms in any other way, Clinks want to hear about your experiences. The evidence you provide will enable them to highlight emerging good practice, as well as areas that need improvement, leading to clear recommendations for Government and other stakeholders. Click here to take the survey.

New measures to help small charities engage with commissioners

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which now includes the Office for Civil Society, has announced three new measures to help tackle the challenges of getting small charities into the public service supply chain. These include developing a place-based Public Service Incubator, exploring the development of a commissioning kitemark, and recruiting a voluntary, community and social enterprise crown representative. It is hoped that these measures will lead to positive long-term change. Click here to read more.

Opportunity to develop innovative creative training resource with Helix Arts

Helix Arts and Nepacs are seeking someone who can create a resource pack of activities that use creative approaches to support fathers to address their offending behaviours and reflect on their relationship with their children. The resource will contribute towards Nepacs' Reconnect: Heading Home programme, which works with men who are due for release to give them confidence to make the transition back into their community. This is a freelance position, and the deadline for submissions is 12 noon, 2nd March. Click here for more information.

Sir Nick Serota joins Arts Council England as Chair

After 28 years as the head of Tate, Sir Nick Serota has taken on the role of Arts Council England (ACE) Chair, acknowledging the "many challenges" faced by the arts and positioning himself as "an unequivocal champion of the benefits of public investment." Nick takes over the role from Sir Peter Bazalgette, who served a full four-year term as ACE Chair. Click here to read more.

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Resources & publications
Exhibition payment guide for artists and arts organisations

a-n/AIR's Exhibition Payment Guide provides advice for organisations applying for activity where artists' work is being presented to the public in exhibitions. From 2017, Arts Council England (ACE) expect organisations applying for funding to budget for and demonstrate fair payment to artists. The guidance was developed in consultation with the sector and ACE, Creative Scotland, and Arts Council Wales in 2016. Click here to download the guide.

Createquity has produced a summary of the benefits of arts participation

A summary of how arts participation can improve lives has been put together by Createquity. The summary includes how participatory arts activities can help to maintain the health and quality of life of older adults, how the arts can contribute to positive clinical outcomes, such as reduction in anxiety, stress and pain for patients, how arts participation in early childhood can promote social and emotional development, and how student participation in structured arts activities can enhance cognitive abilities and social skills that support learning. Click here to read the summary.

This newsletter is written monthly by Kate Davey.

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Clinks manages the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance and is the legally accountable body for all official National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance activity. Clinks is a registered charity registration no 1074546 and a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales no 3562176