brixton prison visit request

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https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2014/09/15/you-can-now-book-a-prison-visit-online/

You can now book a prison visit online

Booking a prison visit should be simple and straightforward. Until now that was far from the case. Booking a visit required both prisoner and visitor to jump through hoops: paper forms and drawn-out phone calls. And if the visit date turned out to be impossible, they had to start all over again.

Now you can book a visit online . It takes about 5 minutes. Before, picking an available date was pot luck. Now there's a date-picker that lets you select 3 possible slots instead of 1. It’s a straight-forward service with user-needs at its heart but, if you get stuck, you can call the prison's visits booking line and someone will help you with the booking.

Here's a very short film we've made about it:

By making it easier to book visits, prisoners will see more of their friends and family. Evidence suggests this will help their rehabilitation. Transformation isn't just about websites.

The service was built by the Ministry of Justice, with a combined team from the National Offender Management Service, HM Prison Service and MoJ Digital Services.

For more of the story behind this service, read Mike Bracken's account of his trip to HMP Rochester or check out the service’s transformation page .

Join the conversation on Twitter , and don't forget to sign up for email alerts .

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• Prison visit booking: using digital analytics to inform alpha development
• Making prison visits easier to book
• Meet the Transformation team

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Share this page, 20 comments.

Comment by Pauline posted on 23 August 2015

How do you find out the prisoners number??? so you can go ahead with online booking of a visit?

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 24 August 2015

You can find a prisoner using this service: https://www.gov.uk/find-prisoner However it will be the prisoner's responsibility to get in touch with you to let you know their prison number etc.

Comment by linda posted on 15 August 2015

This service does not appear to work this is day 2 trying to use it

Comment by Olivia posted on 30 July 2015

Hi, If a visit is booked and someone cant make it, is it possible to change the name of one of the people to someone else?

Comment by Louise Duffy posted on 30 July 2015

It's best to contact the prison directly if this happens. You can find contact details here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/contacts/prison-finder

Thanks, Louise

Comment by Paige posted on 28 July 2015

Hi my partner was sent to nottingham today, I was on his previous list 4 months ago for a visit. Will that still be on the system all will it have to he put through again if so how long does it take to be approved for a visit? Thanks Paige.

Comment by Louise Duffy posted on 29 July 2015

You might want to get in touch with the prison first before booking a visit. You can find the contact details of the prison here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/contacts/prison-finder

Comment by Debs posted on 27 July 2015

Hello Is there a list of prisons where online booking can't be used?

Comment by Louise Duffy posted on 28 July 2015

According to the information on this page: https://www.gov.uk/prison-visits , you can arrange a visit to any prison in England and Wales through this service. If you're visiting someone in Northern Ireland or Scotland you'll need to contact the prison directly.

This link also lists the type of visits that are not covered by the online service: https://www.gov.uk/prison-visits so you need to get in touch with the prison directly.

Hope that's helpful.

Comment by c.steer posted on 26 July 2015

So how do I find the booking form to fill in I am new to computers

Comment by Louise Duffy posted on 27 July 2015

Here's the link to the booking form: https://www.gov.uk/prison-visits

You'll need this information to complete the form:

prisoner number prisoner’s date of birth dates of birth for all visitors coming with you make sure the person you’re visiting has added you to their visitor list

Hope that's useful.

Comment by Shawnaa posted on 09 May 2015

i have a visit booked which i did online but i do not have a visiting order woll the prison let me in?

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 11 May 2015

Your identity will be checked on arrival to make sure you’re on the visitor list.

Comment by jessicca posted on 27 January 2015

What happens after you book the visit and its confirmed by email do you need the visiting order ?

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 29 January 2015

The Visiting Order (VO) number is generated by the booking system, it is included in your confirmation email and you will need this to change or cancel a booking.

However, if you're visiting a prison the guidance is that you only need your ID, not the VO number. If when you visit the prison you are asked for the VO number you should report this via the Contact Us link on the Prison Visits Booking form.

I hope that helps.

Comment by Ilysa Mcnally posted on 18 November 2014

How late in advance can I book e.g. book a visit today (Tuesday) for the Sunday coming???

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 19 November 2014

Hi Ilysa. Thanks for your question. A visit needs to be booked 3 working days in advance. So in this case, the visit request would have to be no later than Tuesday to allow for a visit on Sunday.

Comment by carole posted on 23 October 2014

How far in advance can you book visits

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 23 October 2014

Hi Carole. You can book up to 28 days in advance. Thanks for your question.

Comment by kimberly posted on 16 August 2015

does anyone know how to cancel a visit online?

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Hmp brixton.

• Inside Time Reports
• 13th December 2014
• Category B , Greater London , Male Cat. C , Prison Visit

Prison information

Address: Jebb Avenue Brixton SW2 5XF Switchboard: 020 8588 6000 Managed by: HMPPS Region: London Category: Male Cat. C Link to: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/brixton-prison

Description

Brixton has been recategorised as a category ‘C’ prison. It is now a resettlement prison and houses a mixture of category ‘C’ and ‘D’ prisoner

Visit Booking: Online

Use this online service to book a social visit to a prisoner in England or Wales you need the:

• prisoner number
• prisoner’s date of birth
• dates of birth for all visitors coming with you

The prisoner must add you to their visitor list before you can book a visit.

You’ll get an email confirming your visit. It takes 1 to 3 days.

ID: Every visit Children’s Visits:

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• 4th January 2015

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RE: Sending pocket money I cannot find any information about sending pocket money to my son in Brixton Prison. Is this permissable and if so, who do I make the cheque payable to please. At his former prison, I used to make the cheques payable to the NOMS Agency directed to the Governor. I would be extremely grateful for any response. With thanks. MM

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Blog Justice Digital

https://mojdigital.blog.gov.uk/2014/04/11/handling-prison-visit-requests-the-inside-story/

Handling prison visit requests: the inside story

We asked Peter Hickey, Head of Operations at HMP/YOI Rochester to give us the low-down on what it was like to be one of the first prisons in England and Wales to use the new online prison visits request service. This is what he told us.

Doing things in a new way

“Previously our visit booking systems were paper-based which made for a lot of extra work,” Peter explains. “We understood the need for change, not least because HM Prison Service needs to improve efficiency and make savings where possible.”

“But the biggest challenge to using the new service was overcoming resistance to change, for everyone: prison staff, prisoners and visitors. There’s an emotional attachment to the way things have always been done. It’s hard for people to let go of the past, and take on a new way of doing things, especially when, as far as they can see, the existing system is working very well.”

“It’s really important that the new system produces results that are immediately apparent, in order to win people over, to win hearts and minds.”

A gradual transition

HMP/YOI Rochester ran the new service in tandem with the existing paper-based system for the first month.

“It was important that we made the transition gradually to give everyone a chance to get used to the new way of doing things,” Peter explains. “The biggest change was getting rid of paper Visiting Orders (VOs). In the old way of doing things, prisoners used to have to complete these and send them to visitors so that they could book a visit.”

“In the new service, the visitor can simply go online and request a visit - as long as they are on the prisoner’s approved visiting list.”

Word of mouth endorsement

“It’s really important to have buy-in from the top - at Prison Governor level - in order for any new service to succeed,” explains Peter.

“But alongside that, it’s important that people can see for themselves that the new way of doing things is working. Especially in an environment like prison which is like a village or a small town. Obviously there are the official channels of advice and communication, but there’s also a lot of word-of-mouth chat, like people recommending things over the garden fence.

“For example one prisoner saying to another ‘it was much faster for me.’ It’s that kind of endorsement you need in order for a new system to succeed.”

Booking staff enjoy greater flexibility

As well as being available to visitors 24/7, the new service has also brought significant benefits to booking staff.

“Moving to dealing with the majority of visit requests by email gives booking staff far more flexibility. For example, if a large number of requests have come in, too many to be dealt with in daytime working hours, then clearing the backlog can be assigned to night staff,” says Peter.

“Not having to be physically present to answer phone calls within a certain time frame frees staff up to prioritise workloads.”

A visit from Paul Shetler and Mike Bracken: looking to the future  

In March 2014 Peter hosted a visit to HMP /YOI Rochester by Paul Shetler, Chief Digital Officer, Ministry of Justice and Mike Bracken, Executive Director (Digital), Cabinet Office.

“Both Paul and Mike had a good understanding of the kinds of challenges we face, particularly in terms of security. I think they could see that we’ve made a strong commitment to the ‘digital agenda’. We had a good exchange of ideas about potential digital projects for the future. It was quite inspiring.”

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General Information, HMP Brixton

HMP Brixton opened in 1819 as the Surrey House of Correction and had fulfilled many roles since that time, being both a prison for women, and then a military prison. In 1898 it became an adult male local prison, serving the whole of the London area and particularly focusing on South London, however in July 2012, it was re-roled again, becoming a category C and D resettlement prison for the local area, but in February 2017 its role became that of a Cat C resettlement prison..  The prison holds a large population of sexual offenders.

• 660 new prisoners received each year (an average of 55 per month).
• 215 prisoners convicted of a sexual offence.
• 51 foreign national prisoners.
• 49% of prisoners are from a black and minority ethnic background.
• An average of 74 prisoners is released into the community each month.
• 267 prisoners are receiving support for substance misuse.

Accommodation

• A wing: category C prisoners, including 34 prisoners on the London Pathways Unit (for prisoners with personality disorders)
• B wing: first night/induction accommodation for category C prisoners
• C wing: enhanced prisoners
• D wing: drug recovery and well-being wing
• G wing: prisoners convicted of a sexual offence
• Segregation unit

Return to Brixton

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Inside Look: Life and Conditions at Brixton Prison

Welcome to a rare inside look at Brixton Prison. Based in south London, this adult male prison has been functional since 1819. From its architecture to daily life, this page will give you an insight into the realities of Brixton.

Historical Background:

Brixton Prison, with its distinctive red brick walls, was originally built as the Surrey House of Correction in 1819. It’s amongst the oldest prisons in London, and throughout its long history, it has served different functions, from a correctional facility for young offenders to a military prison. Today it holds adult males, primarily from Derby Crown Court.

Physical Layout:

On entry, you’ll note the prison is divided into six wings – A, B, C, D, E, and F. Each wing houses prisoners according to their requirements. The E wing, for example, was announced as the UK’s first ‘prison-based social enterprise’ in 2011 and facilitates training and employment opportunities.

Daily Life:

Keeping in line with human rights standards, prisoners at Brixton enjoy privileges like access to meals, healthcare, educational opportunities, and visits from loved ones. Regulations vary from one individual to another, so it’s always essential to confirm with prison authorities.

• Meals: Prisoners are entitled to three meals a day, including a hot meal.
• Healthcare: A healthcare centre is on-site, offering both physical and mental health services.
• Education and Work: Regular work and learning opportunities are made available via prison workshops or the onsite library.
• Visits: Family visits are critically important for prisoner wellbeing, so the prison encourages families to visit routinely.

Facilities:

Aside from basic needs, Brixton Prison also has various additional facilities. A gym, a chapel, and a garden for prisoners who wish to engage in gardening are among these. There’s also an Advice and Guidance Team, which provides support with benefits, housing, and employment for prisoners who are preparing to re-enter society.

Reformation Programs:

The core goal of Brixton Prison is more than punishment; it’s about reformation. Several programs are thus put in place to prepare prisoners for a life outside prison walls. These range from drug rehabilitation programs to vocational learning such as barista courses and stone masonry.

In Conclusion:

Brixton Prison isn’t simply a place where convicts serve time. In keeping with the broader ethos of UK penal policy, it aims to be a space where inmates can engage in constructive activities, develop new skills, and prepare for a better life post-prison. Remember, each prisoner’s experience varies, and the privileges and restrictions applicable to each individual may differ.

Now that you’ve gotten a sneak peek, we hope it helps you understand a little more about life in Brixton Prison.

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Prisons · Greater London

Overcrowding.

Certified Normal Accommodation (CNA): 524

Population: 743

Originally the Surrey House of Correction when it opened in 1819, Brixton is a category C and D resettlement prison located in Lambeth in London. For over a century Brixton operated as a local prison serving London courts, until taking on its current role in 2012.

Read Brixton’s latest inspection report here.

About this information

Certified Normal Accommodation (CNA) is the prison service’s own measure of how many prisoners can be held in decent and safe accommodation. Any occupancy above CNA means that the prison in question is overcrowded.

Prisons in England and Wales fall into four separate security categories. Some prisons can operate under more than one category.

Category A : Category A prisons are high security prisons, holding those individuals considered the most threatening to the public should they escape. Category A prisons should not be overcrowded, given the high levels of security required.

Category B: Category B prisons, or local prisons, are the largest category of prison. They tend to hold un-sentenced prisoners, prisoners on remand awaiting trial, short-sentenced prisoners or those newly sentenced and awaiting transfer to another prison category. Category B prisons tend to be the most overcrowded, with a constantly churning population.

Category C: Category C prisons are sometimes called ‘training prisons’. They are meant to offer education and training to prisoners and the vast majority of prisoners on longer sentences will spend time in Category C accommodation. Historically not overcrowded, we now see more and more Category C prisons running overcrowded regimes.

Category D: Category D prisons offer open conditions and house those who can be reasonably trusted not to try to escape. Prisoners in Category D prisons will be given Release On Temporary Licence (ROTL) to work in the community or go on home leave, usually returning to the prison in the early evening. The majority of Category D prisoners will be towards the end of their sentence, and their period in open conditions is preparing them for their eventual release. Category D prisons tend not to be overcrowded.

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Inside tracks: life at the UK’s prison radio station

L et me tell you about this award-winning radio station. It is loved by its listeners, who tune in devotedly. One of its studios is based just around the corner from my home and, as the Observer ’s radio critic, I’ve been desperate to hear its output. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to sample a thing: not its popular rock show, nor its music request programme, its regular sound clash slot, nothing. I can’t enjoy the many delights of NPR, because I’m a free woman. NPR stands for National Prison Radio . Only people in prison can listen.

National Prison Radio only started in 2007, as a single station, Electric Radio in HMP Brixton. It quickly expanded into a national network and now it can be heard in 100 prisons, broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to the 85,000 prisoners in England and Wales. The charity that’s behind NPR, the Prison Radio Association , is funded by donations and public funds, but also by its own audio productions. In 2015, it made its first radio drama, Bound , based on real-life child custody cases of babies born to a mother in prison. It has a newish monthly Radio 4 show, Outside In , recorded at the BBC by former prisoners; and it makes varied documentaries, such as Paul Mason’s recent one on social media manipulators .

PRA’s outside output is excellent , but it’s NPR, the sound of the inside, that is the real pull. For while, it seemed as though the only way I’d get to hear it was to become a judge on a radio awards panel. But, after several months of negotiation, the arrangements are in place for me to visit the studio in HMP Brixton.

The prison is situated on a small road, off the main drag out to the south coast. It’s not announced, particularly: you could walk past it – between a tyre shop and a housing estate – and not really know it was there. But it is. There are a few of us on the visit, including Radio 1’s Scott Mills, who’s an ambassador for the PRA. We trot up to the entrance: an office, behind reinforced glass, where we show ID and hand over our mobile phones, keys and other odd items, such as chewing gum (in case it’s used to make an impression of a key). We progress through the prison slowly, in a group, moving between doors that are locked behind us before the one in front is unlocked. The sky seems very far away. Everyone who works in a prison makes jokes, and you know why, when you’re there.

Brixton has a mixed reputation. For many years, it was a Category B prison, just one security level down from the A set-up for those deemed truly dangerous. In 2012, it was changed to a prison for Category C and D prisoners; essentially, those with short sentences for non-violent crimes or those who have served their time and are on their last few months before going back outside. There are some prisoners on ROTL (release on temporary licence: they do voluntary work outside prison) and others are allowed to fraternise outside their cells for as long as 18 hours a day.

What’s good about Brixton is its several imaginative rehabilitation schemes. There’s Bad Boys bakery, where prisoners learn to make bread and cakes (Bad Boys produce is sold all over London). There’s The Clink, a restaurant where outsiders can book and eat a meal , prepared and served by prisoners. The prison has strong links to Bounce Back , a post-prison service where ex-prisoners learn painting and decorating skills (I’ve used them, I recommend). There is National Prison Radio.

The prison has plenty of problems, however. A 2015 independent report noted that most of its Cat C prisoners have access to “education or purposeful activity for only two or three hours a day”. During 2015, the staffing situation was “desperate”: “inadequate to ensure the humane treatment of prisoners”.

The prison is far from welcoming. The buildings are old and designed for fewer inmates than the 800 housed here. There are cage-style fences everywhere with barbed wire on top. There’s not much ground to walk on. You feel surrounded: everything is oppressively, light-blockingly high. Even the chapel is up some metal stairs, just a darkened room with a stage and a crucifix on the wall. There have been improvements – gym machines in the old outdoors smoking area – but legal highs are rife (“Brixton had the highest level of illegal drug use [of any prison] in the country”, said the report), gang tensions exist and in November last year, a film made with the live video streaming app Periscope showed an inmate being beaten up.

Not a holiday camp, then. Still, the new governor, Giles Mason, is a well-respected progressive reformer, and he’s a strong advocate of prison radio. And here we are at the studios: a plain room, with two small radio broadcast areas and a line of computers around the walls, each manned by a different inmate. The atmosphere is hard-working, but cheerful.

I meet four presenters. Kedia, a laidback Pentecostal believer, hosts Sunday’s gospel show as well as Bob and Beyond , a reggae and soca programme. “Once I’m in here making the shows, I don’t want to go for lunch,” he says. “I get so lost in it all, choosing tracks, editing, mixing.” (Prison radio shows are never live, for obvious reasons. They are checked before they go to air.) I meet Hilary, an ex-inmate and presenter, who has come in especially to talk to me. Then there’s John, in for white-collar crime, who presents two programmes: The Rock Show , on his own, and The Request Show , with Daniel. Before prison, John was a journalist and PR (at one point, he wrote about education) and ran his own company. And Daniel, John’s co-presenter, who says he’s inside because “I was a bad bwoy. And I was.”

I join John and Daniel in the studio for The Request Show . They are very different characters – John: wry, educated, middle-class; Daniel: upfront, upbeat, street smart – but they make good sparring partners. It’s sound clash time, where prisoners send in four tracks, and two different people’s choices are played, each track up against an opposing number. The sound clash is a source of pride, presented as a contest between prisons. Daniel picks one prisoner’s choices, John the other’s, and every time the tracks are played against each other, I choose a winner. Daniel’s prisoner wins. LeAnn Rimes doesn’t stand much chance against Rick Ross, or Skrillex when played next to Kendrick Lamar.

As ever, when I talk to prisoners (I studied law, and did prison visits for a time), I find them not so different from people I know already. Daniel loves football – he was a youth player for a pro team – and he’s been in prison for quite some time. He found working on the computers tricky when he first started at NPR, because he hadn’t used one in years.

“I haven’t seen any of the people that I was out doing what I was doing with since I’ve been inside,” he says. “Since I’ve been in jail, they ain’t sent me a pound, wrote me a letter, I had one visit in the first month. But I don’t hold grudges. It’s the way. Most prisoners are normal people, people who have made bad decisions, bad choices, got caught up in the wrong place.”

“It’s easy to end up on the other side,” says John.

Before Brixton, John spent 18 months in Wormwood Scrubs, which he found hard, because he couldn’t find like-minded people. “At any one time, there was only one person on the bridge I could really talk to. And I was on the largest wing in Europe.” He collected bin bags there – lucky for him; otherwise he’d have been locked up for 23 hours a day – and helped other prisoners out with their letters and legal claims.

He says: “The stereotypical prisoner doesn’t exist, you know? The bad guy prisoner. I’ve never met that stereotypical thug with tattoos on his knuckles.”

Brixton is easier than the Scrubs for John, and he’s found NPR a real solace. “I took over The Rock Show and I said, ‘Look, I’m the new guy, you’ve got to take me by the hand, you tell me what you think is rock’. And then I came in on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and there were like 20, 30 letters, kind ones, funny ones, and I was like, ‘Wow, they’re really listening, and they’re helping’. Because most people inside don’t listen to rock, we’re like a band of brothers.”

Prison radio isn’t just for those who become presenters, by any means: its true priority is its listeners. Research shows that 99% of prisoners are aware of NPR, 76% have listened to a show, and 37% listen every day. The average weekly listen is more than 10 hours. (I mention these stats to Scott Mills: he says he’d love to have such great figures.) An inmate has gone on record to say that NPR “saved my mind and soul at the start of my sentence”. Not only does it help new prisoners understand how prison works – its late-night show, Dream Time , promises “chill-out tunes and information on how to stay safe while you’re inside” – but, through its programmes, it tries to help them face up to the effect their actions have had on their families, on their victims, on society as a whole. And on themselves.

The organisation is remarkably pro-active: in 2015, NPR partnered with the Literacy Trust on a book club programme, and sent 400 books to listeners in 79 prisons. It has a yoga and mindfulness show, which is listened to by 75% of prisoners and helps them control panic attacks and anxiety. Each year, it receives more than 6,500 letters from prisoners, more than 3,000 requests or messages of support from families outside. Around 1,000 prisoners contribute to the yearly output, with more than 80 working as producers alongside PRA staff. And the PRA has just set up StraightLine , an online resource for prisoners when they get out.

In its early days, NPR struggled to fill its 24-hour remit. It played This American Life episodes for several years. At one point, there was a documentary strand, but this proved unworkable: docs are very labour-intensive and costly, plus there wasn’t really the demand from listeners. What the inmates prefer is informal discussion and interviews, with ex-cons, with governors, with big-wigs. They want to laugh or cry, they want honesty and real-ness. And they want music. Hip-hop and grime are popular ( grime star Giggs spent time in Brixton ), but there’s room for every taste, from electronic dance music to soppy tunes on The Love Bug . The request programmes get thousands of letters – impressive given that if prisoners want to ask for a track, they have to write a formal letter, with a stamp that they must pay for.

John likes working in NPR, because as well as playing requests and speaking directly to inmates, he can highlight some of their problems. “They want to hear about the issues,” he says. “Why didn’t they get their bail application through, or why are fewer and fewer people getting their tags… I mean, I’ve got a quite different accent than a lot of these guys from south London… but when we were all talking about stuff together, in language and terms they understand, it’s much more credible.”

He highlights a few big problems in prison. First: spice, the now generic term for what used to be called legal highs ( not legal now ). Spice is far harder to detect than marijuana in the user, which is why prisoners take it, but it has a much stronger effect. “In the Scrubs, I saw a man chuck himself off the bridge,” John says. “I was on the ground floor and I looked up, and there he was, on the fourth floor, stark naked, waving himself around and going, ‘Look, I can fly!’. His eyes were jet black, they were so dilated. They tried to grab him but he just threw himself back and over. Fortunately, there are nets…”

And there’s the understaffing. For Brixton Calling , an NPR show, John spoke to a prison governor. She told him she had the budget to employ hundreds more prison officers, but nobody is applying .

“And because there aren’t enough officers, everyone’s locked up for 23 hours. And when they get out of their cells, they have one hour, 45 minutes tops, to get a shower, phone their families, phone their solicitors, do whatever they need to do. And there’s four phones between 150 prisoners, so of course you are frustrated. And if you’ve grown up in a rough environment and you’ve got a tendency towards violence anyway, and you can’t call your mum and you promised you were going to call her today, you know…” He shrugs.

After John, I speak for a long time to Hilary, NPR’s poster boy. It’s hard to believe Hilary ever got to prison, he is such a model of an upright, God-fearing Brixton man. He’s from the Angell estate just along the road and he felt he let down everyone he knew when he was convicted. A successful man, designing training programmes for young people, he’d agreed to put his name to a cousin’s car-selling business without checking it out. When the business was done for what Hilary calls “a crime to do with tax”, he went down too. He tells me of the “dark cloud” that came over him when he was sent to Wandsworth. Luckily, he was soon assessed as low-risk and came to Brixton, though that brought its own stresses. He could see his old house from the wing. He only did radio production as a way to “get out of the cell, listen to music and play with IT and computers”, but he found he was good at it and then put himself forward to be a presenter.

He says: “When I was working in the past, helping people with criminal offences get back into work, one of the things they always used to say to me was, ‘Well, you’ve never lived it. You don’t know.’ But I do now. The rollercoaster of emotions, of thoughts, of fears, remembering happy times, and just… you know, it really is down to your frame of mind, your mindset, what happens inside, and then beyond those gates.”

Styal doesn’t feel like a prison at all. With its three-storey houses, its cut grass and neat pathways, it has the feeling of a small university campus. Tucked away in the Cheshire countryside, it’s one of 12 women’s prisons in England. As such, it’s actually a higher category than Brixton. But the feeling is far less oppressive, especially on a bright day such as today. There are ducks so tame that they wander into the houses.

Inside the NPR studio, Scott Mills is being interviewed by a prisoner on his top tips for presenting. He mentions the usual “imagine you’re talking to one person” principle, but also, as a true Radio 1 DJ, says “don’t ramble on, play some music”. The presenter, who is still new to radio, is alert; she doesn’t just run down her list of questions, she listens, contributes.

We’re taken on a short prison tour, and I talk to Jane. She tells me that she phones her mum every day so she can speak to her eight-year-old daughter. Her daughter used to go to private school, Jane says, but doesn’t now. She was bullied over Jane being sent to prison.

“When I was out, everything was beautiful,” says Jane. “The house was beautiful and my daughter had everything, but I didn’t spend much time with her. When I get out, that’s going to change.”

Jane was raped, but didn’t tell anyone about it. She went into a depressive spiral and then, a few months later, when out drinking, she lost her temper and glassed someone. “I’m calmer in my head now,” she says. Her sentence means she will be imprisoned until 2019. She shares a narrow room in one of the houses, with two other women. All are mothers; pictures of their children – five in all – are stuck to their pin-boards. There is a one-up-one-down bunk bed that fills the back wall. Jane’s single bed is halfway along the side. Each of them has a small cupboard. The feel is of overcrowded student accommodation: cramped but neat, modern and clean.

Downstairs in this particular house, there is a nursery. It’s been graded Outstanding by Ofsted; the certificate is up on the wall. Styal has a mother-and-baby unit with nine beds. At the moment, there are eight mums, with nine kids between them, and one more baby on the way. The nursery worker I speak to isn’t worried by these numbers: “It usually works out,” she says, meaning the babies grow up into toddlers and leave, or the mothers’ sentence is served.

We’re shown the breakfast room – small, clean, bare. For breakfast, you get a carton of milk, a portion of cereal or a cereal bar, two pieces of bread and a cup of tea, with milk and sweeteners. In this house there are 22 women. But in the breakfast room there are only 16 places to sit, and you’re not allowed to eat in your cell. Such are the pettinesses of prison.

I don’t visit the wing, a building which looks like a municipal swimming pool from the outside. Things are tougher there, the women tell me. There’s lockdown in the evenings. Here, in the house, things are more relaxed – though not too much. “You can’t put your PJs on before seven in the evening,” I am told.

We return to the studio, talking all the way. HMP Styal provides a regular weekly NPR programme called Sound Women (nothing to do with the radio lobbying group). It’s an informative and – to an outsider – very touching show: inmates talk honestly about their experiences, both in prison and what they call “on the out”. What it’s like to be pregnant when you’re HIV positive and addicted to drugs; or, just as important, about what exactly happens when you get a prison visit. Women describe being a mother when your child is outside, how to manage. “Stay strong, think of your kid. If you think you’re gonna do something stupid in jail, just think of your kid. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. One day you’ll be out, won’t ya?”

It’s a cliche, but one that contains truth: many of the women behind bars are there because of their association with men. There are a few drug mules, several drug-users, lots of women who have been coerced into selling sex. Violence is part of their lives; lashing out physically while drunk is very common. This turns inward when they go to prison. Self-harm is common , and inmates attempt suicide. A prisoner tells me that some women hurt themselves in order to be found, timing their self-harm for nine o’clock at night when the prison officers come round.

Radio is about giving people a voice, and there’s a sense in which NPR helps the women in Styal learn to speak up. To say what they think; to speak when they used to be silent. “Perhaps they might be able to say ‘No’ when a boyfriend asks them to hide a weapon,” says an NPR producer. “Or, at least, to ask for help.”

The difficulty of asking for help is brought home to me when I talk to Ellie. She has some mental health problems, but a lot of charm. She left Styal a few months ago on probation, but has ended up back inside. When she was free, her medication didn’t turn up; she couldn’t cope with her assigned accommodation (she had a camp bed, the shower didn’t work); she didn’t have the wherewithal to sort it out. “No one smiles at you, out there,” she says. She ended up back on heroin and got sent back to Styal. She talked about her experience on NPR.

Ellie cries a bit, when I talk to her. I don’t. But it is her I think of a few weeks later, when I go into Brixton prison again, for a special evening. For its 10th birthday, PRA joins up with Letters Live . In the prison chapel, in front of an invited audience, celebrated actors and three ex-prisoners read out letters relevant to imprisonment. Kate Tempest is one of the readers, and she breaks down in the middle of reciting part of her poem Brand New Ancients . It’s the bit that goes, “We are still permanently trapped between the heroic and the pitiful”, and I think of Ellie, and of all the other prisoners, locked up, lying down, listening in.

The names of all prisoners except Kedia and Hilary have been changed

Click here to donate to the Prison Radio Association

National Prison Radio: a brief history

1994 Mark Robinson and Roma Hooper approach governor of Feltham young offenders institution with an idea to set up the UK’s first prison radio station; it is launched the following year.

2005 Phil Maguire (producer/reporter on BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show ) becomes BBC Prison Radio project manager, running a partnership between the BBC and the Prison Service.

2006 The Prison Radio Association (PRA) charity is formed. Roma Hooper is founder and chair. Phil Maguire leaves the BBC to become chief executive.

2007 The PRA launches Electric Radio Brixton in HMP Brixton, the UK’s first prison radio station. It broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The launch show is co-presented by the BBC’s Bobby Friction and a serving prisoner. Mick Jones from the Clash and Billy Bragg are the first studio guests; together, they perform Should I Stay Or Should I Go.

2009 Electric Radio wins four Sony awards; later in the year it relaunches as National Prison Radio.

2010 The PRA sets up a prison radio project at HMP Styal in Cheshire.

2012 The PRA-produced programme Face to Face , where three victims of violent crime meet three people serving time for similar crimes, wins a Sony Gold award.

2013 NPR is available in 100 prisons in England and Wales.

2015 NPR broadcasts Bound , a drama produced with BBC Drama North based on interviews with inmates at HMP Styal.

2016 PRA wins charity of the year at the Third Sector awards; PRA-Radio 4 documentary The Abuse Trial wins a Rose d’Or; the Letters Live show from HMP Brixton is broadcast live on NPR; Hooper is appointed an OBE. MS

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The Prison Radio Association uses sound to change lives.

From our studios in Styal and Brixton prisons, we record and broadcast stories into prison cells across the country.

We run National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people in prison, and the Prison Radio Podcast Network for people outside prison.

We unearth talent behind bars and support people into training and employment in the production sector. And through Prison Radio International, we lead the global prison radio movement.

PRISON RADIO LAUNCHES IN HMP FELTHAM

HMYOI Feltham experienced a rise in incidences of self-harm and suicides amongst young men in prison. The governor was approached by two local residents, Roma Hooper and Mark Robinson, with the idea of setting up a radio station designed to keep listeners company at night when they are at their most vulnerable. Europe’s first prison radio station was established with the launch of Radio Feltham.

PRISON RADIO ASSOCIATION IS ESTABLISHED AS A CHARITY

In response to a growing demand from prisons to engage with prison radio, the Prison Radio Association was set up, with Phil Maguire as its founding Chief Executive. It continues to offer guidance and expertise to prisons interested in setting up and running their own radio projects.

ELECTRIC RADIO BRIXTON

The governor of HMP Brixton, Paul McDowell, invited the charity to set up and run a radio station in the prison. Electric Radio Brixton was launched, broadcasting programmes made by prisoners directly into the cells. Bobby Friction, Billy Bragg and Mick Jones from The Clash were among the first voices to be heard on-air, alongside men serving sentences in Brixton prison.

UK’S FIRST PRISON RADIO CONFERENCE

The PRA ran a residential conference for prison radio practitioners at the University of Warwick, offering sessions on how to make the right editorial decisions in a prison setting, practical programme-making skills, as well as the chance to share best practice with colleagues from different prison radio projects

NATIONAL PRISON RADIO LAUNCHES

Electric Radio Brixton re-launched as National Prison Radio, extending its reach to prison right across England and Wales. It was the world’s first national radio service for prisoners. It broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week via in-cell TV. This came as Electric Radio Brixton beats the biggest radio networks in the country to win four coveted Sony Radio Academy Awards – the first of many industry award successes.

PORRIDGE FOR BREAKFAST

The PRA started production at HMP Styal, working with women in the prison to produce programmes for National Prison Radio. National Prison Radio launched its daily breakfast show, Porridge, which aimed to give prisoners a soundtrack to create a positive state of mind. Porridge received a nomination for Breakfast Show of the Year at the Sony Awards in 2012.

FACE TO FACE

The PRA produced Face to Face, a ground-breaking programme produced in partnership with the charity Victim Support. Broadcast on National Prison Radio and BBC Radio 4, it aimed to promote a better understanding of the impact of crime on victims, and on society as a whole. The project won a Sony Gold Award in 2012, and the Charity Partnership of the Year award at the 2012 Third Sector Awards.

RISE MAXIMUM RADIO

The PRA supported the launch of Rise Maximum Radio inside the maximum security prison in Trinidad and Tobago. PRA Chief Executive Phil Maguire presents a programme for the BBC World Service about the launch. The founders were inspired to develop the station after their visit to National Prison Radio in the UK. Meanwhile, National Prison Radio increased its Request Show to two hours a day, to cater for the increasing number of song requests received from prisoners and their families. It won Station of the Year at the 2012 Radio Academy Nations and Regions Awards.

PRA PRODUCES SERIES ON HISTORY OF BRIXTON PRISON FOR BBC RADIO 4

London’s Oldest Prison saw historian Jerry White visit HMP Brixton to talk to prisoners and staff about the changes that have taken place in criminal justice over the past 200 years. The PRA also created a monthly podcast for Phoenix Futures and was commissioned to produce content for the Samaritans, the Department for Work and Pensions, Staffordshire County Council, London Probation Trust and the BBC among many others. National Prison Radio was nominated as a Station of the Year at the 2013 Sony Radio Academy Awards

NATIONAL PRISON RADIO BROADCASTS SPECIAL SHOWS FROM PSYCHOLOGICAL CARE UNITS

PRA producers visited Gartree, Send and Frankland prisons, as well as Kirk Lodge Approved Premises to make a very special series of programmes from the Psychologically Informed Planned Environments, or PIPEs units. These were the first of dozens of specialist programmes produced in partnership with prison staff to provide support to listeners with particular needs, with the aim of creating an inclusive and wide-ranging radio service with a purpose.

GEORGE THE POET JOINS NATIONAL PRISON RADIO

PRA Patron George the Poet made his National Prison Radio debut with a special programme for Black History Month. He has gone on to present a returning series called George’s Yard, in which he talks music, lyrics, portrayal and storytelling with National Prison Radio’s presenters.

PRA WINS ROSE D’OR AND CHARITY OF THE YEAR

The PRA produced a powerful documentary for BBC Radio 4 called The Abuse Trial, in which the journalist David Nolan told the inside story of the biggest historical sex abuse case ever mounted by Greater Manchester Police. David had been a victim of Alan Morris, who was convicted at the end of the trial. The programme won the international Rose D’Or prize for audio storytelling. Alongside this, we were also named Charity of the Year at the Third Sector Awards

PRA NAMED PRODUCTION COMPANY OF THE YEAR

The PRA was proud and delighted to be named Production Company of the Year by Audio UK, the industry body that supports the audio production sector, for championing the use of audio to change lives. We hired our first Employment and Training Manager to formalise the support we give to people in prison and support people into the wider broadcast industry.

PRA RADIO DRAMA WINS GOLD AT ARIAS

Producer Katie Bilboa and writer and star Carl Cattermole teamed up to produce an innovative drama, Double Bubble, as part of a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers posed by loan sharks. Debt can be hugely damaging for people in prison, who are often vulnerable to exploitation by unlicensed lenders. Carl Cattermole had spent time behind bars himself and wrote the drama based on things he’d seen himself on prison wings. It won gold at the 2018 ARIAS, the Oscars of the radio world.

THE SECRET LIFE OF PRISONS PODCAST LAUNCHES

The charity launched The Secret Life of Prisons, our flagship podcast presented by PRA Chief Executive Phil Maguire and the Prison Reform Trust’s Paula Harriott. The first four episodes chart the typical journey through prison. Subsequent series aim to illuminate one of the darkest and most mysterious corners of society

NATIONAL PRISON RADIO BECOMES A LIFELINE TO THOUSANDS

As the Covid-19 pandemic forced staff and organisations out of prisons, National Prison Radio continued broadcasting, providing vital information and updates to people locked in their cells for up to 23 hours per day. Secretary of State for Justice Robert Buckland requested an interview slot to update people on the situation, while senior staff from HM Prison and Probation Service answered our listeners’ questions every week.

PRA HOSTS BIGGEST-EVER-GET-TOGETHER OF PRISON RADIO PROJECTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

An International Prison Radio Conference brought together representatives from 12 countries on four different continents to share their stories, experience and practice of prison radio. It led to the publication of the first International Prison Radio Impact Report.

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Catalogue description Brixton Prison: various encroachments

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Brixton Prison: Action plan

HM Prison and Probation Service action plan for Brixton Prison in response to HM Inspectorate of Prisons inspection.

Brixton Prison: Action plan (June 2019)

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Appeals court judge denies Trump's bid to delay next week's hush money trial

A state appeals court judge Monday denied Donald Trump 's bid for an emergency delay of his impending criminal trial in New York.

Justice Lizbeth González of the state Appellate Division issued the ruling after attorneys for the former president argued the trial needed to be halted because "an impartial jury cannot be selected right now based on prejudicial pretrial publicity." González rejected the request in a one-line ruling late Monday afternoon with no explanation.

Trump's attorneys had filed the eleventh-hour motion in an attempt to delay a trial that centers on charges that Trump falsified business records related to hush money payments. The long-shot legal maneuver came exactly one week before the first criminal trial of a former president is scheduled to start.

González's ruling affects only Trump's request for a delay, not his underlying change-of-venue motion. Trump's attorneys are also fighting the partial gag order that Judge Juan Merchan handed down against him last month, which the appeals court is expected to hear Tuesday.

Trump attorney Emil Bove argued at the hearing on the venue challenge Monday afternoon that the gag order is unconstitutional and that jury selection can't proceed in a fair manner because of all the publicity surrounding the case.

Steven Wu of the district attorney's office countered that the publicity isn't confined to Manhattan, arguing it's worldwide, in part because of Trump's frequent commentary about the case. He suggested Trump was "trying to have it both ways" by complaining about the publicity while stoking it.

Trump's attorneys filed the challenge as a lawsuit invoking a provision of New York law known as Article 78. An Article 78 challenge allows litigants, whether in ongoing litigation or otherwise, to seek relief from allegedly unlawful state or local government action.

Trump tried a similar move before the same appeals court last year, when he challenged a partial gag order issued by Judge Arthur Engoron in the civil fraud case brought against him and his company by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The appeals court refused Trump's request to stay the case while he appealed the order, and it eventually ruled against him. In the ruling , it chided his attorneys for having brought the challenge as an Article 78 petition, calling it an "extraordinary remedy" that wasn't warranted in that situation.

In a statement Monday night, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said, “President Trump and his legal team will continue fighting against this Biden Trial and all of the other Witch Hunts.”

While Trump hasn't formally asked Merchan for a change of venue, his lawyers contended in a court filing last month seeking to delay the trial because of pretrial publicity that New York County — Manhattan — is "overwhelmingly biased against President Trump." The filing noted in part that the county voted "overwhelmingly" for other candidates in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

The DA's office responded in a filing that “given the sheer size of New York County, it is absurd for defendant to assert that it will be impossible or even impractical to find a dozen fair and impartial jurors, plus alternates, among more than a million people.”

Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Adam Reiss is a reporter and producer for NBC and MSNBC.

Lisa Rubin is an MSNBC legal correspondent and a former litigator.

Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.