I can now say that as of November I will be employed by the Howard League as a consultant policy advisor....
Will say more over the weekend. Happy Ben!
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Ben
Lecturing
About Me
- prisonerben
- United Kingdom
- Previously known as "one of Britain's best known prisoners...he constantly questions authority and exposes the futility of the system" The Times, Ben was finally released from prison after 32 years in August 2012. Pleading guilty to the murder of a friend when he was 14 years old, he renounced violence and fought for the recognition of the inherent dignity of all human beings. As a result of speaking truth to power, he served far longer than the recommended 10 years, leading Education Secretary Michael Gove to argue that he had "been punished excessively for a crime committed as a child". One of the more intellectual of prisoner-campaigners, Ben chose to educate himself from schoolboy level to having both undergraduate and post graduate degrees. He is currently one of very few prisoners in Britain ever to attempt a Doctorate. Ben's speciality is non-violent action and the Human Needs Theory. Now on Life Licence, He is forging a career as a CJ policy consultant, writer and - as ever - campaigner.
Wow, great news Ben.
ReplyDeleteDo you still need the laptop?
Martin.
Congratulations, Ben!
ReplyDeleteExcellent news! Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteFantastic - congratulations. Wishing you a long a successful employment.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! I had to google the organization, but having done so, it seems like exactly the sort of thing I'd have expected you to end up doing. Best of luck with the job.
ReplyDeleteLosing your laptop in return for a job wasn't a bad deal after all! :) Hope God always continues to give more than he takes away.. Congratulations, Ben!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Ben,
ReplyDeleteI'm new to this blog but it was recommended to me by my lecturer at university, I am completing an MA in Criminology and also have links to the Howard League as I was chosen as this years recipient of a bursary to complete the MA. I'd be very interested to learn more about your role as this is the direction I would like to move into. I've worked with individuals with offending backgrounds for the last 8 years, initally with long term homeless people and more recently as a drug worker within Approved Premises. I see many problems within the system and have enjoyed working at service delivery level but feel that I would like to move into policy and practice with a view to influencing and hopefully improving the way that we work. Anyway, congratulations once again in the job I look forward to reading your future blog posts. Jan
Congratulations Ben, that's wonderful news :).
ReplyDeleteThat's great news. Well deserved, congratulations!
ReplyDeleteYou're doing very little to advance the myth that is 'institutionalization' Ben! Hat, doffed!
ReplyDeleteI think I have to respectfully disagree here. Not that Ben is institutionalised (in my view he never was) but that institutionalisation is a myth. Personally I suspect* that the system creates large numbers of institutionalised individuals by forcing them to be reliant on the system and by making them jump through degrading and dehumanising hoops. It is Ben's very resistance that has put him in such a strong position now and that makes it such a tragic irony that it is what kept him inside for so long.
DeleteThis, to my mind, is the biggest problem with the whole edifice and the biggest reason I support Ben as strongly as I do. It is a system that creates the very problem it claims to be solving by the manner in which it claims to be solving it!!** It staggers me that the people responsible for perpetuating that harm can't see that.
*and I want to make clear this is an opinion and, like all the opinions I hold and publish here, it is a lightly held one subject to change if the evidence changes.
**I feel so strongly about this that it requires two exclamation marks to emphasise ;)
I respect what you say, Wigarse.
DeleteI only refer to the common/simple definition of ‘institutionalization’ as I know it. That is someone who has spent so long inside – they won’t know how/ be able to cope with the rigors of the free world on release. The deeper meaning of the word I’ll leave to the expots (sic).
The oft told tale of those very few that would rather stay inside - than face what they *don’t* have outside, isn't some kind of unsolvable puzzle.
When some people face the gloomy prospect of having no possessions, and no-where to live, no hope of employment, £46.00 in their pocket, (Which incidentally, is merely their First weeks benefit and thus can’t be stopped as has been muted elsewhere!) and maybe not even a destination to head for. We shouldn't be surprised when the forecast proves too gloomy for them to face.
In reality, most people are just ‘treading water’ in our jails until they can get back on with their life.
Two Gloomy!
DeleteYou did extremely well in your interview on Channel 4 News this evening. I hope you'll be invited for many more.
ReplyDelete