November Events
Hi everyone,
Jo and Libby here with a November update. We’d love to see all of your smiling Christmas faces at some great events coming up in November.
But first, a quick update from us.
Lib:
I’ve had my MET Police fitness tests recently (ouch)! Honestly, it wasn’t that bad and really have nothing to complain about as it’s running for about 5 mins in total (seemed like 5 hours). I passed all of them (hooray) and now waiting patiently for February when I can start training! Until then I am carrying on with my insurance internship and attending crim related events, hopefully seeing some of you lovely lot there too!
Jo:
Hectic life as usual! Forensic Mental Health Msc continues to challenge and fascinate in equal measure. Whereas Crim. focuses on the environmental causes of crime, we’ve been looking at the interaction between genes and environment (unknown territory to me but is certainly adding an interesting layer to my knowledge). As controversial as the topic may be, genetics is not so much looking for a ‘criminal gene’ but rather how environmental factors can influence gene expression which can in turn lead to certain behaviors.
The Wednesday afternoon HMP Pentonville session is challenging me in a different way, the more I go in the harder it becomes to reconcile how we lock people up. This week we were lucky enough to be joined by Dr. Lewis Owens who was discussing his recently released book, The Pentonville Experiment. It generated plenty of discussion about prison conditions. You can order his book here:
and all the proceeds go to The Forward Trust
(https://www.forwardtrust.org.uk/about-us/our-strategy-finances-history/)
which supports people in breaking the cycle of crime and addiction. The group of students on the project (both inside and outside) are insightful, intelligent and have huge potential, a great outcome would be that on release one or more of the ‘inside’ students is able to pursue higher education post-release.
Lib:
Let’s lighten the tone to… CHRISTMAS!!! (Sorry to all the scrooges out there)
We’ve got some great events that we are attending this November (yes we know its already the 19th)
First off:
LSBU (our home ground) is hosting a black history month event with the one and only Alex Vitale and Gary Younge. We’ve heard them both speak at past events and they both have so much to offer with stories and insight galore.
The event is on the 26th November at 17:30…the best bit is ITS FREE! Oh and we’ll be there! Come say hi.
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/social-justice-an-evening-with-gary-younge-and-alex-vitale-tickets-52148511602
Next:
Prisoners Education Trust Carol Service! Come and join us to sing your little hearts out (doesn’t matter if the baby Jesus isn’t your thing, you’ll still enjoy our warbling efforts). It’s on the 28th November at 18:30 at St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden, WC2E 9ED.
Register here: https://www.prisonerseducation.org.uk/events/pets-carol-concert
That’s all from us, short and sweet. If you want more you know where to find us!
Lib and Jo