The Open University has been delivering higher education in prisons since 1971. Degrees of Freedom: Prison Education at The Open University will be the first to document and analyse the experience of prisoners whose lives have often been transformed by their study.
The fiftieth anniversary of The Open University falls in 2019 and will be marked by a series of high profile public events and projects designed to celebrate its remarkable achievements.
Table of Contents:
Openings and Introductions: Education for the many, prison for the few ~ Rod Earle and James Mehigan
From Prisoner to Student ~ Anne Pike and Ruth McFarlane
Vignette 1: Choosing my journey – Kamal Abdul
Pioneers and Politics: Open University Journeys in British and Irish prisons in Long Kesh during the years of conflict 1972-1975 ~ Philip O’Sullivan & Gabi Kent
Vignette 2: Avoiding the mind-numbing vortex of drivel … – Thomas
A University Without Walls ~ Dan Weinbren
Vignette 3: Starting a new chapter – Mr C.T. Morgans
Open universities, close prisons: critical arguments for the future ~ Rod Earle & James Mehigan
Vignette 4: Out of the abysmal – ‘Eris’
The Light to Fight The Shadows: On Education as Liberation ~ Kris McPherson
From Despair to Hope ~ Margaret Gough
Vignette 5: Making my commitment – Razib Quraishi
Straight up! From HMP to PhD ~ Stephen Akpabio-Klementowski
From Open University in Prison to Convict Criminology Upon Release: Mind the Gap ~ Michael Irwin
Vignette 6: Message to a prisoner – Gordon McDonald
From the School of Hard Knocks to the University of Hard Locks ~ Abdulhaq Al-Wazeer
Becoming Me with The Open University ~ Edwin Screeche-Powell
Vignette 7: Catching up with Kafka – Steven Taylor
From D102 to Paulo Freire: an Irish Journey ~ Laurence McKeown
Vignette 8: My journey, my new life – Dan Micklethwaite
Ex-prisoners and the transformative power of higher education ~ David Honeywell
Vignette 9: Prison choices: taking a degree or packing tea? – Alan Jermey
What the OU did for me ~ Erwin James
Appendix 1: Study with the OU
About the Author :
Rod Earle is a senior lecturer at The Open University in the school of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care. He is a founder member of the British Convict Criminology group which supports the development of prisoner and ex-prisoner perspectives in criminology. He has published widely on this topic and is on the advisory board of the Prison Reform Trust's prisoner engagement project.
James Mehigan is Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Canterbury and a barrister at Garden Court Chambers. He taught criminology at the OU for 10 years during which time he tutored students across the prison estate in England and Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland. He is a former member of the Independent Monitoring Board at Pentonville Prison.
Review :
"The life-changing impact of university access is evident throughout this book. Critical analysis and questioning minds expose the pains of incarceration, the hypocrisy of rehabilitation. Tutors and students together ease those pains, challenge that hypocrisy.' Phil Scraton, Queen's University
"This important book documents the vital work done by The Open University in the development of prison education and provides valuable insights into the positive impact of this work upon individual prisoners." Ivana Bacik, Trinity College Dublin
