Financial Freedom on Radio Four’s Woman’s Hour

>> Click here to listen to the discussion on Woman’s Hour

>> Click here to see our newsletter for women leaving prison

Our Financial Freedom newsletter for women leaving prison was the subject of a discussion on Radio Four’s Woman’s Hour today.

Absolutely brilliant to get such exposure.

I went along to the studio at Broadcasting House for the live feature along with Juliet Lyons, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust who has worked so closely with me and my colleague Gaynor Pengelly on the project, and Wendy, a former prisoner who is really making a success of her life.

Remarkably, Wendy spent some time working on resettlement issues at Holloway Prison where she had served her sentence. She’d even been made a key holder – a privilege of which she was so proud it was almost unimaginable to those of us who’ve never been through the trauma of losing our liberty.

Now she’s helping young men leaving prison to get jobs in the building trade, largely related to construction of the 2012 Olympic village. Ironically, she’s also helping women involved in the sex trade in the same area of London and looking out for those who are being specifically groomed to meet the demand that (apparently) surrounds all major sporting events.

Listening to Wendy as she talked to Woman’s Hour presenter, Jane Garvey, I was again gratified to hope that Financial Freedom will serve a real purpose.

Like so many others, Wendy had been released on a Friday just as all the services that could begin to help her get her life together were shutting down. Her finances were in a real mess and got a lot worse before she sought help. And one of her first experiences – she had been lucky enough not to lose her home during her time inside – was the realisation that she could no longer buy contents insurance. No-one would touch her.

Although those arriving at some prisons are given time to try to sort out their finances – write to the bank manager, cancel the mobile phone contract etc – this is by no means true of all prisons. This is one of the difficulties and the quality of help appears very dependent on the particular prison governor.

Wendy said she would have done anything just to have been given one day in which to try to organise this side of her life – rather than having to spend her years in prison wondering what type of financial disaster was building up on the outside.

As you can see from the copy of Financial Freedom which is on our Fresh Start pages, hers is the type of ghastly financial situation we are trying to help women prison leavers cope with. For unless they can, like Wendy, somehow sort themselves out two thirds end up back inside. Many last just a couple of days before they are reconvicted.

I’ve got my fingers crossed that as copies of Financial Freedom arrive at the prisons this weekend and our free 24-hour advice line goes live, at least a few of the thousands of women who will be released in the coming few months will chose not to throw the newsletter straight into the bin and may use it to underpin their own efforts to make a new life.

Tags: Financial Freedom, Lisa Buckingham, Women in Prison, Women in Prison - Advice

Posted by Lisa Buckingham on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 6:22 pm.

Filed under Fresh Start, News, Tagged as: , Financial Freedom, Lisa Buckingham, Women in Prison, Women in Prison - Advice.