Breaking In: Recent Episodes
Andy Mouncey
What does it take for one man with no history of prison or prison service to earn the right to work with people on the inside of the bars? What does that feel like - and why should you care anyway?Andy Mouncey Founder of Run For Your Life CIC talks candidly and from the heart.
Most of the people behind bars are not there for reasons of 'organised' crime: They have not sat down and done a rational cost-benefit analysis of their crime and sentence before going out and doing the deed.
Most people are there because of a failure to manage their emotions at a crucial time. Often - not always - drugs and alcohol play a part in that.
Exercise and physical activity give people a chance to practice the skills of managing their mood and to experience agency over their thoughts-behaviour often for the first time. It is the reason why Andy does what he does in the way he does it, and here he explains it a little bit more.
These podcasts don't get made unless Tom Haigh of Sound Post Production www.tomhaigh.com and interviewer Tony Maguire www.boxkik.com decide to roll out of bed. Fortunately for me I still seem to be giving them reason to do so. Chapeau, gentlemen.
Andy argues that people in prison stand and fall on their capacity to build, nuture and repair relationships, and that this is crucial skill that needs to bridge both sides of the bars if the place is to be a safe one.
In the second of two post-Covid How The Work Is Harder Now podcasts he explains what is different now, how that affects people like him doing this kind of work and what he thinks this means for the people in charge.
These podcasts don't get made unless Tom Haigh of Sound Post Production www.tomhaigh.com and interviewer Tony Maguire www.boxkik.com decide to roll out of bed. Fortunately for me I still seem to be giving them reason to do so. Chapeau, gentlemen.
Some Good News - & The Work Is Harder Now.
Covid has changed the game for the people in our prisons on either side of the bars.
Some of that was planned for and much of it seemingly was not, and as time goes on it becomes harder to unravel Cause & Effect as compound and cumulative take more of a hold.
There are differences in People, Policy and Place now that weren't present in 2019 or were way less and these are making it harder for sole practitioners like Andy to come in and do the work they do.
Here Andy explains some of what he is experiencing as he re-starts his work behind bars with new funding, and what that means for him and his practice.
These podcasts don't get made unless Tom Haigh of Sound Post Production www.tomhaigh.com and interviewer Tony Maguire www.boxkik.com decide to roll out of bed. Fortunately for me I still seem to be giving them reason to do so. Chapeau, gentlemen.
Andy explains the what and why of his prison program design: Physical activity challenges in groups to enable people to experience agency and community sometimes for the first time, and using this as a gateway to hearts and minds. He talks about the elusive nature of success in this kind of work and how he's learned to quantify it so he can hold on to hope and present it to others.
These podcasts don't get made unless Tom Haigh of Sound Post Production www.tomhaigh.com and interviewer Tony Maguire www.boxkik.com decide to roll out of bed. Fortunately for me I still seem to be giving them reason to do so. Chapeau, gentlemen.
We are sending more people to prison more often, earlier and for longer.
Our prison population has grown by 3/4 in the last few decades and is projected to keep growing. The fastest growing group are older men and it is with this group that Andy has been working with. Here he talks candidly about the sobering reality of living and working in an environment such as this, how difficult and fragile this work can be and how easily the evidence of success can be wiped away.
These podcasts don't get made unless Tom Haigh of Sound Post Production www.tomhaigh.com and interviewer Tony Maguire www.boxkik.com decide to roll out of bed. Fortunately for me I still seem to be giving them reason to do so. Chapeau, gentlemen.
Here's the good news: Most crime is not Organised - or done as a result of a cold rational decision. Most people are inside for other reasons - reasons that can be treated or worked with. In other words there's hope - but you have to look and think differently to hold it.
These podcasts don't get made unless Tom Haigh of Sound Post Production www.tomhaigh.com and interviewer Tony Maguire www.boxkik.com decide to roll out of bed. Fortunately for me I still seem to be giving them reason to do so. Chapeau, gentlemen.
It's all too easy to focus on the dark side when delving into criminal justice.
There is dark and there is also Hope - and that hope can start today with each of us.
Andy doesn't have a manifesto but if he did the first early draft version would be six lines: These are those six.
These podcasts don't get made unless Tom Haigh of Sound Post Production www.tomhaigh.com and interviewer Tony Maguire www.boxkik.com decide to roll out of bed. Fortunately for me I still seem to be giving them reason to do so. Chapeau, gentlemen.
Covid may be officially over but the legacy is lingering way longer in the prison system than in society at large. As Andy gets ready to start new NHS-funded work with elderly, disabled and vulnerable men he talks about how to hold on to Hope amidst the despair, and breaking the strangle-hold of the culture and practice of 'Learned Helplessness' - an insidious and unexpected consequence of the lockdown years.
Andy lands his first contracted work as our prison system tries to get to grips with the cost of covid for staff and men inside counted in terms of mental, physical and emotional health and function.
10 years on from his first contact with our criminal justice system Andy talks about 'stickability' and earning the right to be invited in to do the work.
He gives an insight to his work during covid supporting prison governors online that kept him in the game and the governors sane at their most challenging time in role.
He also speaks about his first contacts post-Covid with the men he worked with pre-lockdown and lifts the lid on what life inside was really like.
Nothing Star Wars here: Andy talks about the what and why of the formation of his not-profit Run For Your Life in 2017, his hopes that he had and continues to have and how these compare to the reality of this type of work. He ends the 'cast talking movingly about the emotional impact of the work and how he is learning to deal with it.
After nearly 10 years involving many false starts and progressive toe-dipping, Andy finally secures his first contracted work in a prison.
Then the Covid pandemic hit, prisons went into lockdown and all work stops.
Here Andy talks about what it took earn the right to be invited inside and what happened when programs of his design met reality for the first time.
What does it take for one man with no history of prison or prison service to earn the right to work with people on the inside of the bars? What does that feel like - and why should you care anyway?
Andy Mouncey Founder of Run For Your Life CIC www.runforyourlife.org.uk talks candidly and from the heart.
Episode 1
Andy's first time inside is a visceral memory even today. Here he reflects on that and on other first contacts and then brings you right up to date with his most recent first: The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-21.