
Prisoner Policy Network
The Prisoner Policy Network (PPN) is an emerging network of current serving prisoners, ex-prisoners and connected organisations who want to share their experiences and ideas with policy makers. The PPN aims to share the views of people with experience of living in prison with those involved in prison policy development nationally through research, consultation and reports.
Latest news & updates: Prisoner Policy Network
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Consultation launched on ethnicity and prisoners’ experience
PPN seeks views from inside on how ethncity and race affects experience of prison
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Prisons need to become places of purpose, not just punishment
A clear and shared vision of the purpose of imprisonment has been described by prisoners as “essen...
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PPN coordinator gives evidence to parliament on prison education
PPN Coordinator Femi Laryea-Adekim gave evidence this morning to the House of Commons Education Comm...
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Prisoners’ mental health suffering under conditions of “prolonged solitary confinement”
People in prison have revealed the devastating impact of Covid-19 restrictions on their mental healt...
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No justice without us: respecting lived experience of the criminal justice system
In this article, written for Involve, Paula Harriott writes about the importance of direct lived exp...
Prisoner Policy Network reports
View all publications- December 2021 It Doesn’t Have To Be Like This The Covid-19 pandemic has brought an unprecedented experience of prolonged isolation to prisons with... It Doesn’t Have To Be Like This
- September 2021 CAPPTIVE: Women’s experiences of prison during the Covid-19 lockdown regime In early June 2020, PRT launched CAPPTIVE with an appeal in Inside Time and Converse—prison newspa... CAPPTIVE: Women’s experiences of prison during the Covid-19 lockdown regime
- February 2021 CAPPTIVE: Prisoners’ health during the Covid-19 pandemic CAPPTIVE, a collaborative project by the Prison Reform Trust and our Prisoner Policy Network, aims t... CAPPTIVE: Prisoners’ health during the Covid-19 pandemic
- November 2020 Who Cares? Exploring distress in prison from the perspective of people in prison Prisons, by their very nature, are likely to be associated with sadness, discomfort and deprivations... Who Cares? Exploring distress in prison from the perspective of people in prison
Our current consultation question

How does my ethnicity or race affect my experience of prison?
Our latest national consultation is open to people from all backgrounds and ethnicities; so please let us know what you think.
Deadline for submissions 1st August 2022.
Our podcast
PPN team
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Paula Harriott
Head of Prisoner Engagement
Paula was previously Head of Involvement at Revolving Doors Agency 2015–2017, where she provided consultancy to two Big Lottery programmes on service user involvement, as well as supporting the acti...
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Soruche Saajedi
Prisoner Engagement Manager
Soruche has been working at PRT since September 2018, having previously graduated in MSc Public Policy at University of Bristol. Since joining the engagement team he has been working primarily on the ...
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Marc Conway
Prisoner Engagement Coordinator
Marc has been working in some capacity with PRT since 2018, having joined as part of a development contract while still a serving prisoner serving an IPP sentence at HMP Spring Hill. Travelling in to ...
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Femi Laryea-Adekim
Prisoner Engagement Coordinator
Femi is a previous member of our Prisoner Policy Network who has now found himself working for the engagement team at PRT. Having spent a short sentence at HMP Pentonville where he was introduced to t...
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
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The PPN was launched in July 2018 as part of the Prison Reform Trust’s strategic objective to give prisoners a stronger influence in how policy on prisons is made. It is:
- A FREE to join network of prisoners, ex-prisoners, relatives and supporting organisations;
- Hosted by the Prison Reform Trust; and
- Makes sure that prisoners’ experiences are part of prison policy development nationally.
It is an emerging network of current serving prisoners, ex-prisoners and connected organisations who want to share their experiences and ideas with policy makers. The PPN aims to share the views of people with experience of living in prison with those involved in prison policy development nationally through research, consultation and reports.
We ask members to share their expertise and experience to develop practical solutions to some of the big challenges facing our prisons. It provides a space to share ideas and have them heard by a much wider audience. We then draw together all the responses and include them anonymously in a final published report, which is then shared with officials and ministers who have the power to make changes to prison policy.
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- Reforming how prisons operate is a complex task—changing the policy that directs the practice is key to achieving this.
- Prison policy is developed through research, consultations and debate but prisoners are rarely part of the process.
- The Prisoner Policy Network will be a collective voice using the Prison Reform Trust’s connections and expertise to make sure that the prisoner viewpoint—the lived expertise of imprisonment—is both heard and used in policy.
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- As an individual prisoner; by writing, phoning (or sending an email if you can).
- If we can and there is an existing group or prison council who want us to, we will come to support a workshop at your prison.
- When you make a contribution please send us your name, prison number and the prison you are in, or your address if you have been released. We will take this as your formal application to join the network.
- Any published contributions will be anonymised.
- Look out for the details of the PPN in Inside Time, and on National Prison Radio.
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Write
Prisoner Policy Network c/o
Prison Reform Trust FREEPOST ND 6125
London EC1B 1PNPhone
Call our main switchboard on 020 7251 5070 and ask to speak to the PPN
This line will be answered between 9.30am and 5.00pm, Monday to Friday except bank holidays and is globally cleared for all prisoners
Email