On 24 February, in conjunction with National Musuems Liverpool (NML), Lemos&Crane held a seminar in Liverpool around bringing museums into prisons and YOIs.
There was a great turn out for the day with delegates from prisons, young offender institutions and other custodial settings having come from the Merseyside area and beyond. The staff at NML were fabulous hosts and told us about the success of their recent project House of Memories and showed us the potential for transporting the aspects of the project to various different settings.
Based on the afternoon session, in which we discussed and dissected the practicalities behind the opportunities this project would present and also the obstacles to achieving them, we are now moving on to planning a pilot for interested prison and YOI partners.
We will use the museums’ collections to focus on themes such as memory, attachment to friends and family, connection to communities in the outside world, oral history, personal interests and commitments – all in the service of keeping prisoners connected to their past lives with a view to strengthening the possibilities for their future lives, and thereby reducing the risk of re-offending and improving the greater health of society.
If you are interested in this work you can find out more on PrisonerActionNet here. For those that attended the seminar we will be in touch soon!
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