A Personal Tour of HMP Nottingham by Governor Paul Yates MBE
- Shai Farasha Sekhmet
- May 3, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 7, 2023
An Eye-opening Experience at H.M.P Nottingham
Resettlement and Jobs fair day
From the left: Lloyd Whitely, Paul Yates MBE, Lesley Whitely, Shai Sekhmet.
Welcome to our blog Shai here; we received an invitation ( see below) from @HMPNottingham
"Hi, We are having a resettlement/ jobs fair day here at HMP Nottingham on Friday 29th April 08:30-12:00.
We are planning on having some employers here as well as housing providers who can come in".
Our response was "fantastic we will be there", we got busy and got our banner ready, with Life at NEN Booklets, business cards and leaflets, we were ready to engage directly with potential future housemates who are ready to be em-
powered to change and ready to engage.
On arrival
We had an early start, 8:30am to be precise but a lot of our time went into making sure we didn't have our mobile phones or bags etc. for security reasons, our belongings went into a locker.
Lesley Managing Director , Lloyd Director of finance and I Shai Director of Marketing were enthused to get inside and get set up for the morning as we had arranged to have a tour in the afternoon.
Jobs fair & Resettlement day
HMP Nottingham now has a designated department which helps inmates to potentially have employment the day that they are released and or accommodation. Their aim is to break the cycle of repeat offending.
The inmates that were in a position to attend the day were between the ages of 18-45yrs with many different needs. For example a couple of inmates would be release in just a couple of weeks or 1 inmate in particular need accommodation in Leicester. For it was so beneficial to attend as we get the chance to build a rapport with them prior to release we can also determine whether we are a good fit for them and visa versa.
In total there were around 10 organisations at the event with the expertise to help the soon to be ex prisoner which include, Futures, Six ways Café, Insignus and much more to name a few.
We were pleased to network with other organisations as we can see where potentially we can collaborate.
Tour of HMP Nottingham
Governor Paul Yates MBE hosted our tour which turned out to be a real eye opener. First of all the prison and its grounds were surprisingly very clean and orderly. Our tour started in the staff canteen where we were served by the inmates; the café is fully equip with a Costa Barista, the inmates are trained to be Barista's so they are ready for work which we thought was great. They were very professional.
Governor Paul Yates MBE explained that the inmates are given various job roles within the prison which is imperative to smooth running of the place, they play a pretty big role as their are 900 inmates and 500 staff; you can see where the inmates would benefit the prison.
I wont go into to much detail as I believe this blog post would turn into a book!
We were taken to 3 wings in separate parts of the prison, which had 3 floor each, it was lunch tie so the inmates were in their cells, a couple of them played music we also witnessed an inmate being taken out of his cell to pray due to it being Eid Mubarak.
In the cells they can have a landline phone, kettle, etch so some of the home comforts that we are used to. Paul gave us an insight on kettle recipes...…. Please google it...…. its very insightful, I wont spoil it and tell but if you know you know and if not have a look and then comment below when you find out.
In Summary
The sound of keys and doors are still very prominent in my mind as every door had to be unlocked and then locked behind us but the corridors are dressed with art work created by the inmates which gives them a feeling of inclusion and a sense of care for the building due to the fact that they had contributed to the interior of it.
Our tour changed our view of HMP Nottingham prison completely it really opened our eyes, and has given us a new perspective of the people we serve and that we are hopeful to be able to empower chance to change at New Ethos Nottingham.
Again let me invite you to leave a comment below, if there is someone you know that will benefit from our blog post please share it with them.
Thank you for reading
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