Prison Dialogue

PRISON DIALOGUE is a highly specialised not-for-profit organisation that brings together skill, understanding and experience in working with dialogue, prisons, offenders, organisational design, the criminal justice system and multi-agency prison/community initiatives. We have pioneered the introduction and sustained practice of dialogue in prison and community systems in the UK and the USA since 1993, focussing on four key areas:

THRESHOLD DIALOGUE

This is multi-agency end-to-end offender management across prison and community for high repeat and other offenders. We are currently supporting and developing the Bournemouth Threshold Dialogue for all offenders who are released into Bournemouth, based on what was learnt from our PPO Dialogue and our Cambridge pilot. We anticipate replicating this work in the Midlands and elsewhere.

PRISON TURNAROUND

We provide coaching, strategic and leadership development for prison governors and staff to turn around an establishment’s performance. We had real impact on the turnaround of HMP Dorchester, and developed significant elements of turnaround work at HMP Blakenhurst, HMYOI Portland and are now doing so in HMP Rye Hill.

HUMANISING PRISONS

We have done extensive work establishing dynamic security for prisoners and staff in establishments which incarcerate high-risk long-term offenders by using dialogue to change the quality of relationship between the various groupings who live and work in dispersal prisons. We undertook extensively documented work in HMP Whitemoor and HMP Long Lartin.

WHOLE SYSTEM CHANGE

In recent years we have been invited to support the integration of fragmented prison and state-wide correctional systems by the introduction of dialogue to help people to talk and think together well and to establish clear power lines, power centres and interface dialogues at critical nodes. Please read more about our work with G4S in the UK, and our work with DOC Washington and DOC Nebraska in the USA.

LATEST REPORTS

Check the latest reports from the 3 centres for the Bournemouth Threshold Dialogue:

Prison Dialogue: HMP Dorchester 23 September 2008 (pdf)
Prison Dialogue: HMP Guys Marsh 23 September 2008 (pdf)
Community Dialogue: Boscombe 23 September 2008 (pdf)