As reported in The Guardian – The prison population has passed 88,000, the highest number ever recorded in England and Wales. It was reported that Prisons in England have run emergency regimes 22 times this year, after falling below minimum staffing levels. Prisoners are often locked up for up to 23 hours a day. Experts warned this was denying prisoners access to work, the library, rehabilitation or even meals and lead to leading to a culture of hopelessness.

Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons in his Annual Report (2022) cited the lack of purposeful activity in Prisons and that the lack of face-to-face teaching had the most negative impact on prisoners with low levels of literacy and additional learning needs. 

Some of my visits had to be rearranged because of a shortage of security staff. Nearly half of officers (47%) who left the service in 2022 had been in the role for less than three years, more than a quarter (25%) left after less than a year. (Prison Reform Trust 2023). There were a couple of times were I turned up at a HMP, to find the session had been cancelled. Learners did not or could not, be released from other duties. 

I met lots of excellent and caring staff right across all the HMP’s. Sarah Hartley and the Novus Team, were the key facilitators in this project. They supported and helped me develop the project. It was a unique opportunity to visit and work with Learners in some unusual places. From the VP wing at HMP Liverpool to the Chapel and the recovery group at HMP Hindley. 

I can understand why most of the luxury Perfume companies never responded to my requests for feedback or interviews. Companies selling expensive perfume may not want to be associated with institutions that deal with crime and punishment. There is real complexity in building a workshop around something that has a big connection with image and sexual allure. The Marquez quote from Love in the Time of Cholera begins with unrequited love. The end of that novel has a surreal and poetic ending. The quote below from one of the learners at HMP Hindley may not be a line from Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But quite possibly, it could be the start of something else. Change, rehabilitation and redemption.

“ The more I can Imagine my future – the greater the possibility. What does my future smell like ? Does the world have a place for me. The past was how I remembered it. How I experienced it. It taught me how to feel. I experience now through the mirror of the past. How I respond to the past affects my future.” 

Perfume Stories are a series of sensory and storytelling workshops based around Perfume. The participants develop critical learning skills by responding to a a number of multi-sensory tasks – writing down and telling their own stories through narratives in poetry, spoken word and image making. Many of these timetabled sessions had to be cancelled at short notice due to security staff shortages.

Since its pilot with learners at HMP Liverpool in 2022. This workshop has run with learners at HMP Hindley, HMP Buckley Hall, HMP Liverpool and HMP Risley. Many of these learners have complained about the amount of time they spend behind their doors.

The latest stage of Perfume Stories: Alchemy and Essence is now being delivered by Novus staff across five sites in the North East – HMP Holme House, HMP Durham, HMP Northumberland, HMP Kirklevington and HMP Deerbolt. This is part of the Functional Skills English Curriculum.

Next stop – USA. More soon.