HMP Everthorpe, East Riding of Yorkshire

View across the fields to HMP The Wolds

The landscape of the East Riding is remarkably flat and open and the view dominated first by power stations, then wind turbine farms, then the Humber estuary as you travel eastward on the train.  The fields are large and open, with only intermittent hedgerows and small areas of woodland.  Its obviously rich arable land, due to the alluvial geology, I guess and farmed in the manner of the industrialised west that makes it easy for combines, but hard for nature.  The remorseless use of the land also leads to the paradoxical situation of being in a rural area where there are few footpaths or land for walking, apart from the roads which are usually narrow and without verges.  The Wolds Way is national trail through the hills to the north, but its poorly connected into the wider landscape.  The result is a strange kind of green prison.  

I'm working as part of a team from the RSA to test their Transitions proposal to reduce re-offending amongst prisoners.  We're working with HMP Everthorpe, a Government prison, located adjacent to another prison, HMP The Wolds and set within 45 acres of land.  There is a Victorian manor house and more than 80 residential properties in the grounds, but its also quite bucolic, with woodlands, a fast stream and small fields that have not been farmed for 10 years.  Its actually a kind of little oasis and the residents like living there, because its quiet and safe, but also because its a little piece of the countryside in an area dominated by industrialised farmland.  Over the next year we'll be working with local and national stakeholders to develop a business case for a facility in the grounds next to the prison, providing training and education for prisoners, enterprise and nature tourism opportunities to link into the wider landscape.  We're only just about to start in earnest this month, but we met with some of the prisoners, to ask them about their aspirations for the project.  Their positivity was overwhelming and left me in no doubt as to the importance of the task in hand.  The statistics are bleak: 3/4 of offences committed in 2011 were committed by repeat-offenders, but that includes cautions and reprimands - statistics for prisoners are worse still.