Seminar Series 14: Lecture 1 - Pete White
From prison to parliament - bringing dark experience to light
The majority of people in Scotland’s prisons come from marginalised communities of profound deprivation and poverty. Their lives are generally shorter, their levels of addiction higher and their mental health well-being poorer than the wider population. This raises questions as to whether incarceration is a civilised and just response to structural disadvantage. Can the experience of prison be re-imagined to set people on positive trajectories? And if so, how can the range of other services tasked with transforming lives understand the place of ‘dark experiences’? This talk explored and shared some of the progress that has been made in changes to Scottish policy, practice and legislation by sharing the lived dark experience of punishment with those who can bring about purposeful and systemic change. It considered ways the involvement of people who do not see themselves as having a role to play in justice could bring about a reduction in offending and re-offending in Scotland. It explored the role of prison as a step on a road to change, thereby reducing the number of victims and levels of harm.
Viewers should be aware that this film and audio contains strong language in parts.
About the speaker
Pete White, Chief Executive, Positive Prison? Positive Futures...
Pete established and is the current Chief Executive of Positive Prison? Positive Futures… a Scottish charity representing people with lived experience of punishment, working to reduce the harm caused by offending and re-offending. He has represented people with convictions in the redesign of community justice in Scotland, the introduction of Independent Prison Monitoring, the National Strategy Group for Community Justice Scotland and in giving evidence to the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament. He sits on the executive committee of the National Prison Visitor Centre Steering Group and the Criminal Justice Voluntary Sector Forum and is a member of the Executive Governance Group of the Scottish Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice.
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