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Degrees of Freedom

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The first authoritative volume to look back on the last 50 years of The Open University providing higher education to those in prison, this unique book gives voice to ex-prisoners whose lives have ...
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  • 15 January 2020
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The first authoritative volume to look back on the last 50 years of The Open University providing higher education to those in prison, this unique book gives voice to ex-prisoners whose lives have been transformed by the education they received. Offering vivid personal testimonies, reflective vignettes and academic analysis of prison life and education in prison, the book marks the 50th anniversary of The Open University.
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Price: $127.95
Pages: 208
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Imprint: Policy Press
Publication Date: 15 January 2020
ISBN: 9781447353065
Format: Hardcover
BISACs: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Criminology, Penology and punishment, EDUCATION / Adult & Continuing Education, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Penology
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Rod Earle is a senior lecturer at The Open University in the school of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care. He is a founder member of the British Convict Criminology group which supports the development of prisoner and ex-prisoner perspectives in criminology. He has published widely on this topic and is on the advisory board of the Prison Reform Trust’s prisoner engagement project.

James Mehigan is Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Canterbury and a barrister at Garden Court Chambers. He taught criminology at the OU for 10 years during which time he tutored students across the prison estate in England and Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland. He is a former member of the Independent Monitoring Board at Pentonville Prison.

Openings and Introductions: Education for the many, prison for the few ~ Rod Earle and James Mehigan

From Prisoner to Student ~ Anne Pike and Ruth McFarlane

Vignette 1: Choosing my journey – Kamal Abdul

Pioneers and Politics: Open University Journeys in British and Irish prisons in Long Kesh during the years of conflict 1972-1975 ~ Philip O’Sullivan & Gabi Kent

Vignette 2: Avoiding the mind-numbing vortex of drivel … – Thomas

A University Without Walls ~ Dan Weinbren

Vignette 3: Starting a new chapter – Mr C.T. Morgans

Open universities, close prisons: critical arguments for the future ~ Rod Earle & James Mehigan

Vignette 4: Out of the abysmal – ‘Eris’

The Light to Fight The Shadows: On Education as Liberation ~ Kris McPherson

From Despair to Hope ~ Margaret Gough

Vignette 5: Making my commitment – Razib Quraishi

Straight up! From HMP to PhD ~ Stephen Akpabio-Klementowski

From Open University in Prison to Convict Criminology Upon Release: Mind the Gap ~ Michael Irwin

Vignette 6: Message to a prisoner – Gordon McDonald

From the School of Hard Knocks to the University of Hard Locks ~ Abdulhaq Al-Wazeer

Becoming Me with The Open University ~ Edwin Screeche-Powell

Vignette 7: Catching up with Kafka – Steven Taylor

From D102 to Paulo Freire: an Irish Journey ~ Laurence McKeown

Vignette 8: My journey, my new life – Dan Micklethwaite

Ex-prisoners and the transformative power of higher education ~ David Honeywell

Vignette 9: Prison choices: taking a degree or packing tea? – Alan Jermey

What the OU did for me ~ Erwin James

Appendix 1: Study with the OU