Chris Parsons’ Blog

Hello, Building trusting relationships can, on the one hand, be deeply satisfying, on the other, it can be like sand slipping through your fingers. You just have to be there, through the ups and downs, just…

Hello, Sometimes it just goes wrong. Even though everything is going right. Josh came here in the Autumn last year. It had taken months to get him to engage. He couldn’t deal with authority. Traumatised from…

Hello, I’ve been wondering for a while how to start this email. Best keep it simple… I guess over the last ten years (I will stop going on about it after this email) for me there…

Hello, Day 3,637 Jimmy, one of the first cohort (then a day release prisoner), just sent the following text… “I know that I’m hard work but something that you said and done that hit home with…

Hello, “Mate (Aussie accent), I’ve read your little blog thing for years and mate, all you do is moan. Why don’t you ever say how you would fix it?” Right-oh, good – always encouraging to get…

Hello, “Do you feel that, Chris? You know, the destruction of hope, the pervading sense that we just have to accept all this.” Oh dear, it’s Monday morning, and I had been quite hopeful of just…

Hello, “Alright, Chris, you a Grandad then”. “Er, no”. “Oh, sorry mate, they said you turned 60, my Grandad’s much the same age.” I start to do the maths, but give up…  accepting probably everything is…

Hello, “When do you get the orange suits, Chris, the offender jump suits the Government want us to wear? I’m not wearing one of those.” I answer quite simply… “We’re not going to have them here.”…

Hello, Seven minutes, that’s all it takes to get him from LandWorks to the train station, and he must have told me how bad the weather has been recently at least twenty times. My absurdly optimistic…

Hello, There are moments, glorious moments… A text comes in at 10.16 am… How’s things with LandWorks mate? Just checking in; been sober for a long time now. I’m feeling so happy and grateful mate. Would love…

Hello, I thought it may be helpful to update you on few things at LandWorks…. The PeN Project is in its seventh year. I think this project is quite unique in that it gives a voice to those…

Hello, Oh, somebody’s waving at me and it looks like they’ve got a book in their hands. I walk down to meet them at the shop, I reckon it’s one of our second-hand books they’re brandishing. We’ve…

Hello, My foot triggers the security lights, which in turn jolts a wee wren from an opening in the eaves of one of our porta cabins. It is tiny and flits low over the ground. This…

Hello, So, I had obviously drifted off. Bit awkward. I was thinking about why being in Prison gives people’s skin such a grey pasty unhealthy pallor, and oh god how many times have I been dragged…

Hello, I thought given the rather bleak news around at the moment I would write something a little more upbeat, positive, perhaps even a little bit cheerful… So, over the last 12 months we have provided…