Chris Parsons’ Blog

Hello, I thought you may like to hear a range of questions that have been put to me over the last month and read my replies… Chris, is it true you are about to retire? No, it…

Hello, As news feeds from around the world deliver ever more depressing bulletins, there is one bright note singing out…. Its source – The LandWorks Wood Workshop. The crooner – Graham. The reason – He loves (loves)…

Hello, The messages just keep getting clearer. Like somebody is sending a sign. All around us feels fractured. Dave tipped petrol on himself. A desperate cry for help. I know… I’ve read the emergency service transcripts….

Hello, Sasha’s phone is ringing. She signals for me to listen in. “Hello, it’s the Mental Health team here. I can see it has taken a bit of time for us to get to you… Oh…

Hello, “Man, I love cake”, is often the shout at around 10.30am, just before tea break. Cake, for high days, celebrations, anniversaries, you name it, a cake is here. Cream, fruit, sponge, chocolate, iced, parsnip, carrot…

Hello, “Chris, do you think stuff just goes around, is life just a circle of continuous events?” That’s an interesting lunchtime question (I like these, gets everyone chatting) and this from a man who often poses…

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…