Journalism students from a North-West university are helping inmates at a women’s prison write and produce their in-house magazine.

The rookie reporters are visiting HMP Styal, near Wilmslow in Cheshire, to work with offenders on ‘Innit’, the prison’s quarterly publication.

The weekly workshops see small teams from the University of Salford visit Styal to act as mentors and help the women with writing, story ideas, interviewing and page design.

A typical edition contains articles about prison life, interviews with staff, information to help new offenders cope, poems, short stories and competitions.

They are now working on the next issue, due out at Easter, having already produced three editions with the students’ help.

Journalism lecturer Sara Eyre said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for the students and for the university.

“Our presence at Styal could potentially contribute towards the rehabilitation of some of the offenders.

“One recently asked for her release date to be delayed so that she wouldn’t miss the final deadline and publication of the magazine she’d been working on. It’s been a huge learning curve for us.

“The students are doing brilliantly, getting to grips with working in a prison environment and developing positive working relationships with the women. It’s an exceptional and valuable experience for us all.”

Kate McCoy, who runs the writing workshops at the prison, added: “This has been a great two-way opportunity, allowing both the students and the women to learn from each other.

“As well as learning about journalism and writing, the women have had the chance to meet people involved in full-time education and begin to think about it as a possibility for them.

“And the students involved in the project have been on a learning journey, which has asked them to re-evaluate their own values and prejudices.

“Their involvement has definitely helped us to create a more dynamic and up-to-date Innit magazine.”

Comments

Emma Grogan (18/02/2010 12:11:55)
“One recently asked for her release date to be delayed so that she wouldn’t miss the final deadline and publication of the magazine she’d been working on. It’s been a huge learning curve for us.”
Did I read that right? – So a lag demands to stay in prison to finish a journo project, but our young wannabes don’t seem to see anything newsworthy in that particular point….