Khulisa received a unanimous vote to become winners of the 2018 Robin Corbett Award for Prisoner Rehabilitation.
On the 6th March 2018 at the House Lords, Khulisa was presented with the first prize Robin Corbett Award, a national award recognising outstanding rehabilitative work with prisoners. The award specifically recognises our work with HMP Forest Bank in Manchester, where our programme has proven to reduce violent tendencies by 90% and during this time, only 8% of our participants have been involved in a violent incident. A 20-month study of our work suggests that in the long term, only 7% of our participants will go on to offend, compared to a national average of 49% for adult prisoners and 69% for younger prisoners. You can read more about our behaviour change programme, here.
This annual award for outstanding rehabilitative work with prisoners by a charity or community group, working in partnership with prison staff, was set up in the memory of Lord Corbett, the respected chairman of the Home Affairs Committee. The emphasis of the award is on work that fosters personal responsibility and which calls on people in prison, and ex-offenders, to take responsibility to help themselves and to help others.
The panel of judges included members of Robin Corbett’s family, the President of the Prison Governor’s Association, a Judge, the CEO of the Chrysalis Programme, the Director of the Prison Reform Trust, the Chair of the Howard League for Penal Reform, a Trustee of the Prison Reform Trust, an ex-offender, and Lord Ramsbotham, a former Chief Inspector of Prisons and co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Penal Affairs.
“In an exceptionally strong field, the judges were unanimous in their decision to award Khulisa the first prize for its outstanding work in behaviour change." Lady Val Corbett, Chair of the Judging Panel
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our funders who have been long-term supporters of Khulisa’s work in HMP Forest Bank and in prisons across the country, without your support this important work wouldn’t be possible: with thanks to The Monument Trust, the City Bridge Trust, Henry Smith Charity, Evan Cornish and Zochonis Charitable Trust.
The highly commended prize was awarded to Tempus Novo for its work getting prisoners into sustainable employment on release from prisons in Yorkshire. Commendations were awarded to Spark Inside for its coaching programme for prisoners at HMP Belmarsh; and to Anawim for the in-reach and through the gate services it provides to women at HMP/YOI Foston Hall.
"Khulisa make a significant contribution to prisoner rehabilitation at Forest Bank particularly in the area of violence reduction. The ‘Silence the Violence’ course is showing a reduction in the level of violence and the frequency of violence following successful completion of the course. Khulisa also play a full and active part in the Forest Bank violence reduction strategy by participating in the violence reduction meetings and by actively working in partnership with areas of the prison case managing some of our most violent offenders." Matt Spencer, Director for Sodexo and HMP Forest Bank
Following the support and recognition we’ve received, we will now work to share our expertise and build capacity within the justice sector by training professionals in our methodology. By 2020, we aim to be providing training to 350 professionals per year. When the staff training is delivered in tandem with our core Silence the Violence programme, we hope it will promote cultural change within the prison and support the development of a safer, more nurturing environment for both prisoners and prison staff.
“We are honoured to be receive this year’s Robin Corbett Award for Prisoner Rehabilitation. It is the most wonderful recognition of our work delivering intensive mentoring and behaviour-change programmes in prisons and communities across the UK, alongside our early intervention and resettlement work. We believe powerfully in every person’s capacity to live healthy, crime free lives if they are given the support, supervision and rehabilitation they need. We can’t thank you enough for recognising our contributions, alongside so many extraordinary partners, towards creating a more nurturing, person-centred, truly rehabilitative justice system.” Dominique Airey, Chief Executive of Khulisa
If you’d like to discuss our staff training or our award-winning behaviour-change programme, please do get in touch. In the meantime, consider subscribing to our monthly newsletter and sharing the good news on Twitter using @KhulisaUK.