Storybooks and their accompanying musical tracks made by creative prisoners during our Inside Stories project have been recognised with an impressive 14 Koestler Awards. (This story is from 2019.)

The prizes are awarded by Koestler Arts, a charity dedicated to awarding, exhibiting and selling artwork by prisoners, detainees and secure patients. Since 2012, work made during our prison projects has been recognised with a total of 95 Koestler Awards, with one of our 2018 award-winning pieces being selected for the prestigious Koestler Arts exhibition at the Southbank Centre.

“This project has helped my partner, children and parents feel more relaxed and positive about my time in prison.”

Inside Stories participant

Our Inside Stories programme gives these creative prisoners the opportunity to produce illustrated stories and music for their children. Working under the guidance of our professional writer, visual artist and musicians, they work in pairs to write, record and illustrate original stories, which they then set to music in groups. The project enables them to build creativity, teamwork and communication skills and arts skills that they can use with their children during prison visits and on release.

Following their fathers’ performance in the prison during a special family visit, the children receive a copy of the professionally produced storybook and CD, helping to maintain the bond between parent and child, and enabling them to have a very personal part of their Dad at home.

The Ministry of Justice has found that sustaining family ties makes it easier for prisoners to reintegrate into society and increases their chance of finding a job and stable accommodation once they are released. One of the prisoners who took part told us:

“I thought Inside Stories would be a good opportunity to do something to show my family I am thinking about them all the time and being productive with my time in prison. I hope when my girl sees this book it’ll make her think I can be a good dad. I think my family feel proud of me for doing this.

“This project has helped my partner, children and parents feel more relaxed and positive about my time in prison. It helps them think about me being productive, becoming a good man. Maybe in the past I wouldn’t have done something nice like this for my loved ones, so it helps me show them how much I care for them.”

Below, I’m delighted to share one of the winning stories, The Lion and The Hen from the Collection Daddy’s Little Stories, which itself won a First Time Entrant award in the Anthology category.

This fantastic achievement at the Koestler Awards is a reflection of the creativity, dedication and passion put into Inside Stories by the prisoners who created them for their children under the guidance of our artists. The success of this projects demonstrates the value of giving prisoners opportunities to express themselves creatively and connect with the outside world.

Read our interview with Andrew Wilkie, Director of Radio at the Prison Radio Association, here

Nicky Goulder, Founding Chief Executive

Radio plays and storybooks made by prisoners as part of our Inside Change and Inside Stories projects have won an incredible 17 Koestler Awards. (This story is from 2018.)

The prizes are awarded by the Koestler Trust, an organisation that awards, exhibits and sells art by prisoners, detainees and secure patients. Since 2012, work made during our projects has been recognised with a total of 81 Koestler Awards. This year is particularly special as, for the first time, one of our award-winning pieces has been selected by the curators of the Koestler Trust exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall.

Of particular note this year are the five accolades for Inside Change. This is a new programme enabling prisoners to explore financial literacy through creating original radio plays. Working with our professional drama artists, prisoners use script writing and drama to develop their financial capability. This aids their rehabilitation and smoother transition back into the community on release. One of the plays, Bars Behind Bars, won the Gold Award in the Radio Play category.

Prisoners use script writing and drama to develop their financial skills. This aids their smoother transition back into the community on release. Government research suggests that low financial literacy is a major barrier to the resettlement of offenders back into communities. Many prisoners and ex-offenders recognise that they have poor money management skills and find it hard to budget. Some reflected that it was hard to learn how to manage money while in prison as everything was provided, so they did not have an opportunity to develop their budgeting skills.

One Inside Change participant told us:

“[Projects] like these make people more aware of financial issues and have the potential to reduce crime by reducing debt. I learnt about high interest loans, to always read the small print, and also about how to stretch money as far as possible and plan my finances.

“Creating the script for the radio play was a new experience – I’d never done a radio play before. The workshops helped me become better at expressing myself and waiting for my turn. As time went on I grew more confident. We all had input and Create’s artists ensured everyone was included. We learnt how to work together and had a laugh recording the play. They’re a good group of boys.

“I’m looking forward to hearing the play on National Prison Radio. It’ll give me bragging rights! I would do this every day. It was the most enjoyable activity I’ve done in prison.

“The workshops helped me become better at expressing myself and waiting for my turn.”

Prisoners produce Koestler-winning illustrated stories for their children

Inside Stories, our programme giving prisoners the opportunity to produce illustrated stories and music for their children, won the remaining 12 awards. Guided by our professional writer, visual artist and musicians, prisoners work in pairs to write, record and illustrate original stories. They then work as a group to set these to music. Following their performance in the prison during a special family visit, the children receive a copy of the professionally produced storybook and CD. This helps to maintain the bond between parent and child.

Below, I’m delighted to share one of the winning stories. Kit Cat the Hero Cat won the First-Time Entrant Award in the Graphic Novel category and the Commended Award in the Flash Fiction and Novel category.

Nicky Goulder, Founding Chief Executive

This year, Inside Stories, our creative project for young parents in prison, was recognised with 18 Koestler Awards.

These prestigious accolades are presented by Koestler Trust, an organisation dedicated to awarding, exhibiting and selling artworks by offenders, detainees and secure patients. This year, the Trust received over 8,500 pieces of writing, music, film, fine art and design from prisons across the country, making the achievements of our participants all the more impressive.

Our Inside Stories programme gives offenders aged 18-25 the opportunity to produce illustrated stories and music for their children. Working under the guidance of our professional writer, visual artist and musicians, they work in pairs to write, record and illustrate original stories before working as a group to set these to music. Following their performance in the prison during a special family visit, the children receive a copy of the professionally produced storybook and CD, helping to maintain the bond between parent and child.

The Ministry of Justice has found that sustaining family ties makes it easier for an offender to reintegrate into society and increases their chance of finding a job and stable accommodation once they are released.

One of our participants told us, “I wanted to do Inside Stories because it’s something that could help me feel close to my children. Because I’m in here, I don’t have as much time as I’d like with them. I thought that if they could hear my voice on the CD, maybe they can hear my voice at night time before they go to bed and know that Daddy’s still thinking about them.”

To celebrate these 18 incredible achievements, we are delighted to share The Hat Snatcher, a story written and illustrated by offenders. This was awarded the Gold Award for Mixed Media.

The Hat Snatcher

There was once a man called Peter who lived in the forest with his little boy Jimmy. Peter owned a hat shop, with hats of all shapes and sizes. Not far from them, there lived a bear called Barry. Jimmy and Barry were friends. One day, Jimmy visited Barry and noticed Barry’s hat collection.

Jimmy said, “Where did you get those hats from?”

Barry replied, “I found them scattered around the forest.”

“My dad has hats like those.”

“Does he want them back?”

“No, it’s fine Barry.”

When Jimmy got home, Peter was really angry because his hats had been stolen.

“Barry found lots of hats around the forest, dad.”

Peter replied, “I’ll teach that bear for stealing my hats!”

That night Jimmy was woken by a loud howl. He looked out of his window and noticed his dad had changed into a big, hairy wolf and had loads of hats in his teeth! He then ran into the forest dropping them everywhere! Peter returned with a hat on his head, he got into bed and little Jimmy said, “You’re the hat snatcher, not Barry! You need to say sorry.”

So off to Barry’s they went and partied into the night. Oh what a great sight!