Published on 5th May 2025

We 'wanted to say thank you to all the men who took time out to speak with us. Their openness in sharing stories and experiences has been invaluable, and we really appreciate their honesty and insight. This work only happens because of their willingness to talk and together, we’re one step closer to making a real difference.

We met with the men inside and everything they shared with us was crucial real, lived experience that can actually be used to shape better support going forward. These are the service users, the ones navigating the system day in, day out so who better to speak to than the people who know it first-hand? From the start, we made it clear this wasn’t just another tick-box exercise. We weren’t there to tick forms and disappear we were there to listen, and to make sure something real came out of it.

And something did. The insight they gave us was presented at our steering group, which includes a mix of heads of healthcare and senior staff from the prison side. It was important they heard not only where there’s still work to do, but also where good practice is already happening. The men’s voices were front and centre in those conversations.

We also really wanted to find a way to feed back to the men themselves to let them know they were heard and that their input mattered. That’s where my connections came in handy. I reached out to someone I know at Inside Time and told them what we’d been up to visiting three prisons, running both group and 1-to-1 surveys, all focused on understanding how lives can be saved in prison and how healthcare can be improved. And let’s be honest, who better to spread the word than Inside Time It’s basically the prison version of GQ everyone reads it, and it gets passed around wing to wing.

We’re proud of what’s come out of this work so far, but even more proud to say it started with conversations with men who gave their time, their thoughts, and their truth. So once again, thank you. This is just the beginning.  Click the link to see the article: NHS project asks prisoners for their views on healthcare – insidetime & insideinformation