Over the summer The PPT brought together policymakers, prison leaders, practitioners and people with lived experience at the House of Lords for ‘Prisons: A Time of Change’, hosted by Baroness Jan Royall.
As The Prison Phoenix Trust looks ahead to its 40th anniversary in 2028, the event explored change on multiple levels: changing policy, changing prison conditions, and perhaps most importantly, the possibility of profound personal change.
Then prisons minister Lord James Timpson recognised the impact of The PPT’s work:
“When you turn up, like you do, and show kindness to people in prison, it makes a big difference.”
He also praised The PPT’s letter-writing service, noting the importance of handwritten letters in reminding people in prison that someone cares, and welcomed our pilot project delivering yoga and meditation sessions digitally to people in their cells: “I think the digital side you are developing is going to make a real difference.”
The most moving contributions came from our lived experience ambassadors, Lisa, Jasper and Richard, who spoke with honesty and courage about the role yoga, meditation and mentoring have played in their lives. Afterwards, Lisa wrote a powerful blog about the experience:
Prison took away my freedom. Meditation gave some of it back.
Last night I stood in the House of Lords as an Ambassador for The Prison Phoenix Trust
And somewhere between walking through those grand halls, meeting prison leaders, funders, volunteers and, yes… trying not to completely fangirl when I met Lord Timpson, Minister of State for Prisons… something ‘realised’.
I didn’t feel like I was in a room full of big important people. With fancy titles.
I felt like I was in a room full of human beings.
People who genuinely care.
People who are quietly changing lives.
People who understand that rehabilitation isn’t about making people feel smaller. It’s about helping them remember who they were before the trauma, before the addiction, before the shame convinced them that was all they would ever be.
Years ago, I was sitting in a prison cell convinced my life had narrowed to the size of four walls.
Last night, I found myself sharing my story in one of the country’s most historic buildings.
Not because I’m special.
Because somebody kept believing in me while I was still learning how to believe in myself.
That’s what Prison Phoenix Trust gave me.
Not just yoga.
Not just meditation.
Not just books, CDs, compassion and handwritten letters.
They gave me something I’d lost long before prison…
My dignity 🪷🫶✨
They never reduced me to my diagnosis.
Or my addiction.
Or my offending.
They didn’t speak to the worst thing I’d ever done.
They spoke to the budding human being underneath it all.
The version of me that had become buried beneath years of trauma, chaos and survival.
And little by little, she came back.
That is what real rehabilitation looks like.
It’s not about fixing broken people.
It’s about creating the conditions where people can remember they were never beyond hope in the first place.
Last night I looked around that room and thought how lucky & grateful I am.
Lucky that organisations like Prison Phoenix Trust exist.
Grateful that charities like the Nelson Trust, and so many others, continue to fight for dignity, love, empathy and second chances.
Buzzing that I now get to stand alongside people whose work I admire so deeply.
There was something incredibly equalising about the evening.
No hierarchy.
No labels.
Just people trying to make the world a little kinder than they found it.
I left feeling full.
A big beating heart 🥰
Full of hope.
And quietly reminded that one small act of kindness- a book, a meditation CD, those personal letters – can ripple further than any of us will ever know.
Thank you to everyone at Prison Phoenix Trust.
Nearly forty years of helping people find freedom where it matters most.
Inside themselves.
❤️