Devon and Cornwall Quakers

 

Welcome to the website for Quakers in Devon and Cornwall

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NEW:The draft agendas for next Area Meetings in both counties are now available on the Members' page


 

Learning from Experience

Personal narratives from the Criminal Justice System

"Justice should be compassionate, forgiving and healing - restorative, not retributive. We want to change attitudes and encourage the criminal justice system to move towards this vision of justice."

The Quaker Crime, Community and Justice Group* is collecting stories directly from anyone who has been affected when someone they know receives a prison or community sentence.

Friends and Attenders throughout the country are accepting our invitation to be part of this unique initiative, by helping us to collect personal narratives. We have already received stories from 11 Area Meetings, and are looking forward to receiving more.

You don’t have to be involved in any way with the criminal justice system: you may know someone where you work or live or meet socially who has a story to tell. You may have a story of your own.

A custodial or community sentence affects many more people than the person who has been convicted: their family and friends; the victim and their family and friends; the wider community. We want to know the practical and emotional effect, the worst thing about the experience, whether there was anything positive about it, and if something or someone could or did make things better.All the personal narratives are treated with care and complete confidentiality by the Crime, Community and Justice Group. The stories will help us identify and illustrate issues we then raise with government to achieve our vision of justice.

Full information, including the Guidance Pack on how to collect stories, from: Paula Harvey, QPSW CCJG, Friends House, Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ. T: 020 7663 1036 E: paulah@quaker.org.uk

* The Crime, Community and Justice Group is part of QPSW (Quaker Peace and Social Witness) within the Religious Society of Friends. Quakers are well known for their work in supporting prisoners and in campaigning for reform of the Justice system.

Some facts about prison (from the Prison Reform Trust 'Prison Factfile', 20 July 2010):

  • On Friday 2 July there were 85,074 people in prison in England and Wales
  • England and Wales has the highest rate of imprisonment in Western Europe
    In France, with a similar sized population, the figure is 59,655 and in
    Germany with over 20 million more people, it is 72,043.
  • During their time at school 7% of children experience their father's imprisonment
  • 20 - 30% of prisoners have learning difficulties or learning disabilities that interfere with their ability to cope within the criminal justice system.
  • Up to 70% of prisoners have some form of mental disorder and one in ten is suffering from a major psychotic illness.
  • Two thirds of people entering prison test positive for class A drugs and 63% of men and 39% of women in prison have been hazardous drinkers.
  • Over a third of all prisoners have been in local authority care as a child.
  • It costs £45,000 a year to keep a person in prison and over £170,,000 to build and maintain each new prison place.
  • Half of all prisoners are re-convicted within one year of release - for young men aged 18-20 three quarters re-offend. The National Audit Office has recently estimated that re-offending by former prisoners costs the economy between £9.5 billion and £13 billion each year.

 
 

An innovative learning project which is available to all who are new to Friends - both individuals and groups, whether familiar with computers or not - who want to know more about Quakers.

It helps newcomers to understand more about Quakerism, while exploring their own spiritual journey, through the use of flexible learning materials, on-line discussion groups and support from a network of ‘companions’ in local meetings. It is however only an option, to use or not!

The Becoming Friends course is available both online and on paper. The online course costs £5 and the paper pack costs £10. Sign up for the online course by following the instructions at www.woodbrooke.org.uk/becomingfriends or order the paper pack from the Quaker Centre bookshop. A free demonstration of the online Becoming Friends course is also available at http://moodle.woodbrooke.org.uk (use guest login).

Two Friends from Devon Area Meeting have already been on the 'Becoming Friends Companions' course. Meetings can support newcomers who are using the Becoming Friends materials, or want to do so, by sending a couple of Friends on one of the courses below.

See www.woodbrooke.org.uk/becomingfriends for more information.
   
 

"You must be the change you want to see in the world" Mahatma Ghandi.

 

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We acknowledge the help we had from Neil Turner, webmaster of Scotland GM website, originally written by Joe Latham, which provided us with a valuable model

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