The Department of Law and Criminology has developed a series of socially inclusive educational partnership initiatives, bringing together students from Royal Holloway and prisons in our local community.
Since the inaugural course at HMYOI Feltham in 2017, our students have participated in three distinct and tailor-made courses: firstly, ‘Thinking Criminologically’ (2017) at HMYOI Feltham, followed by ‘Pioneering Women’ (2017) at HMP and YOI Bronzefield), and lastly, ‘Contemporary Criminological and Social Issues’ (2018) at HMYOI Feltham, in partnership with the University of Westminster.
Royal Holloway course alumni have described the opportunity as a 'fantastic opportunity' and 'beyond life-changing'. Students explained how learning alongside their fellow (prison-based) students had enabled them to 'grow as human beings', 'completely shifting' long-held negative perspectives and 'flipping pre-existing judgements' about what sort of people went to prison. Similarly, prison-based students welcomed the opportunity to interact with other learners in an environment that 'felt like a normal classroom', and which offered a route for them to develop ‘new skills, confidence, and an achievement to be proud of’.
