Building a rehabilitation culture

Policy paper, feasibility study and research-in-action to develop a new social enterprise model for rehabilitation and resettlement around prisons. Appointed as part of a small RSA team, we undertook an extensive collaborative design process with stakeholders from across the justice sector. Working on site with HMP Humber, we developed a pilot project as proof of concept that re-purposed the surrounding land and supported officers, management and prisoners to manage the necessary organisational and cultural change.

A Community Interest Company was established to take forward the pilot project locally and a phased masterplan and business plan were developed for inplementation and fund-raising.

The suite of reports published by the RSA in 2014 covered several related strands of the project, under an overarching policy paper.

The project was highly influential in the Government’s prison reform agenda that culminated in a white paper in 2016, in turn leading to the project authors establishing the New Futures Network (Rachel O’Brien) and winning the RIBA Research Trust Award (Matter).

Read the RSA Transitions Reports here

Funders: Esme Fairbairn, Tudor Trust

Partners: HMP Humber

Team: Rachel O’Brien, Roland Karthaus (Matter Architecture)