HMP Grendon: Therapy for dangerous prisoners
UK
HMP Grendon: Therapy for dangerous prisoners
Lee Foye, who was imprisoned for killing a young mother, has been given a life sentence for killing paedophile Robert Coello in August 2010.
They were both inmates at Grendon - a very different kind of prison which tries to rehabilitate violent criminals through group therapy - and it was the first murder in its 51-year history.
"The hardest thing about Grendon is facing up to what you have done and what you have become."
That's the opinion of Noel "Razor" Smith, career criminal turned author, who spent five years at Grendon from July 2003 to May 2008 while serving a 12-year sentence for armed robbery.
Grendon is a unique prison - inmates volunteer to go there, they have control over the day-to-day running of their lives, and they can be voted out at any time by their peers.
It is still the only prison in Europe to operate wholly as a therapeutic community.
"A therapeutic community is a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week, 52-weeks-a-year commitment to analysing your behaviour in the context of a prison to try and gain insight and understanding into why you ended up in that prison," explains Professor David Wilson.
The leading criminologist is also a former Grendon governor and he is one of many experts who fear for the prison's future.
He feels the ongoing budget cuts are shortsighted, given Grendon's success. He says the two-year reoffending rate for prisoners who stay at Grendon for more than 18 months is 20%, compared with 50% for those serving time in conventional prisons.
'Diamond geezer'Smith, who has 58 convictions to his name, volunteered to become a "resident" at Grendon after a road-to-Damascus moment in October 2001 when he was at the "top of the criminal tree".
"I was mixing with major villains, I was in a top-security jail and I was serving a life sentence," said the 50-year-old. "If you start out as a young criminal you kind of aspire, not to go to prison obviously, but to get into that company."
The father of four received the tragic news that his youngest son had died, but he was not allowed to go to his funeral because he was "too high profile and dangerous".
"I started to realise that what I had aspired to was absolute rubbish," he said. "I was the diamond geezer on the landings but I couldn't be with my family when they needed me most."
Going to Grendon was a big decision for Smith, who regards himself as an ODC (ordinary decent criminal) - their code of honour dictates that violence is reserved for other "wrong-uns" and the authorities.
"A lot of strange people go to Grendon," he said. "There's a pecking order in prison - everybody needs somebody to look down on. That would be the sex offenders, granny bashers, arsonists, and they were the type of people going to Grendon."
Smith's suitability was further tested on an induction wing before he was finally allowed to enter C-wing.
Three days a week, he would take part in small group meetings where residents would sit in a circle and analyse their own - and each other's - failings.
In addition, there was a wing meeting twice a week, where the groups would recount what had happened in the smaller sessions. Smith also took part in psychodrama - acting out scenes from his past - for two years.
Smith struggled with Grendon at first, with the respect he was shown, with the responsibilities he was given, and with mixing with child killers and rapists.
"I had spent my prison career finding these people and hurting them," he said.
What stopped him from "bashing their brains in" was hearing their stories and accepting that they too were at Grendon to try and change their behaviour.
Indeed, listening to sex offenders' accounts of their crimes left former Grendon prison officer Steven Heaven with post-traumatic stress disorder, and earlier this year he was awarded an undisclosed six-figure sum in damages.
Ever-decreasing budgetProf David Wilson, now chairman of the charity Friends of Grendon, says the prison has never been without its detractors - to the "bang 'em up" brigade, it sounds like a soft touch - but for most residents it is much harder than being locked up in a cell.
He says the murder of Coello, a 44-year-old former bus driver who was serving life for raping a child, had brought the spotlight back on to Grendon.
During the trial at Luton Crown Court, the jury heard that Coello had been placed in a wing with prisoners who were not sex offenders because the prison was so full.
Patrick Mandikate, the prison's head of psychotherapy, admitted he was "uneasy" with the decision. "It was made clear to me in no uncertain terms that we needed to fill these beds no matter who was available."
Judge Foster said Foye had "manipulated the prison authorities to facilitate" his move to Grendon and he had chosen Coello as his victim "perhaps because he had been vocal about his own offending".
Prof Wilson argues the murder should not be allowed to undermine the work done at Grendon, which historically has had the lowest rate of violence within the entire prison estate.
"Make no mistake about it, Grendon is at a really difficult crossroads," he said.
"Its resources have been cut and cut and cut, and there comes a point at which it is no longer safe and we are very close to that point.
"If the government insists on cutting it further then I no longer see how it will be able to operate as a therapeutic community."
Smith has his own theories about the murder at the prison.
He believes the entry criteria have been "dumbed down" - which the Prison Service denies - and it is now easier to get in, because Grendon has to compete for residents as other prisons have opened therapeutic communities within their establishments.
More generally, it is an ever-decreasing budget that worries the Prison Officers' Association, the Chief Inspector of Prisoners and various academics.
After an inspection in 2009, the then Chief Inspector of Prisons, Dame Anne Owers, said it had "reaffirmed Grendon's remarkable achievements with some of the system's most dangerous and difficult prisoners".
She also said: "It was of enormous concern to find that cumulative financial efficiencies had begun to erode Grendon's capacity to deliver a therapeutic regime at all."
Criminologists Elaine Genders and Elaine Player first visited the prison in the late 1980s, and to celebrate its 50th anniversary they revisited in 2010.
Among their many findings, they reported fewer staff, groups cancelled on a regular basis, and residents spending more time in their cells.
They concluded: "One of the most significant factors affecting how Grendon functions as both a prison and a therapeutic community has been the Treasury-driven reductions in prison service expenditure."
A Prison Service spokeswoman said the Ministry of Justice needed to make savings of about £2bn by 2014/15 and this meant "tough financial decisions".
"The government is committed to a rehabilitation revolution," she said. "To help achieve this we need a fit-for-purpose prison estate, which balances the needs of offenders with the capacity of the public purse."
Smith, who was released in May last year, says that while he wanted to change his life, it would not have been possible without Grendon.
And the most important thing he learned there?
"Empathy. A lot of armed robbers tell themselves we don't have victims," he said.
"I had never really taken other people's feelings into account. When you think about what your victims must have thought, it is very hard to depersonalise them."
Breaking the Cycle: Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession and Shame
George N. Collins, MA, and his co-writer Andrew Adleman, MA, in Breaking the Cycle: Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession and Shame provide a guide away from the cyclic, reactive, addictive, superficial and thus unsatisfying sexual behavior. As Collins points out in his book, “Of course it’s normal and healthy to have sexual desire and to experience sex. But it is neither normal nor healthy for sexual desire to become all consuming. Sexual desire should be part of a larger approach you have to life. The goal is balance. Interactions with partners should be about love and intimacy in addition to being about sex.”
Collins, a former sex addict, is founder and director of Compulsion Solutions, an outpatient counseling service in the San Francisco Bay Area specializing in the treatment of men suffering from sexually compulsive behavior. He is recognized as an expert on sexually compulsive behavior. I find his book to be an excellent guide on ending sex addiction as it provides techniques that give intimacy to the reader’s true self and thus intimacy with others.
While Collins specializes in the counseling of sexually addictive men, his clients have included people of all sexual orientations. For the sake of simplicity, his book is directed to heterosexual males, but as he points out, his techniques work for almost anyone. As Collins notes, the ideas underlying his techniques can be applied with any sort of addictive behavior. Early on, Collins points out a crucial fact about addiction, “ . . . that you can’t get enough of what won’t satisfy you! Objectifying and sexualizing people is a never-ending, negative process that yields a few minutes of excitement, a brief orgasm, then hours, days, weeks, months, and years of fear, pain, shame, self-doubt, self-criticism, judgement, and anger.” Collins provides a collection of methods that support each other by challenging both the addiction as well as those inner voices that give rise to these negative feelings.
Collins forms the basis of his techniques as the differentiation between an individual’s true essence and the repetitive stories that the individual’s mind tells. These inner voices, or subpersonalities, Collins notes, are a normal part of the human psyche that shape the perception of oneself. Since, however, they are not the essence of an individual’s true nature, they can be changed. Collins quotes Eckhart Tolle, in The Power of Now, “Your mind is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific task, and when the task is completed, you lay it down. As it is, I would say about 80 to 90 percent of most people’s thinking is not only repetitive and useless, but because of its dysfunctional and often negative nature, much of it is also harmful. Observe your mind and you will find this to be true.” Collins provides techniques for individuals to gain greater awareness of their own inner stories, giving them the ability to rewrite them. While the utility of the mind is important to realize, Collins helps readers to set it aside and to live in the present moment. As Collins writes, “Your real addiction is to your mind.”
Collins introduces his techniques by asking his readers to imagine themselves in the center of a personal amphitheater with the lights turned off. The person standing in the center of the amphitheater is one’s self and the voices heard in the amphitheater telling one to check out new porn, visit a prostitute or repeat the typical addictive cycle are understood to be the addictive subpersonalities. As Collins notes, these repetitive and dysfunctional stories and the personal behavior that results often seems automatic, but they are not. By using the technique of having individuals “turn on the lights” in their amphitheater, identify, confront and reason with the voices, their stories and thus subpersonalities can be changed.
Through the use of journaling and consciously directing these stories an addict begins to recognize “what’s always true,” that one always has a choice. By thus having individuals identify with the silent and true essence of their selves, rather than with the stories told in their mind, Collins points the way toward freedom from sex addiction. As he writes, “When everything you do is fresh and you’re no longer living in reaction to your history, there are no preconceived notions, no story. Your life will be different.”
While he refers to masters from Roberto Assagioli to Ken Wilber, George Collins has written a book that is, as he writes, “. . .not just based on what he read,” but based, perhaps more importantly, on his own previous experience as a sex addict as well as his successful counseling of sex addicts. His book is well written, clearly based on deep principles, but written in a manner that anyone can pick up and make use of. His inclusion of many techniques, from The Blonde in the Beemer: What to Do When You’re Out of Control to How Good Can You Stand It? Connecting with Yourself and Others shows that Collins understands the difficult, human process involved in breaking free from the cycle of sexual obsession.
Through his own difficult personal experience and his later expertise in counseling Collins provides an excellent guide. He satisfies his stated goal of helping his readers break the cycle of an unsatisfying life of sexually compulsive behavior and through the intimate connections they find with others make their life better. Breaking the Cycle: Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession and Shame is highly recommended.
Breaking the Cycle: Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession and Shame
George N. Collins, MA with Andrew Adleman, MA
New Harbinger Publications: October 1, 2011
Paperback, 224 pages
$17.95Psych Central's Recommendation: Worth Your Time! +++
Your Recommendation (if you've read this book):(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
Want to buy the book or learn more?
Check out the book on Amazon.com!
APA Reference
Stoeckel, M. (2011). Breaking the Cycle: Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession and Shame. Psych Central. Retrieved on November 14, 2011, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/2011/breaking-the-cycle-free-yourself-from-sex-ad...Related Articles -->
More Related Articles
Latest Articles
- FAQs for Partners of Sex Addicts
- An Overview of Sex Addiction
- If You Think You Have a Problem with Sexual Addiction
- Symptoms of Sexual Addiction
- Understanding More about Sexual Addiction
- What Causes Sexual Addiction?
- Symptoms of Hypersexual Disorder (Sex Addiction)
- Saying No To Naked Women
- The Boy Who Finally Stopped Washing: OCD From Both Sides of the Couch
- Teens and Internet Pornography
- Saying No (Kindly) And Then Letting Go
- You Should Be So Lucky: Dealing with Tragedy
- 7 Tips for Long-Distance Couples
- How Couples Can Help Each Other De-stress and Improve Their Relationship
- Emotionally Focused Therapy: Bolstering Couples’ Emotional Bonds
- October is Domestic Violence Month
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 14 Nov 2011
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
Breaking the Cycle: Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession and Shame
George N. Collins, MA, and his co-writer Andrew Adleman, MA, in Breaking the Cycle: Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession and Shame provide a guide away from the cyclic, reactive, addictive, superficial and thus unsatisfying sexual behavior. As Collins points out in his book, “Of course it’s normal and healthy to have sexual desire and to experience sex. But it is neither normal nor healthy for sexual desire to become all consuming. Sexual desire should be part of a larger approach you have to life. The goal is balance. Interactions with partners should be about love and intimacy in addition to being about sex.”
Collins, a former sex addict, is founder and director of Compulsion Solutions, an outpatient counseling service in the San Francisco Bay Area specializing in the treatment of men suffering from sexually compulsive behavior. He is recognized as an expert on sexually compulsive behavior. I find his book to be an excellent guide on ending sex addiction as it provides techniques that give intimacy to the reader’s true self and thus intimacy with others.
While Collins specializes in the counseling of sexually addictive men, his clients have included people of all sexual orientations. For the sake of simplicity, his book is directed to heterosexual males, but as he points out, his techniques work for almost anyone. As Collins notes, the ideas underlying his techniques can be applied with any sort of addictive behavior. Early on, Collins points out a crucial fact about addiction, “ . . . that you can’t get enough of what won’t satisfy you! Objectifying and sexualizing people is a never-ending, negative process that yields a few minutes of excitement, a brief orgasm, then hours, days, weeks, months, and years of fear, pain, shame, self-doubt, self-criticism, judgement, and anger.” Collins provides a collection of methods that support each other by challenging both the addiction as well as those inner voices that give rise to these negative feelings.
Collins forms the basis of his techniques as the differentiation between an individual’s true essence and the repetitive stories that the individual’s mind tells. These inner voices, or subpersonalities, Collins notes, are a normal part of the human psyche that shape the perception of oneself. Since, however, they are not the essence of an individual’s true nature, they can be changed. Collins quotes Eckhart Tolle, in The Power of Now, “Your mind is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific task, and when the task is completed, you lay it down. As it is, I would say about 80 to 90 percent of most people’s thinking is not only repetitive and useless, but because of its dysfunctional and often negative nature, much of it is also harmful. Observe your mind and you will find this to be true.” Collins provides techniques for individuals to gain greater awareness of their own inner stories, giving them the ability to rewrite them. While the utility of the mind is important to realize, Collins helps readers to set it aside and to live in the present moment. As Collins writes, “Your real addiction is to your mind.”
Collins introduces his techniques by asking his readers to imagine themselves in the center of a personal amphitheater with the lights turned off. The person standing in the center of the amphitheater is one’s self and the voices heard in the amphitheater telling one to check out new porn, visit a prostitute or repeat the typical addictive cycle are understood to be the addictive subpersonalities. As Collins notes, these repetitive and dysfunctional stories and the personal behavior that results often seems automatic, but they are not. By using the technique of having individuals “turn on the lights” in their amphitheater, identify, confront and reason with the voices, their stories and thus subpersonalities can be changed.
Through the use of journaling and consciously directing these stories an addict begins to recognize “what’s always true,” that one always has a choice. By thus having individuals identify with the silent and true essence of their selves, rather than with the stories told in their mind, Collins points the way toward freedom from sex addiction. As he writes, “When everything you do is fresh and you’re no longer living in reaction to your history, there are no preconceived notions, no story. Your life will be different.”
While he refers to masters from Roberto Assagioli to Ken Wilber, George Collins has written a book that is, as he writes, “. . .not just based on what he read,” but based, perhaps more importantly, on his own previous experience as a sex addict as well as his successful counseling of sex addicts. His book is well written, clearly based on deep principles, but written in a manner that anyone can pick up and make use of. His inclusion of many techniques, from The Blonde in the Beemer: What to Do When You’re Out of Control to How Good Can You Stand It? Connecting with Yourself and Others shows that Collins understands the difficult, human process involved in breaking free from the cycle of sexual obsession.
Through his own difficult personal experience and his later expertise in counseling Collins provides an excellent guide. He satisfies his stated goal of helping his readers break the cycle of an unsatisfying life of sexually compulsive behavior and through the intimate connections they find with others make their life better. Breaking the Cycle: Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession and Shame is highly recommended.
Breaking the Cycle: Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession and Shame
George N. Collins, MA with Andrew Adleman, MA
New Harbinger Publications: October 1, 2011
Paperback, 224 pages
$17.95Psych Central's Recommendation: Worth Your Time! +++
Your Recommendation (if you've read this book):Want to buy the book or learn more?
Check out the book on Amazon.com!
APA Reference
Stoeckel, M. (2011). Breaking the Cycle: Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession and Shame. Psych Central. Retrieved on November 14, 2011, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/2011/breaking-the-cycle-free-yourself-from-sex-ad...Related Articles -->
More Related Articles
Latest Articles
- FAQs for Partners of Sex Addicts
- An Overview of Sex Addiction
- If You Think You Have a Problem with Sexual Addiction
- Symptoms of Sexual Addiction
- Understanding More about Sexual Addiction
- What Causes Sexual Addiction?
- Symptoms of Hypersexual Disorder (Sex Addiction)
- Saying No To Naked Women
- The Boy Who Finally Stopped Washing: OCD From Both Sides of the Couch
- Teens and Internet Pornography
- Saying No (Kindly) And Then Letting Go
- You Should Be So Lucky: Dealing with Tragedy
- 7 Tips for Long-Distance Couples
- How Couples Can Help Each Other De-stress and Improve Their Relationship
- Emotionally Focused Therapy: Bolstering Couples’ Emotional Bonds
- October is Domestic Violence Month
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 14 Nov 2011
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
Business Leads from Freeindex
Following a lead I had received this afternoon I would like to mention that I will not be accepting personal private leads from Freeindex for my own personal safety.
Leads will ONLY be accepted from verified organisations/business/local authorities/health etc. on Freeindex
If you wish to contact me I have many ways that you can do so.
By phone: 07762782114 (This is the best form of contact)
By using my Contact Me pages found in the footer of the website or in the "Where can I go on this site?"
Via Linkedin, and Twitter, found in the footer of the website.
Safety is paramount and I must put things in place to ensure that safety is not put at risk.
Many Thanks
Monica Gobourne
