Breaking In
You think it's hard breaking out of prison?
You want to try breaking in.
What does it take for one man with no history of prison or prison service to earn the right to work with people on both sides of the the bars?
What does that feel like - and why should you care anyway?
Andy Mouncey Founder of Run For Your Life CIC does not work for the Prison Service. Here he talks candidly about how it feels to do the work he does in this most challenging of places, and how that continues to generate more questions than answers.
Episodes
17 episodes
You Are More Than You Think
We take another deep dive into Andy's prison program and the what and why of the key design features many of which have taken a decade or so to refine: Physically Active Learning, mind-body connection, managing mood, working to targets, competi...
In Praise Of People
It's taken a decade or so for Andy to really recognise the risks, limits and costs of his choice to do this work as a sole practitioner but here he is. In this episode he talks about the steps he has taken to move away from professional isolati...
My Mentoring Year With PwC: Prison Governors Speak
Andy's unique mentoring model pairs a prison leader with a senior partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in a reciprocal relationship lasting 12months. A first intake of 13 pairs were launched last year and as the first round comes to a close the pr...
More In Common
Why would you put a prison leader and a corporate executive in a mutual mentoring model and what's in it for them? Andy explains the how and why of his unique partnership. We also talk bubbles and silos; the importance of getting ou...
The Most Challenging Time
One of the reasons Andy hasn't recorded any new material for a while is that he's been using all his bandwidth to Deal With Demons - most of which have been unleashed as a consequence of the work. While not fully out of the woods just yet he's ...
Fitness First: Why It Works
Most of the people behind bars are not there for reasons of 'organised' crime: They have not sat down and done a rational cost-benefit analysis of their crime and sentence before going out and doing the deed. Most people are there beca...
The Relationship Building Business
Andy argues that people in prison stand and fall on their capacity to build, nuture and repair relationships, and that this is crucial skill that needs to bridge both sides of the bars if the place is to be a safe one.In the second of two p...
Covid: Unintended Consequences
Some Good News - & The Work Is Harder Now.Covid has changed the game for the people in our prisons on either side of the bars.Some of that was planned for and much of it seemingly was not, and as time goes on it becomes harder to un...
Hope Part 3: It's A Bumpy Ride - & Smoother If Fitness First
Andy explains the what and why of his prison program design: Physical activity challenges in groups to enable people to experience agency and community sometimes for the first time, and using this as a gateway to hearts and minds. He talks abou...
Only Shadows Remain
We are sending more people to prison more often, earlier and for longer. Our prison population has grown by 3/4 in the last few decades and is projected to keep growing. The fastest growing group are older men and it is with this group...
Hope 2: Some Stuff Is Bad - Most People Are Good
Here's the good news: Most crime is not Organised - or done as a result of a cold rational decision. Most people are inside for other reasons - reasons that can be treated or worked with. In other words there's hope - but you have to look and t...
Hope Part 1: Yes We Can
It's all too easy to focus on the dark side when delving into criminal justice.There is dark and there is also Hope - and that hope can start today with each of us.Andy doesn't have a manifesto but if he did the first early draft versio...
New Work New World
Covid may be officially over but the legacy is lingering way longer in the prison system than in society at large. As Andy gets ready to start new NHS-funded work with elderly, disabled and vulnerable men he talks about how to hold on to Hope a...
Breakthrough
Andy lands his first contracted work as our prison system tries to get to grips with the cost of covid for staff and men inside counted in terms of mental, physical and emotional health and function. 10 years on from his first contact ...
First Hopes
Nothing Star Wars here: Andy talks about the what and why of the formation of his not-profit Run For Your Life in 2017, his hopes that he had and continues to have and how these compare to the reality of this type of work. He ends the 'cast tal...
