On the 28th of January, Christs hospital school had the opportunity to host Andy west for a talk at the Riches lecture theatre. The talk was about the rehabilitation of prisons, based off his book ‘the life inside’.  

Andy west, being a philosopher and psychologist, is an educator in philosophy within the prison system. His book goes into detail about his experiences and conversations with inmates and challenges the ideas of rehabilitation and punishment. 

In the first few minutes of the talk, West shared with the students a short clip from the show ‘waiting for the out’ streamed on BBC iPlayer. The show is based off his book. In the clip, main character Dan Stewer (anagram of Andrew west), is teaching a philosophy class to inmates. He asks them whether they believe we live in a world of just or a world of luck. 

 West, then asks the audience the same question, prompting a discussion, which will be a question that students should go back to at the end of the talk. 

West talks about his own personal connections with the prison system, with his brother, uncle and father having been in jail.

West described ‘seeing somebody so close to you as a family member as opposed to someone that is being punished by the system … I think that it’s easy to feel resent to the system’

He talks about his connection with his uncle and the stories he uses to tell him, one including how at the age of 15 he got arrested for stealing a crate of coke cans.  

West also went into detail about his previous trip to Norway and having an experience in the prison system today. He said that he believes that the UK system has a lot to learn from the Norwegian system. 

Furthermore, He talks about how the prison system is portrayed. We may think that based off what we see on television that prisoners are always violent and that West may have felt unsafe however he talked about how prisoners were often drained and tired, and ‘waiting for the out’. 

Lastly, throughout the talks about the circle of humanity. At, the end of the talk he says ‘people leave the circle of humanity, where they’re placed outside is often having to have a cynical view of them. its not just prisoners who get this, it could be lots of people who are in the outgroup who are often treated as if they’re humanity exists less in our humanity’.

Ellie ,an attendee of the event, said that she really enjoyed this talk . She even took time to purchase a copy of his book at the end.