A neurospicy job interview
By Rachel Melinek The woman looks up at me. ‘We need a record that accounts for all your time.’ ‘Absolutely all of it?’ ‘Yes, you can’t work in social care unless we know what you’ve been doing.’ ‘I have it on my CV; I’ve mainly been self-employed.’ ‘We need a reference.’ ‘I have one from […]
Summer Hopezine 2023 made with love with Unlock
With over 12 million people in the UK holding a criminal record, it’s time Hopezine handed over it’s pages to law-abiding citizens who have criminal records. This summer is the specialedition made with members of the charity, Unlock, for people with criminal records. Think it doesn’t apply to you? Tried cannabis in your teens or […]
Abandon hope all ye who enter here, philosophical words by Con Cord
Were those words actually attached to the police station, the courtbuilding, the prisons or probation offices I visited during the course of my criminal journey?No, they weren’t.They actually refer to Dante’s Inferno and an inscription above the gates of Hell.Did I abandon all hope as I frequented those establishments?With hindsight……Not quite, but very nearly.It is […]
Addiction Ditty
Addiction is cruel, that’s the main rule.Abstaining from the vein, is the ultimate aim.Whether inhaled, ingested or intravenous injected.Drugs don’t discriminate who are infected.Loneliness, lies and broken family ties.No trees of green, just dark cloudy skies.Whatever ya poison, its basically the same.Nobody lives long in this perilous game.So a trip to the quack, to get […]
Prison is hope, a poem about life after prison
Prison was the beginning, the lowest of the lows,I remember telling my mum, the only thing worse was death,It’s difficult to think of a punishment so pointless,Yet, an experience that makes your life a mess,My first day in prison was hard, I felt so deeply lost,When you think about crime, you never think of the […]
How can you re-emerge from prison and successfully reintegrate into the community?
When I left prison, I was anxious, stressed and worried- it wasn’t goingto be easy. The stigma of being an ex-offender coupled with being youngscared me, how would I get a job? How would I tell people where I’d beenfor the last year? How would I deal with all the people who had seen myarticle […]