Degrees of Freedom

Rod Earle is a senior lecturer at The Open University in the school of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care. He is a founder member of the British Convict Criminology group which supports the development of prisoner and ex-prisoner perspectives in criminology. He has published widely on this topic and is on the advisory board of the Prison Reform Trust’s prisoner engagement project. James Mehigan is Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Canterbury and a barrister at Garden Court Chambers. He taught criminology at the OU for 10 years during which time he tutored students across the prison estate in England and Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland. He is a former member of the Independent Monitoring Board at Pentonville Prison.

"The life-changing impact of university access is evident throughout this book. Critical analysis and questioning minds expose the pains of incarceration, the hypocrisy of rehabilitation. Tutors and students together ease those pains, challenge that hypocrisy.' Phil Scraton, Queen's University

• Openings and Introductions: Education for the many, prison for the few ~ Rod Earle and James Mehigan From Prisoner to Student ~ Anne Pike and Ruth McFarlane Vignette 1: Choosing my journey – Kamal Abdul Pioneers and Politics: Open University Journeys in British and Irish prisons in Long Kesh during the years of conflict 1972-1975 ~ Philip O’Sullivan & Gabi KentVignette 2: Avoiding the mind-numbing vortex of drivel … – ThomasA University Without Walls ~ Dan WeinbrenVignette 3: Starting a new chapter – Mr C.T. MorgansOpen universities, close prisons: critical arguments for the future ~ Rod Earle & James Mehigan Vignette 4: Out of the abysmal – ‘Eris’The Light to Fight The Shadows: On Education as Liberation ~ Kris McPherson From Despair to Hope ~ Margaret GoughVignette 5: Making my commitment – Razib QuraishiStraight up! From HMP to PhD ~ Stephen Akpabio-KlementowskiFrom Open University in Prison to Convict Criminology Upon Release: Mind the Gap ~ Michael IrwinVignette 6: Message to a prisoner – Gordon McDonaldFrom the School of Hard Knocks to the University of Hard Locks ~ Abdulhaq Al-WazeerBecoming Me with The Open University ~ Edwin Screeche-PowellVignette 7: Catching up with Kafka – Steven TaylorFrom D102 to Paulo Freire: an Irish Journey ~ Laurence McKeown Vignette 8: My journey, my new life – Dan MicklethwaiteEx-prisoners and the transformative power of higher education ~ David HoneywellVignette 9: Prison choices: taking a degree or packing tea? – Alan JermeyWhat the OU did for me ~ Erwin JamesAppendix 1: Study with the OU