"Defending Exalted Human Values"

Sometimes the world gets to you. It's upsetting and unsettling to hear about the plight of so many and the sheer badness of some. But today I was touched and moved by the great things that humankind has achieved and the hundreds of talented individuals who have used their gifts to advance society and make a healthier, brighter, richer world.

It's been a hectic week in Stockholm but today I had some down-time, and so I went to the Nobel Museum.

Even though many Nobel prize winners have experience of being in prison or under house-arrest (Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi and Kim Dae-Jung of South Korea for example) there were no winners who fought for prison reform, the issue that I'm particularly interested in. To be fair, that's because it doesn't really fit into the six Nobel Prize categories which are: physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace and then the "new" one which was introduced in the late sixties, which is economics.

However one laureate who won the prize for literaure in 1953 is also well known for saying this: "The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country". It was Winston Churchill. He was Home Secretary at the time and just 35 years of age. In the speech the quote is taken from he went on to talk about the rehabilitation of the prisoner. The reason why he won the literature prize is given in the photo above, which I took at the exhibition today.

It sounds a bit lofty, but I guess it's true to say I'm here in Stockholm because of Winston Churchill. I'm here because this year I was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Prize in the Penal Reform category. It's a very competitive selection process but if you're successful you have the opportunity to travel and gather evidence relating to your profession. You're encouraged to "think big" and use the things you've seen to effect big change back home in Britain.

I'm looking at radio programmes made by serving offenders in other countries which are then broadcast on the public airwaves. I want to find out whether this kind of programme benefits society and helps us understand the complexity of prison life more than we do at the moment. I also want to understand what an offender gains from having their voice heard on the "outside". On BBC Radio 4 we already have legal programmes which are broadcast in "seasons" (i.e they don't run throughout the whole year), but I wonder whether we'll ever see the day when we have a radio programme devoted to custodial issues and which includes the offender's voice? I think it would be very positive and a useful counterbalance to some of the lurid headlines around crime, prisons and sentencing that we often get in the UK papers. Last November I asked this question to the Prisons Minister, Andrew Selous. He was very open to the idea, as long as victim issues were dealt with appropriately he said.

I wonder what Winston would think about the idea of a "prison programme" on BBC radio? He was a journalist himself. He was also a prisoner in South Africa, although it was only for a matter of weeks. So he might have "got it", but from what I've read about him, it's impossible to know whether he'd be for it or against it. But here's another of his quotes which makes me think that at least he would have liked the drive behind the idea: "If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack."