Paula Harriott is Head of Prisoner Involvement at Prison Reform Trust (PRT). She leads on integrating prisoners’ voices and experiences into the work of PRT, influencing policy, design, delivery and evaluation of services that affect those in the criminal justice system. Part of her role is to ensure that all policy and advocacy positions and recommendations from PRT are informed by lived experience. She also leads the Prisoner Policy Network, is a Trustee of the Community Chaplaincy Association, and is a current Griffins Society Fellow at the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University, researching the experience of mothers and families post-imprisonment. She was previously Head of Involvement at Revolving Doors Agency (2015–2017) and Head of Programmes at User Voice (2010–2015). Her current passion for working with excluded members of the community on a diverse range of issues stems from personal experiences as a prisoner from 2004 to 2012.
Andreas Aresti
Andy Aresti is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Westminster. He works with a variety of non-statutory organizations related to criminal justice. Andy’s primary research focus is on desistance from criminalized acts and the detailed exploration of former prisoners’ experiences of self-change. As a former prisoner himself, and having lived a ‘colourful life’ prior to his academic career, Andy has had first-hand experience of ‘crime’ and the criminal justice system. Committed to penal reform and desistance, he is actively involved in a number of projects which aim to improve the lives of those currently incarcerated through education in prisons. He is a founding member of British Convict Criminology, a relatively new critical perspective that challenges traditional conceptualizations, representations, and discussions concerning ‘crime’, the penal system, and prisoners.
