HMP 2 Hope started in 2017 and is run by Associate Professor Dr Niamh Malone and Associate Professor Dr Gary Anderson at Liverpool Hope University. It will run for an initial period of 10 years and includes several projects: Performance and Philosophy in Prisons, Odyssey on the Airwaves, Books for Prisoners, Professors in Prisons and a Piece of Mind. What unites all these projects is the belief that university level education is a form of mutual benefit between incarcerated men and the university academics who teach in the prisons through HMP 2 Hope. Currently the focus is on HMP Liverpool (Walton Gaol). The objective of the project is to get the men to consider university education as a possibility upon release.
Mission
HMP 2 Hope is an applied theatre research project which aims to first demystify university level education, then promote the possibility of university education for incarcerated men. The ethos behind the project shares its rationale with critical education practices (after Paulo Freire) and a philosophy of immanence over a philosophy of moral judgement (after Gilles Deleuze). HMP 2 Hope is inspired by much of the theatre in prisons projects that have run over the decades up and down the country (and internationally) and offers a modest contribution to knowledge by way of prisoner- led publications, academic essays and invited guest seminars for the men in HMPs in the UK
Acknowledgements
There are too many people to thank along the way and naming people is a confidentiality issue, but it is fair to say that this project would not have got anywhere without the cooperation of the men in custody. As facilitators, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to every single person we have encountered in the classrooms and corridors of the criminal justice system.
A special thank you to our partnership with Novus Social Enterprise, in particular Sarah Hartley and Andrew Holland who approached the University and made this project possible. There are so many other staff members from Novus who have, and continue to, enable us to deliver the workshops on site in the prison. We are eternally grateful to you all. Thank you.