British-Prisons.co.uk

Help Wanted

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We can be contacted at:-

British Prisons,
PO Box 783, 
Croydon, 
CR9 1BT.

Our telephone number is 

0776 1246942

Can you help with two requests for help with dissertations:-

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I'm a third year sociology student at Cambridge University. I'm currently researching and writing a dissertation on representations of prisons and prisoners in the mass media, and more specifically in television and film fictional dramas. I think this is a really important, as well as interesting, area, as many people will never have any first hand experiences of the
prison system, and so the media is very influential in shaping their views about what it's like.

At the moment I'm conducting some research groups with prisoners at Wandsworth to get their views on how realistic these depictions are, and where they depart from reality (I'm showing them clips from programmes such as Buried and Bad Girls and getting their feedback on them, which is proving really interesting so far!). For my research to be more
reliable, however, I really need to conduct a few more focus groups, and I was wondering whether anyone involved in or associated with your organisation would like to take part in one or two groups like the ones described above. Ideally I'd like about five or six people in each, and am planning to hold them in mid-January, although I'm quite flexible about timing. I'd obviously be prepared to pay everyone's travel expenses to Cambridge for the focus groups.

I realise that a lot of ex-prisoners don't like to talk about their experiences in prison, and simply want to regain their privacy, but I'd really appreciate any help you could give me (even if only one or two people are willing to speak to me) as it would make a big difference to my dissertation!

Many thanks and I really look forward to hearing from you soon,

Cate can be contacted at chf25@hermes.cam.ac.uk

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My name is Lisa  and I am a second year student at Buckingham Chilterns
University studying Criminology with Psychology I am starting to look at
areas of research for my dissertation next year and am looking at the
subject of how easy it is to find employment with a criminal record, I was
wondering whether you could help me by passing this message on to any one
who would be willing to share with me their experiences of trying to gain
employment with a criminal record/ any worries that they have about trying
to gain employment with a criminal record. I hope that my findings will be
able to shed light on employment recruitment in this country.
Thank you for your time

Yours Sincerely

Lisa can be contacted at lisadavis_1@hotmail.com

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