I HAVEN'T GOT A CLUE WHAT I'D BE DOING NOW OTHERWISE: our scholar David Shipley recalls how his writing career began in prison by doing a degree READ MORE

The Bigger Picture

While the Longford Trust is not a campaigning organisation, but instead an educational charity, we do on occasion share through the media our experiences of working with serving and ex-prisoners who are studying for university degrees, and the bigger issues that are highlighted by some of the obstacles, injustices and failings that they face.  And through our lecturers (including Desmond Tutu, above, in 2004) we are part of that broader public debate, as when our 2021 lecturer George The Poet spoke to the Observer.


Invest in prison education

Writing on the Conservative Home website in November 2021, the Longford Trust’s director argued the case for greater government investment in prison education because of its proven record in reducing reoffending. Read More


Review chair, Dame Sally Coates

Unlocking Potential

The Longford Trust sat on the review lead by Dame Sally Coates (right) into prison education, ordered by the Secretary of State for Justice in the autumn of 2015.  Read her final recommendations, supported by the Longford Trust but yet to be fully implemented. Read More


“We have known for decades that, when mental health collides with the police and the courts, little results that is in anyway beneficial – to the individual, to the victims, or to society. Promising initiative after promising initiative all offer hope briefly, but are then starved of resources. That means quite simply that more vulnerable young men and women like Vishnu will die needlessly, their potential wasted, and their futures lost.”

Peter Stanford in The Independent 23 February 2017

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