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Her prison placement

Working with prisoners as they grapple with the One-Stop deportation notice from the Home Office would be challenging for anyone. For a university undergraduate, it is an impressive feat.

Hope O'Grady, who worked such a placement as a third year BA English Language and Linguistics student, drew strongly on the advice of her tutors in making it such a positive learning experience.

She describes entering the prison as a real eye-opener, which gave her a profound perspective:

"These are people who have committed one crime and are trying to do everything they can to make themselves better during their time at HMP Huntercombe. I wouldn't have had that perspective if I hadn't met them. They are just great people who made a mistake when they were younger."

 

"It was particularly difficult when it came to end of the first day and we left the prison: it was a very odd feeling that these people we had been working with for the day weren't able to leave."

Helping with understanding

The prisoners are given a One-Stop deportation notice when they arrive at the prison, which is a document stating that they are liable to be deported and if they wish to remain in the UK they will need to submit a claim to do so. 

Hope and her fellow students' role as linguists was to help the prisoners understand this complex document and give them the resources they need to respond to the Home Office Immigration Enforcement (HOIE).

Hope explains that this notice is so full of legal jargon that even a native English speaker would struggle. 

For many of the prisoners, English is not their first language or they don't speak it at all. They do have the opportunity to study English in prison, but their immediate need is to respond to the One-Stop notice, for which they have only 21 days to gather the necessary evidence to support their case to remain in the UK.

The students worked with the stronger English-speakers amongst the prisoners to make a document for them to use during peer advice sessions with the wider prison population . The Peer Advisors' work was part of their own diploma in Peer Advice and Guidance.

A way forward

"The resource booklet we made with the Peer Advisors aimed to help them support the general prison population, particularly in understanding and responding to the One-Stop Notice."

"We made posters of what opportunities were available in prison, like mental health services, a reading scheme, trades they can learn, courses and so on. It was also important