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Behind the success of the Prison Radio Association is our dedicated, hardworking staff team who make the world of prison radio in England and Wales tick. Here, we get to know them and spotlight their experience of working for the Prison Radio Association.
Ellen is our Production Manager, based at HMP Styal. She is the genius behind many of our award-winning audio projects and she also works with people housed at the women’s prison – training them in radio production and presenting and helping them to build and broadcast content for National Prison Radio, which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in prison cells. Ellen equips prisoners with skills and confidence, increasing their chances of accessing employment and education after release. Here is what she has to say about life at the PRA:
How long have you been working at the Prison Radio Association? What were you doing before?
I have been working for the Prison Radio Association for three years this month and before I was freelancing for the BBC in Salford working on programmes like You and Yours and Pick of the Week at Radio 4, Good Morning Sunday at Radio 2 and the Craig Charles Funk and Soul Show at 6 Music (which I’m still involved with). Before that I spent a wonderful six years producing the breakfast show at Gaydio. My very first radio job was at Sunshine 855 in Ludlow 22 years ago!
What does a typical day at work look like for you?
I work two days a week inside HMP Styal, a women’s prison in Wilmslow, Cheshire and on those days we have a very structured day around the prison regime. We welcome in the prisoner-producers and presenters that we work with and spend each session working alongside them to make great radio programmes, such as the Wednesday Request Show, Deja Vu, NPR Friday, NRG Friday and many more!
I tend to book all the interviews and meetings I need to do on working from home days, as well as editing and script writing.
What is the best thing about working at the Prison Radio Association?
There are very many ‘best things’ about getting to work at the Prison Radio Association, I love working with the women inside the prisons. There are so many women who first step in to our workspace with little confidence but it can very quickly build once we show them – you can edit! You can work the desk! You have a story to share!
I’ve seen that transformation time and again and they take the new found confidence in to other areas of their life.
The second-best thing I’d say is the creative freedom you don’t get at many other radio stations. I’m very much in to illustrating worlds through sound design and whether I’m making a programme about measles or an advert about learning to read I’m trusted to match a brief and make it sonically lovely.
What is something you wish everybody understood about the realities of working in prison?
Someone once said to me, prison isn’t full of bad people, it’s full of people who have done bad things and I think it is important to understand the difference. 94% of those people will be released. Those I meet are in real need of tools to able to contribute when they get out. I wish there were very many more opportunities such as National Prison Radio.
What is your favourite podcast or radio show currently?
The Illuminated series on BBC Sounds has been created to shed light on little known or understood human experience, through creative use of audio. I recommend the Ballad of Scout and the Alcohol Tag – which I happened to make with National Prison Radio’s Andrew as a Prison Radio Association production!
What is the song that you would use to sum up your time working at the Prison Radio Association?
Well, it HAS to be the absolute Queen – Aretha Franklin and ‘Respect’. A rousing, empowering, feel-good song which I can hear us playing as an uplifting tune on our NPR Friday programme.
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National Prison Radio is the world’s first national radio station for people in prison. It’s available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on in-cell TV. National Prison Radio and reaches over 80,000 people behind bars across England and Wales.
National Prison Radio was founded by the Prison Radio Association – a registered charity. Shows like NPR Friday, The Request Show, Deja Vu and NRG Friday help people to cope with life inside prison and thrive on release. If you would like to support our work, and enhance the futures of people in prison across the UK you can make a donation at prison.radio/donate.