A conversation with Maria

In class, myself and Maria J Monteiro were put into a break out room. We were asked to answer a question. Below I have tried to capture the brief yet rich conversation we had.

What do you think would reduce crime in the UK?

Community support

 A community support model to us would involve the following. Drug programmes, drama classes, afternoon tea, conversations, meals, mental health support, anger management, job applying help, leaving prison hub, employing people in the community, suggestions for more classes in the community.

Being from Motherwell, I can only speak from experience. We have a community space called the Pat Cullian centre. However this space is not utilised. If there were spaces like this  in the community that were free to attend because the government put money into these community hubs, then the community would get to know itself better. The community would be responsible for providing support in these facilities as well as classes and other activities such as parties. For the community by the community. It would also mean having all of these services in the one place, so rather than having to get transport from the job centre to a drama class etc, you could simply walk to the class smack bang in the middle of your community for all of these services. This would allow space and time for the community and would employ people from these communities so local people are in charge of the local facility.

Being part of a community where none of these spaces are being used to enhance the joining of our community enrages me. It simply drives my community apart, allowing people to be viewed as “other” for genuine trauma they are experiencing. Whereas if we worked together, surely we could build a community that understands individual trauma and that does not judge this.

Prison cost the UK 4.37 BILLION pounds in the year 2019-2020. I often hear it said that prison gives people the TIME and SPACE to rehabilitate. If we knocked down some prisons and put a huge sum of this money into funding and supporting our communities, giving them TIME and SPACE to develop and become safe spaces then ultimately there would be more trust in our communities and therefore a reduction of crime.

You can also read Maria’s blog posts here- https://portal.rcs.ac.uk/MMonteiro/

Resources-

https://www.statista.com/statistics/298654/united-kingdom-uk-public-sector-expenditure-prisons/

https://culturenl.co.uk

https://portal.rcs.ac.uk/MMonteiro/