By Matthew Chandler and Oliver Senior
DMU Square Mile volunteers are helping 
to re-decorate Leicester Prison’s visitors’ hall as part of their collaborative work with the prison.
This week, about five students will visit the prison each day from Thursday onwards to make the place where prisoners meet their families look a little more appealing.
Jessica Bogic, Outreach and Projects Co-ordinator at Square Mile, was keen to stress the value of making the visitors’ hall a more aesthetically pleasing environment, describing it as previously being “very grim and horrible”, and that it needed some “extra love and care”.
She said: “There is a lot of research to suggest that if prisoners, males in particular, have a positive attitude during their visits while in prison, it can reduce re-offending rates.”
This has been an ongoing project between Square Mile and the prison, having started last winter, when the prison asked for the university’s support in re-developing the visitors’ hall.
This is the first year Square Mile have been working with the prison, with the re-development of the visitors’ hall just one of their interesting variety of projects.
Jessica added: “The DMU orchestra and gospel choir have taken part in a healthy eating project, while a senior lecturer in Arts and Festival Management, Jacqui Norton, has delivered a workshop for music industry and teaches them how to market themselves as a product.
“There are a lot of plans in the pipeline to increase activity and we hope to do lost more in the future.”
If you are interested in helping with the re-development of the visitors’ hall, please contact either Jessica at jbogic@dmu.ac.uk or Harriet Pole, Widening Participation Co-ordinator, at harriet.pole@dmu.ac.uk.
