Video summary
The video recounts the speaker Joe's experience delivering a horticultural course at HMP Whitemore, a high-security prison in Cambridge, highlighting the surreal and often bureaucratic challenges of working within the correctional system. Upon arrival, Joe faced immediate scrutiny from guards who initially confiscated his pruning shears despite having prior approval, illustrating the unpredictable nature of prison security protocols where staff are often reluctant to sign off on risks. This environment is further characterized by severe overcrowding, with nearly half of UK prisons classified as such, and a demographic that is predominantly male, ethnically minority, and suffering from high rates of trauma, abuse, and low literacy. Many inmates have personality disorders and chaotic life histories marked by a lack of societal support, creating a bleak setting where nature is scarce and mental health resources are limited.
To address these issues, the program "Seeding Hope" was established to introduce native trees and plants into the prison environment, aiming to provide therapeutic benefits through biophilia and the concept of "unselfing," which helps individuals connect to something larger than themselves. The core philosophy relies on horticultural therapy as a non-confrontational alternative to traditional trauma-informed care, where inmates must admit their offenses to progress but can find healing by caring for living things over long periods. Trees, in particular, offer a unique perspective because they live for centuries, helping inmates understand time and responsibility beyond their immediate circumstances. The speaker emphasizes that while the confrontational nature of discussing past crimes is difficult, the act of nurturing plants fosters a desire to give back, especially given the high cost of incarceration, and provides a rare opportunity for men who feel like burdens on society to contribute meaningfully.
Despite the program's potential, it faced numerous practical obstacles including strict tool control measures that required every screw to be accounted for, a lack of water infrastructure due to security restrictions, and rigid scheduling that limited inmate access to just four hours per week. The speaker also notes the irony of growing trees near fences while security personnel remained paranoid about escape routes, and the disappointment when fish tanks could not be installed due to the absence of running water. Nevertheless, the small wins were profound; inmates who had not walked on grass in a decade began to cry with joy, and some achieved significant personal milestones such as recategorization from high-security Category A to lower categories, marking a tangible step toward reintegration.
Ultimately, the project demonstrated that despite funding cuts and administrative hurdles, connecting prisoners with nature yields transformative results for both individuals and society. The speaker concludes that while the financial model intended to be self-sustaining through tree sales could not be maintained long enough to fully mature, the emotional impact of seeing men realize their capabilities and possibilities remains invaluable. The story serves as a call for more compassion toward incarcerated men and a broader integration of nature into daily life, suggesting that even in the most restrictive environments, planting seeds can grow hope and facilitate genuine behavioral change.
Read the full video transcript
Oh, hello. Hello. My name is Joe. Um, so
it's hard to believe now. A few years
ago, 2024, I turned up on a cold, crisp
autumn day at a a large brick building
in the middle of the fence in Cambridge
here. Um it's the highsecurity prison
HMP Whitemore to deliver a horicultural
course for the day. Um to go into the
prison, you have to go into the the uh
entrance office bit, take off all your
metal items, all your outer coats, all
your belts, your boots, your bags,
everything and put it in through a big
X-ray machine while some um terrifying
guards stare at you and you walk through
a metal detector arch. So I I it's a
thing I've done many many times before.
So I did it as usual, put my bag
through, walked through, get patted
down. Uh as I was coming out the other
side, collecting my stuff, I overheard
one of the guards whisper to the other
one, "He's got some he's got some
loppers in his bag." And the other one
looked at and went.
She said, "But he's not allowed to have
those." The second guard again went
she somehow like built up the courage to
come and uh uh affront me about it and
said and told me I wasn't allowed to
have them. I supposed to have filled out
a particular form and supposed to gone
another way. And so I apologized and
said that I was going to fill out the
form. I would definitely do it as soon
as I got inside. Um and she let me
through with my with my loppers to carry
on unescorted through the prison to do
uh to do my course. Um this is just one
of the the many surreal experiences that
seem to come up quite a lot when working
in prisons. Um sometimes frustrating,
sometimes bizarre. Um but yeah, so I uh
I ran for a few years a uh a program
called Seeding Hope, which was building
and running tree nurseries in prisons.
um Whitemore being being one of the main
ones. Um so the idea was that we would
collect seed from outside the prisons u
bring them in uh stratify them with the
guys clean them look after them uh put
them in the fridge for a few months grow
them on and then they would be uh
planted out in community organizations
and schools and things like that. Um but
while we were uh doing this with the
guys, we'd also put them through uh
horicultural qualifications. So they
come out with a a vocational um
qualification in practical horiculture
uh and also bring in uh therapists uh
nutritionists talking people to help
them make the most of the opportunity
that there there was in front of them.
Hopefully some of that will become uh
yeah why we need to do that. Uh so, uh
prisons, I don't know if anyone here has
ever been in a prison as as for work or
as a customer, but they are um rather
rather terrifying and bleak places. Uh
at the moment, um there's about 90,000
prisoners uh in in the UK and between 95
and 96% of those prisoners are are men.
Um it is a very very gendered issue
within this country. Um, not only that,
27% of them are from ethnic groups,
minority ethnic groups, um, compared to
18% of the general population. Um, and
56% of our prisons in this country are
classified as crowded. Um, so they are
stressful, tiring, noisy places uh,
where men are put and largely forgotten
about. Um so these are men who have
obviously committed crimes, done bad
things um to people who didn't deserve
it. Um but they are also people who have
been
in by and large failed by society as
well. Um
so oh can you hear me? Yep. Uh 24% of
prisoners um newly sentenced prisoners
have uh experience of care growing up.
Um that's compared to roughly 1% of the
general population.
Um 29% have experienced abuse u and 41%
have experienced have observed abuse. Um
and that that experienced abuse goes up
to 52% in young offenders institutes.
This is a a really sad
sad thing that's gone all the way
through these these men's lives.
Uh 50% of prisoners um cannot read or
cannot read to a level one literacy. Um
95% read below sorry 57% read below the
11 year olds level. Um 47 enter with no
qualifications. 30% have a learning
disability compared to 2.5% of the
general population. Um and then relevant
to some of the work I did as well um 23%
have personality disorders of some kind.
Um so these are these are people who
have had chaotic hard lives uh have not
made good choices um and are paying a
price for it. We we hear a lot I hear a
lot about gas the glass ceiling in
employment in this country. Uh I think
there is also a glass floor that those
of us who who have the privilege of
having a support system around us, there
is a level that we can fall down to
there'll be someone there to help us
out. There are a large number of men in
this country uh who don't have that
support system and they can fall very
far down. Now
with all of that overcrowdedness of
prisons, the lack of resources, the lack
of offices, the crumbling
infrastructure, um some men in that are
so unwell even they get to have some
mental health support. There aren't very
many, but there are some uh trauma
wings, personality disorder wings. They
change the name every now and then
through uh through the years. Uh these
are men who have maybe linked to their
crim their criminal behavior, maybe not
have managed to um convince enough
people that they need support that there
is some there for them. These are
generally small units that they will be
on a program over the course of um four
or five years. Um and there'll be a huge
range of or a range of supports I should
say. Um but a lot of that is based on uh
them coming to terms with their criminal
behavior uh their patterns and their
thought processes and trying to work
their brains out of that. Um I strongly
believe nature connection um can be one
of the ways one of the tools that we can
use to bring people back from that. um I
can show them a new way to live in the
world and as a as a society.
Um
biophilia the idea that we have um
brought up in nature as a species. We've
lived very very closely with the natural
world for for millennia. Um it is a part
of us and it is a basic human need that
we have. Um also within the chaotic
society that we have at the moment there
is a lot of things that we need to pay
attention to. your attention is demanded
and it is tiring. Um, as I'm sure we all
all know, by the end of the day, we can
be worn out and tired and from having to
give all this energy to our attention.
Being in nature is a way that we can
soften that focus and it restores our
energy whether that is sitting under a
tree, walking in the park, touching
grass, u all these kinds of things makes
a real u real difference. Um and
the there's also an idea of unselfing.
So you connect to a larger sense of of
the world around you rather than just
focusing on yourself. And that that
helps provide uh nourishment to the soul
which we all we all deserve and we all
need. Um now
plants particularly um as an
intervention um have been proven through
uh lots of uh studies to provide
therapeutic um outcomes particularly
within the criminal justice system. Uh
the there are known uh what they call
desistance pathways the these ways that
people can work towards stopping the
behaviors that have led them to commit
criminal acts. Um so these include
things like uh identity transformation,
education and vocational training, the
mental health, the social support and
the spirituality which hopefully provide
some of the context of why we chose to
set up the program in the way that we
did. Horicultural therapy and growing
things for people as well is a uh is a
non-confrontational way for people to be
with other people uh within the within
the trauma wing, the fence unit. um
the the work that they're doing is is
very confrontational. People having to
do a lot of talking about
what's what they've done, their
behavior, why they've the patterns that
they have, and what's caused them to be
there. I had quite a few illuminating
conversations with with guys who who had
committed horrific events um and talking
about their their path onwards and
outwards and and to move on to different
things. and they they made it very very
clear that you cannot you cannot get
recatgorized, you cannot get parole. If
you do not admit your offense, so
innocent people, if you if you genuinely
believe you're innocent, you won't ever
make it out of the system or it will
take you an awful lot longer. But that
confrontation of confronting what's
often been the worst thing that you've
done in your life and being judged about
the one worst thing that you've ever
done is is really hard on people. And
and it's not to take away from the
horrific things that these people have
done. Um when you when you look after
plants, you have to look after
something. You I know it sounds really
really basic, but you have to you have
to care for a thing. And these are men
who have things who are very aware that
they are being looked after. They know
that they're a burden on society.
They're very aware of the cost of
holding somebody in prison. In White
Moore, I think it's about £60,000 a
year. It's about the equivalent of going
to a private school that we're we're
housing hundreds of people and they they
know that and they want to there is a
desire to give back. They they know that
they want to do something better and and
looking after plants and working on
themselves through plants and caring for
something over a long period of time and
particularly with trees where you know
that it's the it's the start of a couple
hundred years of life of this tree
really does help put things in
perspective and helps men care for
something outside of them. and
ultimately a rare opportunity. Um,
prisons are oblique. As I said before,
there is not very much nature. Where
there is nature, it's often just mode
grass. Uh, maybe a very basic private
hedge. Um, I did a fair amount of work
trying to put in more uh wild flower
areas and things, but the uh security
gets um a bit twitchy about some
surprising things. U particularly
planting trees um planting trees near
fences. I once had a had to have a
massive meeting with the security while
we were trying to set up this program
that I was talking about growing trees
from seed and I said well well won't
they be able to climb over them uh and
get out of the walls and these are 5 m
high fences and we were growing 30 cm
saplings I don't quite know what he
thought that was going to happen but uh
yeah took quite a bit of convincing um
now on top of all of this when you grow
things often it fails um the plants die
uh in in In this case, a lot of plants
died. Um I I'll hopefully have time to
talk about some of the reasons for that
in a little bit. Um but having dealing
with that, dealing with the failure,
dealing with the um the cycle of that
where things die and you you use what
you can and you you try again and you
learn and grow was really yeah, it's a
bit of a bit of a sideways metaphor, but
it really does help. Um and there and
that does then offer no shame or low
shame with it. Um, and just on a
practical point as well, coming in as a
as a horicultural therapist, I'm I'm not
a I'm not a therapist really in lots of
ways. Um, I'm not an officer and so I
could go in as a neutral third person. I
wasn't an authority figure. I was there
to to give them something. And that gave
a uh a a real opportunity to share
information in ways that people don't
normally.
So,
as as I sort of touched on before, these
are these are men who have done horrific
things. Um, and we would we would talk
they would often tell me about the
crimes that they committed and the the
reasons they got there. Um, they
obviously didn't frame it in the things
we were talking about before about their
uh the the lack of glass floor or um
things like that, but the the the chaos
and the trauma in their lives was always
very evident. Um, and it was
and and it was tough at times and it is
it is tough to hear people talk about
that and talk relatively matterofactly
um about it but within the context of
explaining
why they got to where they did. Um, and
then you would then you flip on to more
social subjects or chat chitchat. Um,
the guys that I was with worked for for
a long time uh massive fans of Married
at First Sight. Absolutely loved it. And
so we would [laughter] They would spend
ages telling me in detail the ins and
outs of the um what was going on in
Married at First Sight. Very very
hilarious and surreal experience. These
big guys tattoos and yeah the uh but it
was in some ways it was um them being
able to look at relationships look at
relationships of other people um often
that they didn't have in their own
lives. um one one gentleman I worked
with for um in various different ways
for many years um he had committed a
crime when he was 16 um and a very
violent crime. He was in his late 20s
when I knew him um and had never been
out of prison since um had and was
looking to be in there for a long time.
And so his concept of what adult
relationships like was obviously very
very twisted. um going through going
through the system from the Young
Offenders Institute all the way up to um
the category A prisons. Um
so uh yeah so that's that's in lots of
ways of background. Well what were we
actually doing? So we um yeah if we we
talk about what we were growing we were
growing British uh British seeds um
trying to pro promote the use of native
woodland native hedging uh standard
trees forest trees and orchards within
the country. So we would uh I would
collect and work with a few other people
to collect seeds from stands register
them. You'd have to clean them different
ways. Now trees have to go through a
cycle. They have to go through a a cold
period mostly before they'll germinate.
Um, so you can either leave them outside
and hope the winter gets cold enough.
Now it often doesn't. So you can force
that by putting them in the fridge. Uh,
so we would bag them up, put them in the
fridge, check them every week um, and
bring them out. And when they started to
sprout, we would then uh, prick them out
and grow them on into in root trainers.
Uh, we would also um tried tried in lots
of ways to grow. So I'm very passionate
about apple trees. I love apple trees. I
like cider. Um we obviously couldn't
make cider but we could graft apple
trees. So we um yeah we tried to so to
graft an apple tree you take a you take
a roottock of the roots you want and the
scionwood that you want and you and you
cut them you cut them both in just a way
you bind them together and something new
comes out of it. Um I'm sure there's a
metaphor in there somewhere um about
yeah something anyway. Um, and so we
would do that. They would they I'd got
an agreement that they would let me uh
let the guys do the the cutting. Um, as
long as we chained the knives to the
table and they weren't able to reach
each other and Yeah. And then so I
turned up one morning with a dozen very
sharp knives to a prison gate, slightly
apprehensive. Uh, and they wouldn't let
me in, surprisingly enough, [laughter]
because prison security is is serious
um, and very very fickle, it turns out.
So, um, to to get tools into a prison,
you normally need to turn up uh, provide
a tool list. So, you need to provide a
list of absolutely everything that you
are going to bring in. So, that's down
to you have to count every single screw.
You have to take everything. Then you
have to go through that with an officer
who will go through everything and sign
it all off and then you'll go to where
you work and every hour they'll count
everything again and you have to they
have to make sure that everything is
accounted for and at the very end
everything you're taking out they again
they sign off. The problem is one day
officers are stretched and don't have
time. Um and two often they don't want
to put their name to it so they just let
you through but you don't know you don't
know till you turn up. Um some things
have to go through an machine but you
don't know till you turn up. um is one
of the many many practical challenges of
working in a prison that the security is
very very strict. Uh but it is often
dependent on the risk of the person who
is dealing with you. Um so you can't
always always tell what you can do. But
so yeah, I turned up. So I got I'd
spoken to the uh spoken to the
governors. I've spoken to the people
delivering the course. Everyone agreed
that I could do this grafting. I could
make it all work. We' we' done designs.
We got all the bits to make it all
attached. We'd all got it agreed and all
I needed. The reason they wouldn't let
me through the gates is because no one
would put their name to it. It's as
simple as that. No one would wanted to
take on the risk themselves to do it and
so uh we had to find other ways.
uh challenges then um we we I'd
converted there's a bit of old astroturf
out the back of the prison that um I've
been able to put some raised beds and
green houses and uh a few bits for some
reason they let me put in a grass
greenhouse but not a poly tunnel. I
never really understood that. Um uh yeah
but there was no there was no water on
the site. It was a parched about half an
acre of of astro turf. Uh there was no
there was no water because well one
you're not allowed more than a meter of
hose in the tools any more than a meter
something will happen so you weren't
allowed that there wasn't a tap uh I did
get a quote to put in there was a there
was water point just outside the other
side of a fence internal fence uh but it
would have been £60,000 to put in about
10 m of pipe and a hose so obviously no
one wants to pay for that um interesting
actually the only reason we one of the
reasons we've done that was because the
guys had dug out one of the big beds and
wanted to put some fish in it. And I
pointed out that you couldn't put fish
in it unless they had water. Um,
[laughter]
yeah, but they'd already done the hard
work. So, they were they were very
disappointed that yeah, that didn't that
didn't happen. Um, one of the many many
disappointments. Um and so the we we
collected rain water uh and there was a
water point but it was dependent on the
officers uh on their in their lunch
break um coming down and filling up the
water but so we could use it uh cuz we
we couldn't have them in obviously
couldn't have the gate open while the
guys were in there. Um and so and if we
if for one of the one of the many times
we went there um and we couldn't get in
for one reason or another the watering
didn't get done hence losing a lot of a
lot of trees. Obviously you can't have
any automatic watering systems. Um and
and yeah and then so you got tools, you
got access to water, you got time as
well. So like we we had the capacity to
run this course. We could have done it
as much as they we were able to but they
said okay no we can only do one day a
week. So okay we can do one day full day
grand we can do that. So okay right well
the guys won't be able to come out until
half past 9. So okay that's fine. I can
be in there I can be there for half past
9. Is that okay? But they got to go in
and got to be banged up for their lunch
at half past 11 because we can't they
got to be banged up while we do all the
lunch stuff. Okay, excellent. Well, we
can that's 2 hours. We can do stuff in
the afternoon. Okay. Well, they can't
come back out again until 2:00. Okay.
Then, oh, and then they got to go off
for their their dinner at 4:00. So, a
whole week's worth of time is 4 hours.
That's if they turn up on time. if they
don't get banged up, they don't get
locked down, someone doesn't jump on the
nets, something doesn't happen, um that
you couldn't come out as is often the
case or waiting for medication and
things. So, um yeah, that's a bleak
point to end on. Uh that's the there is
lots of challenges. Uh but it was worth
it. When when it worked, it was
fantastic. I've had grown men crying
because they've walked in grass for the
first time in 10 years. We've had people
making realizations about uh their past
and what they're capable of and their
possibilities for the future all while
tending trees and plants in the gardens.
It is for all the hard work. It is the
small wins the small wins that the guys
don't often get. It is incredibly
rewarding um but horrifically hard work.
Um I haven't got a a thesis on what we
should do different. I think that there
is just so many challenges. Um so to to
send this off um we I managed to run a
course completely like that for one
complete year uh in one prison. There
was a few other prisons we've done
similar things but not not to the full
extent. Um and out of those um two
people uh well they all completed it. We
had a dozen guys complete it. uh two of
them I know um through their own hard
work wasn't definitely was not all
through our course but went on to be
recatategorized including the young uh
the chap who had been in prison since he
was 16 uh he went on to to be to be able
to move away from cat moved down to cat
B um moved prisons on his way out of the
system or another step towards his way
out the system and there was two other
men who were on a similar path at the
end of it some other people were further
away from that so uh and Then um
inevitably and um predictably money ran
out. Uh the funding that we needed to
make it run. It was supposed to be self-
sustaining with the trees, but trees
take a long time to grow. Um and the
funding dropped out with very little
notice and the whole that part of it had
to unfortunately close. Um so yeah,
that's that's my happy story. Trees are
fantastic. We need more of them. We need
more compassion for men in prison and we
need um we need more nature all the way
through our lives. Thank you very much.
[applause]
Thank you. [applause]