Behind the Crime

As a society, we send close to 100,000 people to prison each year. But what happens to people while they’re behind bars?

Sally Tilt and Dr Kerensa Hocken are forensic psychologists who work in prisons.

Their role is to help people in prison look at the harm they’ve caused to other people, understand why it happened and figure out how to make changes to prevent further offending after they’ve been released.

In Behind the Crime, they take the time to understand the life of someone who’s ended up in prison, and what happened afterwards.

In this episode, they talk to 23 year-old Courtney, a mum who received a five-year sentence for her part in a series of armed robberies at the age of 17.

Through the course of the conversation, they explore some of the key events in Courtney’s life and track some of the threads that led her down a path to prison.

At the same time, Sally and Kerensa explain some of the methods they use to reach the core factors that can lead to people harming others – and how they then work with people in prison to prevent further harm from happening in the future.

Producer: Andrew Wilkie Editor: Hugh Levinson A BBC Radio Current Affairs and Prison Radio Association co-production for BBC Radio 4

Image: Sally Tilt and Dr Kerensa Hocken. Credit: Christopher Terry/Prison Radio Association