A magazine created by young offenders and inmates of Glen Parva YOI has done well at this year’s Koestler Awards, an annual arts competition organised by the Koestler Trust, the UK’s biggest prison arts charity. ‘Suspect’, a title that the young people devised, is a more hard hitting magazine than its predecessor ‘Shoot’ and tackles issues around gun and knife crime, gangs and the reality of life behind bars.
Soft Touch worked with young people from Leicester Youth Offending Service, then with a group of inmates at Glen Parva prison to come up with the design, concept, stories and artwork which were then compiled and edited before being sent to print and distributed nationally.The magazine was submitted to the 2012 Koestler Awards and has just received a ‘First Time Entrant’ prize and certificate.
The project is part of an ongoing partnership between Soft Touch and Leicester City and County Youth Offending Services, and is funded by the Home Office. Soft Touch works closely with young offenders to help them to reduce their offending behaviour by engaging and involving them in the creative arts, and projects such as this allow the young people to develop their skills whilst tackling issues that affect them on a daily basis.
