1. Mass Observation Behind Bars
Building collections with the
prisoner community
Kirsty Pattrick, Project Officer
Mass Observation Archive
2. Who we are
Mass Observation Archive
• Mass Observation - Social research organisation
1937 to early 1950’s
- Paid investigators
- National panel of volunteer writers
• The Mass Observation Project 1981 – present
- 500 Volunteer writers; anonymous
• Contemporary accounts; written documents,
photographs, ephemera
• Request, receive, collate and archive
• Charitable Trust in care of the University of
Sussex.
– Based at The Keep. www.massobs.org.uk
3.
4. • 2010 Repeated call for 12th May
day diaries
• Electronic
• Anonymous
• Engagement with prisoner
community in 2011
• Chartered Institute of Libraries
and Information Professionals and
Writers in Prison Network
Mass Observing Today
12th May Collection
7. Partnership with the University of Sussex
• Research project; Using Materials
from the Mass Observation
Archive to Elicit Prisoners
Subjective Responses.
• Four creative writing workshops.
• Themes; Time, and Belonging
• Forms of writing; Diaries and
letters
• Anthology and evening of
readings
8. What the prisoners said…
“If you had to ask what people got out of this, you
know, I would have to say, this is about confidence”
“I think everybody who has written has been honest,
very, very honest and its heart warming”
“I found the ability to write for experienced,
sympathetic listeners to comment really eye opening”
“Helps to reflect on how we feel and how we can
move on“
9. 12th May Collection
• Wider variety of
voices within the
collection.
• Enhanced teaching
sessions.
• Increased
opportunities for
researchers
exploring the
everyday.
10. Thank You
… and don’t forget to write your 12th May 2015
Diary!
K.Pattrick@sussex.ac.uk
www.massobs.org.uk
@MassObsArchive
Editor's Notes
I would like to share with you today our work with a particular collection and how our partnership with Lewes Prison and the University of Sussex has influenced its development.
So to give you a brief background for those of you not familiar with MO. The archive specialises in material about everyday life in Britain. We hold the papers generated by the original Mass Observation social research organisation and the current Mass Observation project.
The original organisation was founded by 3 men in 1937 who sought to capture the thoughts, opinions and observations of ordinary people across Britain. It’s founders were an anthropologist, sociologist and documentary filmaker.
Mass Observation was active until early 1950s & used various methods to capture their material. They used paid investigators to watch and observe the public and a national panel of volunteer writers who responded to open questionnaires sent to them on a wide variety of topics; everything from politics to hairstyles, from personal relationships to dogs in wartime.
The Archive came into the care of the University of Sussex in ** and in 1981 the Mass Observation Project started. The new project revived one strand of the original organisation – the national panel of volunteer writers and its this which I manage today.
We look after our panel of around 500 writers and commission research which involves sending them a series of open questionnaires 3 times a year. The resulting material is all held in the archive. The panel write anonymously (although we hold a full profile) and the responses are therefore open and candid.
The archive largely comprises written documents although it does include collections of photographs and a large amount of ephemera such as posters, theatre programmes and so forth. The unique strand that runs through the collection is that it specialises in contemporary accounts and materials of everyday life. It does not collect memoir or oral history material and as such is relatively unique in terms of being and archive of ‘everyday lives’.
We do not seek to analyse any of the responses –-that is for researchers to undertake. We simply request, receive, collate and archive the responses and make them available to anyone who wishes to see them. We may undertake some brief analysis of response rates and so forth but on the whole we have stuck to the principle laid out by the original Mass Observation founders in that our first concern is to collect data, not to interpret them.
We are a Charitable Trust in the care of the University of Sussex and based at The Keep in East Sussex
In February 1937 Mass Observation recruited their first Panel of volunteers. They were asked to record what they did from waking to sleeping on the 12th of each month, detailing not only their daily activities but thoughts and opinions.
This date included George VI’s Coronation, 12th May 1937. The accounts of this day form the basis for Mass Observations first full scale publication May 12th. The call went out nationally, attracting people of all ages and occupations and provides us with a unique insight to peoples lives on this day.
The accounts vary from simple observations and accounts of their day to writings rich in detail, their thoughts and opinions.
The 12th May project was revived in 2010 when the Mass Observation Project put out a call for anyone across the UK to submit their diary of this day. The request was for electronic diaries submitted on e-mail.
Despite a very small amount of publicity, primarily through our website, over 250 responses came in from all around the country. Its success encouraged us to repeat the exercise, with over 500 diaries being received the following year in 2011. The diaries now provide a valuable snap shot of life in Britain each year.
Like our panel of volunteers, the diaries are anonymous & therefore open & candid. It is a voluntary project, and by its nature attracts only those willing and able to contribute to a written collection. It does make it a challenge to be inclusive for those that are illiterate or for whom English is not their first language.
It was in 2011 our initial work with prisons started. We were keen to develop contributions more widely, although our capacity and resources to publicise and administer were limited. There are many voices unheard within the archive, both historically and more currently and the prisoner community was a group that I was keen to engage with.
Our regular panel of volunteer writers exists for our ongoing research but the 12th May is an opportunity for anyone to participate.
I knew that a high number of prisons have a library and run education classes so felt this would be the best place to make links. Through the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals I was able to make contact with prison librarians nationally. I also got in touch with the organisation - Writers in Prison Network who provide creative writing residencies in prisons. Through these contacts I was able to distribute publicity to encourage both inmates and staff to participate.
I expected the process to be challenging; making contact with prisons, engaging prisoners, overcoming difficulties with literacy and language and ultimately clearance from Governors.
These challenges were faced along the way but the encouraging interest from both staff and prisoners helped overcome these on the whole.
The timescales for clearance meant that some prisons in the end couldn’t participate, although future interest was there. For others, it depended who was taking part in Education Classes that day. Resources and security were the key reasons that Librarians commented as the reason for not being able to take part.
We were however, overwhelmingly pleased with the response, receiving 117 diaries from 13 prisons.
The prisons who took part included Category A, B, C and D status, which incorporated high security, open prisons and young offenders.
What is startling about the diaries written by those in prison is the significant amount of detail around times of the day. As a reader, you see the routine running throughout all the diaries, to the minute.
HMP Blanderston a Male Aged: 35
A typical day in the life of a lifer.
7:55 – rose and had breakfast (toast) with a cup of coffee.
8:20 – walked the short distance to my weekly chapel course and discussed 8th Commandment: Do not steal. Watched 50 minutes long DVD about same subject.
11:45 – ate lunch consisting of 3 apples and coffee, watched TV BBC2 programme ‘Daily Politics’ poured more scorn on the coalition. Philip Davies MP talked about making prison sentences longer.
1:45 – attended Education where I worked on my Open University assignment for the module ‘Promoting Public Health.’ Have a week to finish it off, sounds easy to write, it isn’t. In prison, days are lost due to the tiniest problem. I pray for smooth running.
5:00 – ate dinner of bean casserole, boiled potatoes and cabbage with green lemon tea and milk.
5:30 – attended evening bible study in The Chapel, looked at how God revealed himself to Moses in a burning bush. In this prison, we’d all assume it was the work of an unhinged arsonist making a protest
6:45 – locked up in my cell for the night, thank god I have a sink, toilet and a kettle.
The majority of diarist start their day with a cup of tea & coffee in their cell and also a large amount mention praying or meditation. As with other diaries we receive, they vary considerably in length and detail. They provide a window into the daily lives of secure institutions often unknown to us.
HMP Stafford a male aged 48
I spoke to an older prisoner called Bill, 78, earlier who is being released in 4 weeks. Hes a bit worried and confused so I tried to put his mind at rest. He seemed ok at lock up. Older prisoners are sleeping fully clothed with their donkey blankets because its so cold and the Governor won’t put the heating on as it costs too much. Prison is a horrible, damaging place, my last thoughts as usual are my family. I’m worried about my dad and I miss them all.
There are the life events that happen in the course of their sentence, as one Female aged 35 writes:
Just phoned my partner, he’s good, he’s just ordered my daughters birthday present, so she’ll have that for Thursday morning on her birthday. She’ll be five this year. Last birthday without me, though not long till I’m home for good.
Differences are also seen between institutions and their levels of security. For one 33yr old Female, she writes
Woke up at 6.15 as the ducks outside were noisy and wanted feeding. After feeding the ducks I had a shower, brushed my teeth and made a cup of green tea then I got my clothes on and got ready for work. I had another cup of green tea, a fag and read a chapter of my book (The Club) whilst I waited for the tannoy to go off and tell us we could leave our houses.
How they fill their time is enlightening, from education and exercise, to TV, reading, games and chatting.
Male 51 HMP Lewes
Went to bible class but only for 15min, as lock up at 5.45. Early lock up – what a pain – fed up with the changes.
Male 70 HMP Lewes
8am Unlocked for medication, 8.30am Freeflow but nothing for me this morning 8.45 lock up all morning, 11.30 lunchtime, 11.50 locked up again, 1.45 Freeflow – out at last, going to art. 4.45 Return for dinner. 6.15. Locked up for the night
A lot write about the t.v programmes they watch, the soaps, Jeremy Kyle and Flog It being popular. Although one diarist said he and his cell mate returned their tv to save an extra 50p a week.
Then there’s the food and personal hygiene. For one 31 yr old Male at Lewes
‘It’s nearly tea time, Monday’s teas are alright because we get our packet of shorty biscuits, one packet to last a week. Also, we get Association for 1hr 10min I think I’m going to clean my cell out and get a shower. Being clean means the world to me because theres a lot of people in here who don’t care to shower or keep clean.
Not only do we encourage diaries from prisoners but the staff too, for this female prison officer aged 57 she writes at the end of her day:
I’m enjoying a nice glass of Sauvignon now, and a thick slice of today’s bread with a decent splodge of marmite on it. My partner’s still not back from work. She keeps very long hours, too. We hardly see each other sometimes. She’s as driven as I am. Two white middle-aged middle class women with a work ethic that borders on fanatical. Our Polish lodger is the same. We’re a funny little family, really. That’s how it feels. Us and the two dogs and two cats and the occasional dead mouse. I was going to say ‘God knows what the neighbours think about us’ but really, we get on well with them.
The 12th May project with prisons was a springboard for further engagement with offenders.
In 2013 my colleague Suzanne and I embarked on a truly new experience when we entered the gates of Lewes Prison. A category B prison, just down the road from us. It was a partnership with East Sussex Library Services, Mass Observation and Lewes Prison. We worked with a creative writer with many years of experience working in prisons. The sessions took place over a series of weeks which covered the 12th May.
AIM - introduce participants to Mass Observation, to show how we still collect material for our archive and why their thoughts and experiences are equally as valuable.
It was an eye opening experience. Whilst waiting outside for the first session I overheard a conversation about a recent staff hostage situation and then when my colleague arrived wearing a scarf, she was promptly told by security she was just asking to be strangled! We then walked through 10 locked doors, an exercise yard and a bird of prey avary with squarking falcons. So were feeling pretty calm and relaxed! The library was however a very warm and welcoming place.
We took in examples of previous 12th May day diaries, including those submitted by prisoners in 2011 & talked about who has since used these and why they are important.
The creative writer led the workshops with our support. Her warmth and intimacy ensured the men were comfortable to respond and then share their work amongst the group. The sense that they were being given a voice and that this could be heard amongst the thousands of voices within the archive was powerful.
From the start the men were very open and keen to share their stories and their experiences and fully engage with the activities we had planned. Their writings were raw and at times moving. It was quite an experience to see one of the participants physically change from an awkward agitated state to one of more calm, with a sense of pride in his writing. Evlynn’s ability to validate their work in her encouraging style visibly enhanced their self-esteem.
As a result of this workshop and in partnership with academics at the University of Sussex, we returned to Lewes at the start of this year to support a pilot research project.
The pilot supported a larger research project titled ‘Using Materials from the Mass Observation Archive to Elicit Prisoners Subjective Responses.’ led by Dr Lizzie Seal, Criminologist, School of Sociology.
The pilot was funded internally through the University of Sussex. It involved four creative writing sessions on two themes – Belonging and Time and two forms of writing: Diaries and Letters. The pilot culminated in an anthology of writings and an evening event with readings of poetry. The event was also attended by a few family members.
This partnership has built upon our initial work developing the 12th May day diary collection with the prison community and is further shaping it development with a series of creative writing material, this in turn is enhancing the voices of offenders within our archive.
For the prisoners taking part, their experience is shared here with some feedback from the sessions in 2013 and 14
As mentioned earlier, when 12th May project was revived, the call asked for people to respond with their diary electronically by e-mail. This was due to capacity in administering and cataloguing the diaries. We have not changed this but obviously the work we’ve been doing with prisons and that my colleague does with schools and community groups means this is not always possible and we therefore have an increase in handwritten responses. This is something we will have to continue monitor and look for funds to support.
When the diaries are submitted they are checked onto a database, and briefly scanned through to see there are no identifying mentions, and then placed into files and archive boxes awaiting access by researchers. This year we had to recruit a member of staff for a few weeks to check through all the diaries to ensure anonymity due to the increased volume received.
The 12th May Day Diary will continue to be a regular event in the Mass Observation calendar. The voices of prisoners along with other hard to reach groups will continue to be developed and captured. It is an important date in the Mass Observation calendar now, both historically and for the future. It is an opportunity for us to continue building and enhancing a valuable collection; a collection that provides us with a snapshot about the everyday life of people in Britain.
Our teaching sessions and projects with community groups and schools have definitely been enhanced by the use of the prison diaries. When looking at day diaries, we provide hands-on sessions with responses to the 1937 call and the more recent diaries of the general public and school children.
People are intrigued and fascinated about the routine of life on the inside, in a world they know little about; time spent in the cells, exercise, the education they do, their relationships with the staff and each other, as well as insight into what they read, watch and listen to. Beyond this, its their thoughts and opinions, their reflections and thoughts of the future. It is very much a snapshot of an individual but as a collective it is a very valuable collection.
Thank you and please remember to take part in the 12th May next year!
