In response to Zoe Williams’ Guardian article on prison overcrowding

Zoe Williams makes a strong argument in today’s Guardian: prisons are overcrowded not simply because we have failed to build enough cells, but because for years politicians have found it easier to increase punishment than to have an honest conversation about what actually makes us safer.

I think she is largely right.

But the problem goes deeper than tabloid pressure. We have gradually allowed the success of our criminal justice system to be measured by how severely we punish people rather than by how effectively we reduce future harm.

Those are not the same...

When someone leaves prison, the system calls it “resettlement.” Housing. Benefits. ID. Appointments. Compliance.

All necessary. All practical.

But survival is not the same as healing.

For many people affected by the criminal justice system, survival has been the organising principle of life for years, sometimes decades. Survival in chaotic homes. Survival in violent relationships. Survival on the streets. Survival in prison. The nervous system learns quickly: stay alert, stay defended, don’t soften.

And then release comes.

On paper, it looks like freedom. In the body, it can feel like exposure.

In trauma-informed work, we understand that safety is not an abstract concept. It is felt....

As the year draws to a close, many people find themselves reflecting on what has changed and what has not. There is often a quiet pressure to identify progress, lessons learnt, or intentions for the year ahead. For people who have lived through trauma, imprisonment, or long periods of exclusion, this pressure can feel especially heavy. Change is expected. Improvement is implied. Yet the lived experience is often far more complex.

At The Reasons Why Foundation, we have learnt that meaningful change rarely arrives through effort alone. It does not come from being told to do better, try harder, or fix...

Anxiety after release is not a sign of weakness - it’s a normal, adaptive response to major change. Life outside the prison gates can be unpredictable: new expectations, unfamiliar routines, and social pressures can feel destabilising, especially after the structure and control of prison life.

In prison, survival often depends on hypervigilance - constantly scanning for risk, reading people, and protecting yourself emotionally. This becomes second nature and can be quite automatic. That same hyper-awareness, while essential inside, can become exhausting outside. Crowded buses, sudden noises, or being surrounded by strangers can trigger an alert response. Even simple decisions - what...

Leaving prison is often described as a fresh start, but for many, it can feel like anything but. The journey after incarceration is rarely straightforward, and one of the most invisible but deeply rooted barriers is the emotional weight of shame and guilt. At The Reasons Why Foundation, we’ve seen how these feelings can quietly sabotage progress, fracture relationships, and derail the journey toward rebuilding a life. But we’ve also seen something else; that with the right support, healing is possible. Shame and guilt don’t have to define a person’s future.

When someone serves a prison sentence, the punishment doesn’t always...