Pia joined the Prison Service in 1999 as a Higher Psychologist at HMP & YOI Holloway. After joining HMP Wandsworth as a Senior Psychologist, she took up the post of Head of Safer Prisons, followed by Head of Reducing Re-offending at HMP Wormwood Scrubs. She then took up her first Deputy Governor role at HMP Send, and subsequently Downview and Liverpool. In 2013 Pia was appointed to her first Governing role at HMP & YOI Thorn Cross, going on to govern at both Risley and Liverpool. In 2020 she became Acting Deputy Director Probation Reform Programme, then the Workforce Programme, before becoming Director of Women in November 2021. Pia’s vision for the Women’s Directorate was to enable safe, compassionate and individualised care for women. In April 2023 Pia became the CEO of the Prison Reform Trust.

Berit Johnsen is a Pro-rector of Research and Research Professor at the University College of Norwegian Correctional Service. She has published on different topics within the field of penology, including the quality of prison life, prison architecture and the movement of the body in the prisonscape. Her research on the quality of prison life in Norway, showed that life is better in small prisons for both prisoners and staff in small prisons than larger ones.

Andi Brierley is the Head of Access, Participation and Outcomes at Leeds Trinity University and published author of three Crime and Justice books. Andi has an extensive 15-year career in Youth Justice, including 5 years as the Child Looked After Specialist, focussing on safely reducing the number of children in care being criminalised in Leeds before spending 2 years teaching Prison Officers on a Custodial Leadership MSc as a University Lecturer. Andi is currently undertaking a PhD to explore the effectiveness of professionals with lived experience of crime and punishment in Criminal Justice Practice.

Max Dennehy currently works on the ‘Reconnect’ NHS contract supporting prison leavers on their reentry and reintegration process. Driven by his background of imprisonment and addiction, Max has written and researched around the topics of punishment, desistance, and recovery. Max is currently working towards finishing his master's in criminology at Lancaster University and is due to start a PhD in September. 

Georgia Barnett is a Chartered and HCPC Registered Forensic Psychologist and Evidence-Based Practice specialist. Before co-founding KTA Research and Consulting, Georgia worked for HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) for 22 years, starting out as a clinician in prisons then moving to Headquarters where she worked in Interventions Services. Georgia spent the last ten years as an Evidence Lead in the HMPPS Evidence-Based Practice Team where she conducted research and synthesised data and evidence to help develop HMPPS’ approach to women, young adults, staff well-being, managing behaviour in prisons, understanding and protecting against bias in decision making, and creating a diverse and inclusive organisational culture. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Georgia worked with the HMPPS national Staff Well-being Leads to devise evidence-based advice and resources on how to protect the psychological health of frontline staff, leaders and managers, during a crisis. More recently, Georgia has worked on projects to support staff capability and confidence, leading the evaluation of the pilots of Structured Supervision for prison officers.

Dr Helen Wakeling is a Chartered Research Psychologist, and Evidence-Based Practice specialist who is now a founding partner at KTA Research and Consulting. Prior to KTA, Helen worked for HM Prison and Probation Service for over 22 years. For the first 14 years she worked within Interventions Services, where she specialised in research into sexual offending and risk assessment. Helen then spent eight years as an Evidence Lead in the Evidence-Based Practice Team within HMPPS, supporting prisons, probation, youth custody, and HMPPS Headquarters to embed evidence into frontline practice. Within this role Helen has conducted a series of original and robust research studies to build the evidence base and acted as a consultant in areas including how to develop healthy prison cultures, how to measure and develop procedural justice practices for both staff and people living in prison, how to improve prison safety and develop positive relationships in prisons. Recently, Helen has specialised in in-depth case studies of prison cultures exploring mechanisms of change, including their impact on substance misuse, staff performance and wellbeing, and effective communication. Using participatory action research methodology Helen has collaborated directly with prison staff to design, and conduct research that aims to improve prison culture.

Natasha is the CEO and founder of Unlocked Graduates. She developed the concept while working with Dame Sally Coates on her review into prison education and has led the organisation from its inception in 2016. Since then, Unlocked Graduates has recruited over 750 graduates to be prison officers, working in 38 prisons across England and Wales, currently reaching almost 20,000 prisoners.

Natasha has a background in public sector start-ups and was previously a teacher and senior leader in inner city schools, co-founding King Solomon Academy and leading their frontier cohort to groundbreaking GCSE results in 2014. Natasha has also worked as a government adviser and at the Westminster think tank Policy Exchange.

Natasha is an advisor to the Children’s Commissioner and a commissioner for The Times Crime and Justice Commission. She is a charity trustee at Impetus PEF and Get Further, with a particular interest in improving outcomes for vulnerable and disadvantaged children. She sits on the Grants and Evaluation committee at the Youth Endowment Fund and the Building Future’s Advisory Board at Prison Reform Trust. In 2022 Natasha was awarded an OBE for services to HM Prison and Probation Service.

Ralph joined the Prison Service in 2004 on a graduate fasttrack scheme. Have worked in various prisons of different types, with a particular focus on driving cultural change and improving performance. He spent two years working in Private Office at Ministry of Justice, which gave an invaluable insight into the way HMG and Senior Civil Service functions and how that impacts on frontline delivery.

Ralph was promoted to Deputy Governor at HMP Leicester in 2017, culminating in a much improved HM inspection in January. He Governed HMP Stafford from January 2018-June 2020, acheiving improved HMIP and MQPL scores and developing a truly rehabilitative culture, before becoming Governor of HMP Hewell. 

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He is now a Prison Director with Sodexo.

Claudia Reynolds is an experienced officer who has been working in prison for 18 years.  She is currently employed by G4S as the Expansion Project Operational Support Manager. She was promoted into this position due to her can-do attitude. Claudia has a keen interest in history, archaeology and walking. She is very passionate about environmental conservation and animal welfare.  Claudia's proudest achievements are being the first lone female licensee to be employed by Ansells Brewery running multiple city centre pubs and climbing Scafell Pike.

John Sampson became a prison officer in HMP Pentonville in 2018 as part of the Unlocked Graduates programme. In his time as a prison officer, he completed a MSc in Leadership and Custodial Environments as well as co-produced a policy paper for the MoJ on improving provisions for Young Adults in the Adult estate. After working on the landings for nearly three years, John joined StandOut as Lead Coach in Pentonville and managed their programme in the prison for two years. Through coaching-based practice, he supported people upon release from prison with the transition back into the community and returning to work and education. As of 2023, John has been working as an Employer Development Manager at Skills Builder Partnership, where he is leading on the organisation's expansion into criminal justice facing work.  

Marc Conway has over 27 years of experience of the Criminal Justice System from both sides of the fence. After 5 years of working at the Prison Reform Trust he now is CEO at Fair Justice. Marc is a person who is under the IPP system and campaigns for reform withing this field. He is an advocate for the lived experience voice to be included in all discussion where they are not normally invited to.

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“No policy is worth the paper it is written on if it doesn't hear the voices of those governed by that policy”

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