AWARD WINNER 2023-24: Caragh’s Award is for her outstanding contribution, as a Senior Policy Advisor in HMPPS, to improving employment opportunities for prisoners, and for her ground-breaking initiative supporting colleagues with ‘lived experience’, and drawing on their experience to improve policy and practice throughout MoJ.
[Caragh’s Award is supported by the Prison Governors Association.]

Caragh’s nomination

Caragh was nominated by: Jack O’Sullivan (Programme Director, Accelerator Prisons, Ministry of Justice).

Caragh Arthur joined MoJ in March 2021, to improve life chances for those leaving prison. Her background included working for User Voice where she implemented service users’ counsels in prison, working for the Hepatitis C Trust as a prison peer coordinator setting up health projects in 20 prisons, and helping women gain meaningful employment in her role at Working Chance.

At the MoJ, Caragh wrote the ‘recruiting prison leavers’ guidance for prisons, probation, and wider HQ colleagues. She has made recommendations to the prison industry teams to have employment maps outside of workshop environments so that prisoners could clearly map possibilities for their future. Caragh did a skills gap analysis for some 30 prison leavers who came to work in the civil service to help find learning opportunities for them to progress their careers.

Caragh created a panel made up of civil servants with Lived Experience to provide a network of support in an environment where they had previously felt alone as ex-offenders in an environment of civil servants. She also started the policy panel for the same group, following feedback from senior leaders who advised Caragh they needed a quality check point on their policy ideas from people who understood the system best – those with Lived Experience.

This work ensured the Lived Experience voice was threaded through resettlement passports and the CAS3 (Care, Accommodation, Service) project, as well as programmes covering self-harm for women, engaging people on probation, alcohol monitoring, and race action. As a result of this work, the Youth Justice Board met with Caragh to understand how they could mirror her role with them, a role which is now in place.

Caragh’s reach is multi-faceted because she cares deeply about helping to reduce offending. Her voice and vision may have extended to hundreds if not thousands of prisoners, colleagues, and stakeholders.

Caragh is currently leading a reward and recognition trial in three prisons to promote increased education, skills training and work, and uses her time generously to inspire officers and prisoners. She is also running a trial where those with Lived Experience will run projects in prison to inspire prisoners and officers to work together. Caragh is writing a chapter in a book to be published in 2024 on prison leadership and was funded to do a Cambridge Masters degree so she can continue adding value to HMPPS.

Usman Anwar, National Lived Experience Lead in the Youth Custody Service, added: “I believe if good people who do amazing things are recognised for those amazing things, it works to benefit them to do more amazing things and to inspire others to create more sparks of change. Caragh has been an inspiration to me which is why I’ve chosen to nominate her. Due to her guidance and support I have gone on to secure a permanent position within the civil service, and at the age of 31 can finally see a future outside of crime for myself. She was the wind that helped me turn over a new leaf.”

Rossana Carbutt, from the HMPPS New Futures Network, said:
“In 2023 we held two National Employment Advisory Board (EAB) Conferences which Caragh generously devoted her time to support. In January 23, Caragh played a vital role in the success of the Women’s Estate EAB Conference. The conference brought together representatives from prisons, probation, employers, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and the voluntary sector.

The aim of the conference was to build an understanding of how EABs can positively impact the lives of women prison leavers, reduce re-offending as well as meeting the needs of employers and their recruitment needs. The conference also aimed to increase awareness surrounding employment opportunities and outcomes for women leaving prison and the different challenges that women face when leaving prison.

Caragh’s expertise and invaluable perspective significantly added to the success of the conference.

We received numerous quotes from attendees praising Caragh’s input, including:

• I was blown away by Caragh’s contribution at the conference. Her presence was a true asset to the team.
• Having Caragh at the conference was incredibly empowering. It shed light on the profound significance of the work we all do.
• The last speaker was brilliant and courageous, leaving a lasting impression on the audience.

Caragh’s participation not only enhanced the atmosphere of the conference but also inspired and motivated participants to further their efforts in driving forwards progress to support more women into employment. Her ability to inspire and connect with others is remarkable and deserving of recognition.”

Jess Cutler, from the MoJ Accelerator Prisons Project, added:

“Caragh has a passion for ensuring that people in prison are treated humanely and fairly, and that they are carefully considered and consulted when new prison policies and interventions are being developed. For example, she has skilfully led prisoner focus groups on new interventions which have successfully engaged the men – in part due to her careful preparations, and due to her being extremely personable, treating the participants with decency.

This has resulted in Caragh driving forward innovative ideas to test increased prisoner attendance at education, skills, and work – for example, events with those with Lived Experience to inspire prisoners to improve their lives, and a new reward and recognition scheme for staff who go above and beyond in relation to education, skills, and work. In one prison there have already been over 600 nominations in the first two months of the scheme launching.”

In conclusion

Caragh is an exceptional member of the team – she brings a passion for criminal justice and support for those with convictions to turn their lives around like no one else I have ever seen.

She has worked in the Reducing Reoffending Directorate for a couple of years now, where she has raised the profile of those with Lived Experience in MOJ/HMPPS and set up the Lived Experience Panel to provide valuable input, insight and challenge on new policy ideas.

She was successful on gaining promotion into the Accelerator Programme a year ago and has been effective at driving work forward to improve prison engagement and attendance with education and employment, as well as leading on a project to get prisoners to build relationships with staff and acknowledge officer efforts to support prisoners to turn their lives around.

Caragh is remarkable at building relationships with all those she works with, from Ministers to policy colleagues and those in prison (staff and prisoners). Her ability to connect with people and make them feel at ease is endlessly impressive. I can’t think of anybody else who deserves to win the Butler Award more than Caragh.