Insights for Prison Educators: Lessons from Lived Experience

This webinar promises to be enlightening for prison educators and advocates. Bringing together former students with lived experience, the event aims to share invaluable insights on effective teaching strategies within prisons and correctional facilities. Attendees can look forward to a series of discussions highlighting the unique challenges and opportunities in prison education. The speakers, drawing from their personal journeys, will highlight the importance of empathy, adaptability, and innovative approaches in fostering an engaging learning environment. This event will offer practical tips and tricks for educators while emphasising the transformative power of education in the rehabilitation and personal growth of people in prison.

Dwayne Antojado is a lived experience criminologist and academic with lived experience of the criminal justice system in Australia. Dwayne is a postgraduate criminology student in the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, and holds sessional academic appointments at various universities in Australia. He is also a Senior Writer for Paper Chained Magazine, a journal of artistic expression from individuals affected by incarceration. His research interests include LGBTQIA+ experiences in the justice system, Lived Experience Criminology, education in prisons, and prison radio. Dwayne presently has two upcoming books one with Matthew Maycock (Monash University) and Danica Darley (University of Sheffield), published by Routledge; and another monograph, published by Palgrave Macmillan, both on the topic of ‘lived experience’ in criminal justice and criminology.

Tina McPhee is a PhD candidate and teaching fellow in the faculty of Law and Justice at the University of New South Wales and the Lived Experience Advocacy Coordinator at Justice Reform Initiative. Tina's autoethnographical research focusses on the collateral consequences of conviction and how they are experienced as civil death.

Tahlia Isaac is a Kamilaroi woman who holds a Bachelor of Business and Post Grad in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Her lived experience of 10 years living with substance use disorder and subsequently imprisonment serves as the catalyst for her work. Her organisation Strong Empowered Living Free advocates for systems change to end the incarceration of women and removing barriers to reentry through delivering a reentry program specifically designed from lived experience.

Phillip Jenkins brings a deeply personal and informed perspective on prisons in New South Wales. Having spent six of the last eleven years incarcerated where educational opportunities were limited to the point of not existing, Phillip wishes to transform these challenges into commitments that can improve the prison system. Currently an undergraduate at UNSW studying Criminology and Criminal Justice, Phillip aims to leverage his academic pursuits to advocate for systemic change. As a neurodiverse individual, Phillip recently hosted the launch of report ‘Cruel Inhuman and Degrading Treatment of People with Disability in Detention’, organised by the Commonwealth Ombudsman. As a continuation of this report, Phillip, together with Churchill fellow Patrick McGee, will begin designing and collaborations on a ‘national report card’ for people with disability in detention. Phillip’s unique insights will be further utilised as he joins the advisory board at UNSW for the Bachelor of Criminology program, representing those with lived experience. His dedication to reform and empowerment through sharing his experiences is an invaluable asset to any team. Hoping to complete a PhD, he hopes to contribute to how education is delivered, and to meet the specific needs of individuals so they are afforded the same opportunities and agency when mapping their way through incarceration and return to community.