Down, Not Out S2 Ep1: The Care System and Homelessness

The Secret Life of Prisons podcast

1 in 7 adults in prison were experiencing homelessness before entering custody, and fewer than half of people released from prison last year had settled accommodation on release. Many had a less than perfect start in life, finding themselves in care. There seems to be a clear link between growing up in care and experiencing homelessness. Phil and Paula have teamed up with the Orwell Foundation and the Centre for Homelessness Impact to bring you another three-part series looking at the intertwined issues of homelessness, social deprivation, crime and justice. Down, Not Out is the companion podcast to The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness 2024. Host Paddy O'Connell, a friend of The Prison Radio Association and also a judge of the new prize, talks to experts and people who've experienced homelessness, to get a better idea of the scale of the problem and how it might be solved. This episode gets into some of the gritty issues around homelessness, and contains compelling stories, including one from a man who’s just been released from prison. Secret Life of Prisons Presenters: Paula Harriott and Phil Maguire Producer: Andrew Wilkie Orwell Foundation Host: Paddy O'Connell Editor and Producer: Alex Grundon Producer: Michelle Featherstone Executive Producer: Liz Wallace Contributors: DJ Taylor - George Orwell’s official biographer; Kadeem - recently released from prison; Professor Michael Sanders - Centre for Homelessness Impact and lecturer at King’s College London; Danny Lavelle - joint winner of the Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness 2023. The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness 2024 is open for entries until 31 March 2024. Entry details are available here: https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-prizes/about/about-the-prizes/reporting-homelessness/ You can also enter by post. The address is The Orwell Foundation, IAS, University College London, WC1E 6BT. Please include a contact number or email address for someone who can reach you, if you can.