Chris Parsons on Landworks, imagination and moving beyond prison

Rob Hopkins

Close to where I live is a project called Landworks. Landworks describes itself as "an independent charity providing a supported route back into employment and community for those in prison or at risk of going to prison". I often walk my dog past it, and from the road you can see their polytunnels, a beautiful cob wall with roundwood pole roof, their vegetable beds, and many of the things they make are for sale in their beautiful roadside shop. Landworks began in 2013, and over that time 60 men and 4 women have spent up to 9 months there, learning new skills and taking part in their programme. In our last post here, Robert Macfarlane suggested that "in some ways imagination is a function of privilege". So what are the links between trauma, anxiety, poverty and the imagination? What does prison do to the imagination? How might cultivating the imagination play a role in rehabilitating people in prison? What might more imaginative approaches to prison look like, approaches which are land-based, practical and creative? I popped along to Landworks to chat to Chris Parsons who started Landworks 5 years ago, and who still runs it. I started by asking him to give me an introduction to Landworks and what it does.