October 2011
7 posts
How to prevent riots: invest in young people,... →
Anonymous asked: Do you think it would be possible to petition the government regarding the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act? My son who was sentenced to 3yrs 3mths in 1999 is finding it impossible to get a job as he is obliged to declare his unspent criminal record? Would be interested to hear your comments
Anonymous asked: what are your thoughts about the riots this week?
Anonymous asked: hi mark, i read your book,whilst in hospital, my last hit was the day before, please could you help me with this im too afraid to got to docs or near hospitals, here goes, my boyfreind was hitting me in the groin, as i couldnt get anywhere else a few times he must have hit a nerve, as the whole leg are went red itchy and inflamed, now im left with a numbness in my leg, thats been since april, its...
Anonymous asked: what am i meant to write on job applications? what do i put where they ask about health/hospital stays etc. do i lie an risk getting found out down the line, admit it (no interview there) or what? Been using 20 years but was working at same job for 13 yrs til my boss found out and thought it "might be better all round if i left" I am stuck and struggling. any advice (except 12 steppin)...
Anonymous asked: Hi Mark, It's Sharon Berry from Storybook Dads. We met at Shannon Trust conference in March. Hope all's well. I want to ask 2 things. Is the tree surgery thing you set up for ex prisoners - still in operation? If so where and how would I find out about it? Also we are holding our first ever fund raising event on Wed 28th Sept - a sponsored chain gang walk on Dartmoor - with Terry...
Anonymous asked: I need help. I have been kicked out my family home because I chose my Bf over them. My bf does alot of coke and deals drugs, he works illegally and he is so nasty to me, but for some reason, i cant stop loving him...i have lost everything, i have no home, my cars well and truly f**ked, ive lost my mates and i feel disgusting, i met you once at college, and i found u to be a really nice person.
November 2010
1 post
Will Westminster finally act on the experiences of... →
August 2010
2 posts
Apologising to victims will not reduce reoffending... →
You can comment on the Guardian website too. Esp... →
July 2010
2 posts
Want to get ex-offenders into work? Scrap criminal... →
Do These Inmates Hold the Key to the Prisons...
This article was published in the Times 2 Life, 2nd July 2010
The inmates who may hold the key to prisons dilemma
Alice Fishburn
2 July 2010
As Ken Clarke talks about a radical change in prison sentencing, we look at how empowering prisoners with inmate councils could provide a solution
The meeting starts late. Ten minutes after a crackling walkie-talkie announces “All council members to the...
June 2010
1 post
In his Guardian article Mark talks about how... →
May 2010
1 post
When justice secretary Ken Clarke makes the... →
April 2010
1 post
Mark Johnson searched the manifestos for signs... →
March 2010
1 post
However much we sympathise, the fury of those who... →
February 2010
1 post
In his latest article Mark Johnson speaks about... →
January 2010
1 post
1 tag
Drug users’ voices must be heard in the battle...
In a new article for The Guardian Mark explains that the best people to consult on effective drug rehabilitation methods must surely be reformed addicts – people with direct experience of both addiction and rehabilitation – rather than service providers with no personal exposure to the situation.
December 2009
1 post
1 tag
Rattling out prescriptions writes off addicts
Mark argues that the Government’s policy of prescribing drugs to addicts in prison is an ineffective means of crime-prevention and does more harm to the addicted than good to the community in a new article for The Guardian article.
November 2009
1 post
1 tag
Denial-bashing can shatter serial offenders’...
Mark questions the Government’s tendency towards repeat punishment of repeat offenders without emphasis on deterrent or reform in this article for The Guardian.
October 2009
2 posts
1 tag
Middle-class voices hush up a criminal waste of...
In his latest article for The Guardian, Mark revisits his concerns over the Independent Safeguarding Authority, highlighting that its vetting scheme will bar the right people from helping offenders.
Read the full article at www.guardian.co.uk.
2 tags
Prisoners are ready for a taste of democracy
In his latest article for The Guardian, Mark talks about the idea of power-sharing in prison, highlighting prison councils as “an opportunity for the heart to talk to the head. Staff and prisoners will unite to express their views. They will offer a channel for the hidden people at society’s extremities to articulate how they can help, and be helped, to change”.
Read the full article...
August 2009
1 post
1 tag
Enough scapegoating. We all need to be better...
In his latest article for The Guardian, Mark talks about the Baby P case, and the mirror it holds up to all of us in our “dysfunctional society breeding dysfunctional individuals who breed still more”.
Read the full article at www.guardian.co.uk.
June 2009
5 posts
1 tag
There’s no escape from the past in this kangaroo...
In his latest article for The Guardian Mark voices his very deep concerns over the government’s formation of the Independent Safeguarding Authority: a shadowy organisation that seems set to exercise powers of judge and jury in determining the future prospects of anyone with a less-than squeaky-clean past.
Read the full article at www.guardian.co.uk
The Big Issue article: memories of Glastonbury
I went to Glastonbury this year for the first time in a long time. It’s hard to admit that I sloped off early, particularly because everyone else was having fun. Maybe that’s one reason I felt so isolated. Everyone seemed to be making the experience more intense by looking at each other and identifying with the good time they were having. I couldn’t seem to do that and so I got more and more...
1 tag
Young offenders: Unequal race against doing time...
In a new article for The Guardian, Mark discusses the problems faced by ex-offenders with limited choices and resources in the face of the often tough rules imposed on them on release from prison.
TES Article: From Heroin to Hero
Writing for the Times Educational Supplement, Hannah Frankel talked to Mark about his background and the choices and decisions that have led him to where he is today:
Mark Johnson was eight years old when he started to see a psychiatrist about his violent tendencies. That was the same year he first got drunk. Three years on he took heroin in a squat.
His descent into a world of drug-fuelled...
The Big Issue article: mental health and criminal...
This article was written by Mark and was published in a recent issue of The Big Issue magazine in the UK:
G is a former medical student whose wealthy and generally happy childhood had a dark side: sexual abuse. In adulthood he suffered from depression. Smoking weed progressed to smoking crack and soon his medical career was over. Occasional drug-induced psychosis became a permanent state....
May 2009
2 posts
1 tag
It’s people, not systems, that can make a real...
In his latest Guardian column, published today, Mark explains how it’s personal communication that offers the best way for youth and social workers to make a real difference in the lives of youngsters branded by society as ‘offenders’:
“At a conference recently, I learned that the people who are supposed to be “managing” our offenders now spend up to 80% of their time in front of a computer....
1 tag
Teenagers need the power to step off the trouble...
Mark’s latest article for The Guardian was published in April and can be read online atwww.guardian.co.uk. In this piece, Mark talks about the very real need for the authorities to actively engage with young people in order to help them start solving their problems, and how a small amount of money spent on intervention and support at the right time could help save millions in social costs...
March 2009
1 post
1 tag
Addiction is a sickness, and so is criminalising...
In a new article written for The Guardian, Mark talks about the way in which society regards drug addiction and drug addicts: as a problem to be stigmatised rather than a sickness to be recognised and treated.
“As a crack and heroin addict who managed to stop using and then wrote about the experience, I get quite a few letters from the relatives of addicts, and they are all saying the same...
February 2009
1 post
1 tag
Academics can’t see through the ‘feral youth’...
In his latest piece for The Guardian, published and posted online today, Mark tackles the problem of scaremongering in the media that was fuelled by last week’s Centre for Social Justice report.
“The CSJ deserves credit for expanding thinking in this area and recognising the huge underlying problems. But I admit to reading the report with a sinking feeling. Here we go again … a lot of stuff...
January 2009
1 post
1 tag
Ex-offenders should be our secret weapon, not...
“I believe that if the government wants to reduce reoffending, then the employment of ex-offenders is the secret weapon. Go to any drugs treatment centre and you will find it mostly staffed by ex-drug users. It is crucial for those recovering from addiction that they learn to support others who are doing the same.”
Read the rest of Mark’s latest article for the Guardian.
December 2008
1 post
Young offenders need a future, not a stigma
“Justice secretary Jack Straw recently talked about offenders exercising moral choices in the commitment of their crimes. He then scarcely drew breath before telling us that two-thirds of prison inmates are there because they have drink or drug problems.
So, let’s clarify Straw’s own moral choice here…”
Read the rest of Mark’s latest article for the Guardian newspaper.
November 2008
3 posts
1 tag
Kids are the toxic waste of violence that breeds...
Read Mark’s latest article for the Guardian’s Society section, on the subject of violence towards children, and its effects.
Mark on This Morning
Mark Johnson appeared on ITV’s This Morning programme in 2007 when his book Wasted was first published in hardback.
Watch the interview, in which Mark discusses his former life of drugs and crime, and how he turned it around:
Part two of the interview:
Mark returns to HMP Gloucester
This picture was taken on Mark’s recent visit to Gloucester Prison — where he served time — as part of the Cheltenham Literature Festival.
October 2008
3 posts
Forget sats: lesson one is a basic emotional...
“Our schools curriculum is designed by the middle classes, delivered by them, and is successful primarily for the middle classes.”
Read Mark’s thoughts on education and the emotional health of young people in his latest article for the Guardian newspaper.
Prison Council
This is an article Mark wrote for The Big Issue
There’s a place, and it really does exist, which has four political parties. Each one stands for a different aspect of social reform. Each one agrees wholeheartedly with the aims of the others. All four work together for the greater good without political infighting or the usual point-scoring shenanigans. No, don’t pack your bags. You don’t...
Back in Birmingham
Watch Mark’s appearance on the television news programme Midlands Today, where he went back to Birmingham and talked about his past life of crime there.
September 2008
2 posts
Ex-criminals have a lot to say, now government...
“I’m beginning to wonder if it might be possible that we’ll be allowed to help make the criminal justice system more humane, productive, and rehabilitation-based.” Read Mark’s thoughts on the criminal justice system in a new article for the Guardian newspaper.
Responses to “Punishment Won’t Get Rid of Knife...
Read some of the responses to Mark’s article Punishment Won’t Get Rid of Knife Crime in the Guardian, including a response from David Hanson, minister of state, Ministry of Justice.
Read the original article here.
July 2008
4 posts
1 tag
Punishment won’t get rid of knife crime
Mark has an article in the Guardian this week on the UK government’s response to knife crime:
“The government’s response to knife-crime hysteria, the youth crime action plan, is an expensive package of measures, almost exclusively punitive in nature. No surprises there. And let’s not be surprised when it all ends in failure.”
Read the full article.
Mark’s Prince’s Trust Award
Watch the television coverage of Mark receiving his Prince’s Trust Award at the Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards.
Carol Vorderman hosts the show, while the award is presented to Mark by Victoria Beckham. There is also a tribute to Mark’s achievements by the Prince of Wales.
Mark in South Africa
Mark is currently in South Africa working with Khulisa, a crime intervention charity working in Prisons and in Townships with vulnerable people.
We’ll bring you some photographs from his trip as soon as we can.
June 2008
2 posts
1 tag
It’s time the great and good met some real scary...
Read Mark’s article in the Society section of today’s Guardian newspaper, titled “It’s time the great and good met some real scary kids”.
The Truth About Street Weapons begins Monday
The Truth About Street Weapons, the series investigating why young people carry guns and knives and featuring Mark along with Cherie Booth, begins on Channel 4 on Monday, June 30th at 11.05 pm.
The Street Weapons Commission panellists visited Liverpool, London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester during May 2008 taking evidence from interested parties in an attempt to find out why...
May 2008
5 posts
Does prison rehabilitate criminals?
Mark has an opinion piece called ‘Does prison rehabilitate criminals or just make them worse?’ on the Friction TV website. Watch it here.
The User Voice of the Criminal Justice System →
Mark has produced a new report called ‘The User Voice of the Criminal Justice System’.