Emily was getting a little complacent. All those dates with grime superstars and extravagant nights out at Paul & Joe parties... it just didn't smell enough like real work. So we sent her off to meet an ex-offender named Wendy Akou-Rowley who now works for the St Giles Trust trying to keep others out of prison and off the streets.

Wondering down the Mall toward the ICA I knew only two things. I was to meet a representative from the St Giles trust who herself used to be a guest in one of Her Majesties prisons. I was also aware that the exhibition was organised by the Koestler Awards Scheme which promotes creativity throughout the criminal justice system, therefore all works were done by inmates.

As you can expect I was slightly apprehensive of the meeting. My other assignments have been polar opposites. This was in no way a frivolous dating foray but an important topic. Tony Blair was forced to admit that prisons were “at bursting point” earlier this year. It costs around £126,500 to convict a person and a further £37,500 to keep someone in prison for one year.

Meeting Wendy I was shocked how she managed to turn her life around. Wendy was in jail for four years for drug related crimes. She is now the PA to the Chief Executive of the St Giles Trust, who helped her gain crucial qualifications during her sentence. This is a story that perhaps Tony Blair and the Prison Service could learn from.

Turning into the gallery space we are met with an earthy toned painting depicting a man lying in a cell watching, ironically, A Place in the Country on television. I turn to Wendy; I want to know if my preconceived idea of prison is anything like the reality.

She smiles and says: “It’s not like Bad Girls,” then goes on to explain that the experience in itself is not bad. “It’s the mental anguish you suffer. It’s not being part of society; it’s not seeing your family and friends.” I try to imagine what it must be like - an image of loneliness and boredom looms and I ask what their daily routine is and discover that she worked for seven and a half hour days, putting the spongy things on headphones - 1p a hit - for Virgin.

I had no idea big corporations like Virgin used cheap prison labour. Thinking about the loneliness of prison I ask about the bond between the inmates. Are they as tempestuous as we are lead to believe? Wendy tells me that her experience of this was more of support between the other women. “There is the feeling that you have to pretend everything is ok to those you have left behind; this resonates between all of us.”

We stop in front of an oil painting depicting a mother and child and the poignant sentiment is clear on Wendy’s face. We discuss the issues surrounding the removal of a person from society, which she feels has a “ripple effect” on others. I ask what her views are of other punishments like community service and tagging. She thinks that there is a major difference between someone who has committed benefit fraud to a violent crime, and as long as people are risk assessed properly they are valid forms of punishment.

Wendy has four children and I’m interested to know if her time in prison had a detrimental effect on them. She sights the psychoanalyst Bowlby, who said children most need their parents between the ages of two and three. Without this bonding time the child can develop emotional problems. She is keen to point out that she knows that she deserved a punishment for her crime, but the lesson of isolation was learnt after a year, after this another form could have been implemented within society.

Wendy managed to start rebuilding her life while inside with the help of the St Giles trust. She managed to obtainNVQ qualifications in over fifty courses including social welfare, child psychology and advanced guidance. She explains that she was lucky the scheme was within the prison she attended, “Others don’t have this backing. That’s why our ‘meet at the gates scheme’ is so important. Sometimes, unless inmates have someone to sort them out, they get kicked out the door and go straight back to the crack den.”

My meeting with Wendy was very different from my previous encounters. The show in itself was moving as it reflects a fresh, untrained view of art. Colours are vivid and unpredictably bright, beautifully naive in its acquirement. Many of the paintings reflect a sad view of their standing in society, but also a deep sense of hope echoes. It seems both the artists and Wendy have tried to create something positive from their hopeless situations.

http://www.koestlertrust.org.uk/

Photographs by Voytek Ketz