Roundtable 1:

Stories of Injustice

Wednesday 14 April 2021 ~ 12:30 - 1:30pm Pacific

Recording available here (60 mins)

Gloria Morrison, Jan Cunliffe, Kathryn Chadwick, Becky Clarke, and JENGbA campaigners

In November 2020, we published a collaborative piece of research ‘Stories of Injustice: The criminalisation of women convicted under joint enterprise laws.’ The project reveals previously hidden, silenced and marginalised voices and stories of women, many serving long prison sentences for serious violent offences they did not commit. The project, informed by the values of critical social research, prioritised the significance of intervention, power, positionality, dialogue and reflection in the research process. The format of this session will be a roundtable discussion to be shaped around three questions which will enable contributors to reflect on shared experiences and goals, before, during and after the research process, but from differing perspectives.

1. Why collaborative? What did it mean (practically and personally / politically) to work collaboratively? How do we build on these relationships to make further progress collectively?

2. What we know? What did we already know (through experience, knowledge or otherwise)? What have we learnt in this process – both in terms of findings from the research but also the process of dissemination?

3. What next? What is the priority in the actions and interventions? Is this about joint enterprise or something bigger? How do we get there?

Gloria Morrison and Jan Cunliffe are the Co-founders of Joint Enterprise: Not Guilty by Association (JENGbA), they will take part in the roundtable alongside other JENGbA women and families directly impacted by these unjust laws.

Kathryn Chadwick is a Principal Lecturer in the Sociology Department at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her main areas of research and publication focus on gendered processes of criminalisation and punishment, challenging state injustice, penology and the theoretical imperatives of critical criminology.

Becky Clarke is a Senior Lecturer in the Sociology Department at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research interests include the gendered and racialised experiences of penal and welfare policies, processes of ‘othering’ and criminalisation, and the construction of knowledge (and ignorance).

JENGbA is a grassroots campaign supporting prisoners and their families serving mandatory life sentences for crimes they did not commit. Launched in 2010 JENGbA are now supporting over 1000 prisoners the youngest being just 13 when given a life sentence. Ahead of the session, you can find out more about this law and the campaign fighting for its abolition here: https://jointenterprise.co/