Pia Sinha, Director Prison Reform Trust

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pia Sinha is the Director of the Prison Reform Trust and a former prison governor. She was awarded the St Martin’s Award for Prison Governance for her role in turning around HMP Liverpool, which was widely described as Britain’s worst jail in 2018, following a highly critical report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons.

Pia was born in north India and she and her family came to the UK when she was 14. After studying economics and psychology at university, she pursued a career as a psychologist, and her work took into prisons. Whilst she was training, she also ran a London pub with her first husband.

After many years working as a psychologist in male and female prisons she was encouraged to apply for the Senior Prison Manager Programme aimed at training governors of the future. In 2013 she became the governor of HMP Thorn Cross, and was the first Asian woman to a run a prison in England and Wales.

Earlier this year she joined the Prison Reform Trust as its Director.

DISC ONE: Kathy’s Song - Simon & Garfunkel DISC TWO: Ek Ladki Ko Dekha - Kumar Sanu DISC THREE: Back to Life - Soul II Soul DISC FOUR: Melt - Leftfield DISC FIVE: Andmoreagain - Love DISC SIX: Black (featuring Norah Jones) - Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi DISC SEVEN: The Power of Love - Frankie Goes to Hollywood DISC EIGHT: Hometown Glory - Adele

BOOK CHOICE: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry LUXURY ITEM: Chilli sauce CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Kathy’s Song - Simon & Garfunkel

Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor

Transcript

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0:00.0	Once you've wrapped up this podcast, how about trying a very British cult?
0:06.0	What happens if the person you trust with your future isn't what you think they are?
0:10.0	I did feel the whole time he was watching me Yeti.
0:14.0	I saw a footprint and that really gave me goosebumps.
0:16.0	Or people who knew me.
0:18.0	Emmy, I remember every secret, every lie.
0:21.0	I'm the only one who knows the truth.
0:23.0	Discover more of our biggest podcast from 2003.
0:27.0	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:29.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio podcasts.
0:34.8	Hello, I'm Lauren Levern and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast.
0:38.8	Every week I ask my guest to choose the 8 tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast
0:44.8	away to a desert island. And for rights reasons the music is shorter than the original
0:50.4	broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening. The My cast away this week is Pia Sinhar, who earlier this year became director of the Prison Reform Trust,
1:22.1	after almost a decade working as a prison governor.
1:25.0	She was the first Asian woman to run a prison in England.
1:28.0	The UK has the highest imprisonment rates in Western Europe.
1:32.0	The prison population has risen by 80% in 30 years and
1:35.8	overcrowding, crumbling building stock and a mental health crisis place enormous pressures on the
1:41.4	system. The woman who wants to solve some of these
1:43.7	problems didn't follow a conventional route into prison governance and reform.
1:47.9	She was studying for a degree in psychology and running a pub when a colleague suggested she could apply for a job in the
	...

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