Counselling in the Criminal Justice system – Alumni stories, Peter Jones

Recently we had the opportunity to catch up with alumnus Peter Jones. Peter completed a graduate diploma in counselling at York St John and then stayed on to complete an MA in counselling, graduating in 1999. He has since become a leading authority on counselling intervention in prisons and has been the Chair of the Counselling in Prisons Network (CipN) since it was founded in 2007.

Peter explained that his early work as a psychiatric nurse laid the foundations for his future career. ‘I’d always been interested in the human condition,’ he said. ‘And training as a counsellor was the next natural step for me. York St John appealed to me because of its location, but also because of its reputation, there was a really good set up and a challenging environment to help students develop.’ Initially returning to work as a psychiatric nurse, Peter helped found Hull charity Survivors, providing a vital service to victims of rape and sexual assault in the local area., It was through his work with Survivors that the CiPN was founded.

’We received a call to the Survivors helpline in 2007 after a serious sexual assault in a local category A prison,’ he said. ‘The incident sparked a realisation that there was a significant lack of essential counselling services available to men and women in the criminal justice system. The CiPN was established as an ethical response to governance and accountability in prisons with the aim to develop and agree best practice.’ Within three months, the CiPN had not only been founded but grown to involve 45 people. Within the next year the CiPN held their inaugural conference, hosted here at York St John University.

Alongside his work with the CiPN Peter was now working as a academic, first at City University London and then at Bournemouth University, during which time he began to share his expertise and experience. ‘“While studying for my MA at York St John in the late nineties, I completed a dissertation focused on male sexual abuse, which laid the foundations for my first book. This was  published in 2011 and designed to be a useful training resource for those engaged with the management and treatment of males who had suffered from some form of sexual abuse and trauma.’ Peter went on to publish two further books, focusing on interventions in criminal justice,  changing the machine-like approach of ‘dealing with and fixing’ prisoners to ‘understanding and working with’ prisoners. The CiPN is now regarded as a leading authority on sharing publications, good practice guidelines, and other prison health related information, and is now also a partner organisation in The World Health Organisations Partnership for health in the criminal justice system.    

In the last decade however, Peter’s career has taken another turn, and for the last six years he has been a full time Pioneer Minister in Dorset. ‘I helped set up another charity here in Dorset where I now live. The charity, Growing Compassionate Communities, was set up with the aim of promoting social inclusion, particularly among elderly people, those with disabilities and people of a particular ethnic or racial origin. Through this I began my work as a Pioneer Minister; my role is to creatively respond to initiatives outside of the church, working closely with the local community. One of our aspirations moving forwards is to repurpose the local vicarage to set up a rehab centre that will service members of the local community.’

Peter’s ground-breaking work throughout his career in relation to working therapeutically in the criminal justice has also seen him receive a number of worthy accolades, including an award for innovation from Queens nursing institute in 1998, being made a British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Fellow in 2009, receiving an award for outstanding effort in Prison Healthcare from HM Prison Service and the Department for Health in 2004, and most recently in 2013 Peter became an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Thank you Peter for sharing your journey with us! If you would like to share your journey since leaving York St John we’d love to hear from you, get in touch by e-mail alumni@yorksj.ac.uk