National Prison Radio

Content supports National Offender Management Service's objective to reduce re-offending by providing information vital for progressing successfully through a prison sentence.

It promotes educational opportunities, discussion of issues related to crime and justice, as well as messages and requests from prisoners' families and friends.

The idea for a prison radio station was first mooted in 1993 by advertising executive Mark Robinson.

It was in response to a spate of suicides, self-harm and violent incidents at HM Prison Feltham.

The first programme was presented by serving prisoners alongside BBC Radio 1's Bobby Friction.

The programme was broadcast in front of a live audience, including the future chief executive of the National Offender Management Service, Michael Spurr.

Part of a trailblazing partnership with the National Offender Management Service, National Prison Radio began broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week, via in-cell television, to prisons across England and Wales.

Programming closely reflects National Offender Management Service's Seven Pathways to Reducing Reoffending.

[11] In 2016 National Prison Radio broadcast a live event called 'Letters From The Inside', in which performers including Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kae Tempest, Russell Brand, Matt Berry, Clarke Peters and Mark Strong, as well as serving and former prisoners, read out remarkable letters, including some from prisoners, before a live audience in the chapel of HMP Brixton.

The event was run in partnership with Letters Live to mark the tenth anniversary of the Prison Radio Association.