EPQ Presentation

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What Was My Title And Why

My topic options were “Should abortion be legal?”, “To what extent should prostitution be legal?” and “To what extent do UK prisons contribute to rehabilitating prisoners?”

I decided to choose these because at the time they seemed like the best options that I was looking at. 

I was toying between “should abortion be legal” and “to what extent do uk prisons contribute to rehabilitating prisoners” because both seemed like important topics to me that were worldwide issues that many people were arguing for and against. 

I ended up choosing To what extent do uk prisons contribute to rehabilitating prisoners because I felt like that would be the one which allowed me to fully argue strong points for and against. I also felt like this topic was more suitable for the current issues in the world that many countries are facing which is prisoners reoffending once they have been released from prison. Previously I had researched and wrote an essay on “should abortion be legal” so I felt as though I wouldn’t be developing a new skill of researching but instead just relaying the knowledge from my previous essay into this essay. 

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What research did I do and which were the most hel

I started to do research to look into my topics and found that there were much more helpful and in depth pieces of research compared to my other two topics. 

I started by looking at websites and then when I chose to do “to what extent do uk prisons contribute to rehabilitating prisoners” I researched more into there by looking at journals when we went to Newcastle University and I found some good articles there. One especially was “the diary of a prisoner” and it talks about how a prisoner views the rehabilitation techniques and what happens in their day to day life. For me, I found that websites were much more helpful than anything else

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Which Sources Turned Out To Be Most/Least Useful A

The most useful as you can see on the list were websites, dictionaries and interviews because they give a lot of information but they simplify it down. This made it easy for me to understand a lot of information such as the difference between the wellness programme and the counselling programme because for me, I believed that they were the same but in fact the wellness programme is about physical and mental wellbeing whilst the counselling programme is about seeing a therapist mainly for a prisoner’s mental health. The least useful, however, were books and podcasts. I found that these had too much information and I had to read or listen through all of it to be able to find what I wanted and most times it was only a small section of either the book or the podcast that I could use or none of it at all. For example, the podcast ‘What Happened to Prisoner Justice Day?’ talks about differences between prisons in the 60’s and 80’s to how they compare to today. Whilst I thought this was an amazing podcast and had all the information I needed, only then at the end do I realise that it is talking about Canadian prisons. 

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Sources I Created Myself

The most useful as you can see on the list were websites, dictionaries and interviews because they give a lot of information but they simplify it down. This made it easy for me to understand a lot of information such as the difference between the wellness programme and the counselling programme because for me, I believed that they were the same but in fact the wellness programme is about physical and mental wellbeing whilst the counselling programme is about seeing a therapist mainly for a prisoner’s mental health. The least useful, however, were books and podcasts. I found that these had too much information and I had to read or listen through all of it to be able to find what I wanted and most times it was only a small section of either the book or the podcast that I could use or none of it at all. For example, the podcast ‘What Happened to Prisoner Justice Day?’ talks about differences between prisons in the 60’s and 80’s to how they compare to today. Whilst I thought this was an amazing podcast and had all the information I needed, only then at the end do I realise that it is talking about Canadian prisons. 

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What Key Problems Did I Have To Overcome?

I feel like I had to deal with a few issues during my EPQ. Firstly, I had to deal with many personal issues such as my mental health declining which prevented me from adding to either my learner record, dissertation or research log for some days as I felt as though this was too much to deal with alongside three other subjects which were also adding on homework. Secondly, I decided I would try and use different plans at the same time to try and help me be more organised but all it did was just muddle everything up and put me more out of place than I actually was to begin with. click From here I decided to stick to a chart that I made myself (as shown above) which I found a lot easier to stick to as it was very simplistic. 

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What Were The Most Important Decisions I Made In S

As I have previously talked about, I found that To What Extent Do UK Prisons Contribute To Rehabilitating Prisoners was the best title for me as there were a lot of helpful resources that I could use and I also had people close to me who I could interview for information. For my citation style, I found that this was the best because it allowed me to clearly see who wrote it, what the title of it was, which website I got it from, when it was written, the URL for when I needed access to it again and also the date that I accessed it. Compared to other people who chose citation styles such as Harvard or MLA, I found that this style was easiest for me to process when looking at it in my dissertation. Finally, I found that choosing my SMART targets were an important decision for me to stick with. In the photo above you can see that my first SMART target was to evaluate advantages and disadvantages of prison rehabilitation click and as you can see from the diagram that I have been able to achieve that. My second SMART target was to become more confident in my presenting skills and hopefully here you can see that I am.My third SMART target was to critically evaluate my sources using BRAVENS click which you can see that I have done from how I have set my research log out.

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What Skills Have I Developed As Part Of The Projec

During this project I feel as though I have learnt many skills. I have learnt how to project plan properly using EPF 2 to help me. click Firstly, I created a Gantt chart which allowed me to visualise my project. click Secondly, I created a Trello account which allowed me to see what I have completed already and to also see what was in process and what I needed to start. click After creating these, I created a plan for myself to know what had to be done and when. This was just a simple chart so I knew what to do and when. click Then I created my SMART targets that I have previously talked about so I knew what I wanted to achieve by the end of my project. click Finally then I created my first essay plan, I created a second one later but all I added in to it was quotations from my sources I would be using. click Another skill I feel that I have developed is my decision making. I never used to be confident with making decisions but now, after making little decisions such as which bit should go where, I feel as though I am getting more confident with my decision making skills. My final skill I feel as though I have developed is my resilience. With my mental health not at it’s best I was ready to give up on this project a few weeks ago even though I had spent a lot of time on it. I realised though that if i gave up on this project there would be nothing stopping me from giving up on every other project I come across in my life, so even though I didn’t want to carry on, I forced myself to and I am still trying to achieve the best possible grade I can with this.

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What Do I See As The Main Strengths Of The Project

I feel as though my research log is a great strength for me because I was able to critically analyse every source using BRAVENS and I had somewhere to turn to for my sources instead of trying to find one off of the internet. Another strength is this presentation as I feel it is full of detail but you aren’t overloaded with the information. A final strength would be how much I have learn through all of these processes that I have had to go through. Before I had a brief knowledge about rehabilitation and I just accepted that it worked but now since I have developed my research further I have found out that it is extremely flawed.

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Have I Achieved The Aims And Objectives I Original

These were my aims and objectives. click 

My first aim was to evaluate the sources and information about prisoners reoffending and see how useful it is. click

It was achieved by me using BRAVENS to critically evaluate them and click

My second aim was to create an advantage and disadvantage list to see which side I would prefer to take and which would be a better side to argue with the stronger points click

My third aim was to be able to confidently define rehabilitation by looking at sources click

I feel as though I have achieved all of my aims and objectives that I intended to achieve at the start of my project.

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What Would I Change If I Were To Repeat The Projec

Personally, I feel as though my EPQ overall has been a good development. If I had to repeat the project I would prefer to cast more interviews with prison officers as the only interview I conducted was from someone who left the prison service 20 years ago so his knowledge could be outdated. Another thing I would change is that I would look at different sources because out of all the ones that I originally placed in my Research Log I didn’t use. I would want to place my sources in my research log as I go along preferably. One last thing I would change is that I would change is that I would make a more detailed plan for when I would write my dissertation. For example, I will say that I would write 500 words one day and so on like that so I am able to conduct a better plan and would be able to stick to it. 

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What Have I Learnt About This Topic?

Throughout my research for this topic, I found that there were many faults within the judicinal system. There are many issues that need to be solved such as the fact that our prisons are deeply underfunded and understaffed. Since 2009 the prison budgets have been cut by 14% and there is evidence from GOV.UK saying that recidivism rate goes up when the budget cuts are greater. Another issue that needs to be solved is that when someone is waiting for therapy outside of prison, they have to wait significantly longer than those in prison. For someone in prison they will have to wait a maximum of 3 months, for someone out of prison they will have to wait for a lot longer than that. Evidence from MIND UK show that one in 10 people have been waiting for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for at least a year. Personally I feel like this is a huge issue that needs to be solved because it could come to a point where people will try and be in prison so they can get the mental health care they need. Lastly, when you compare our rehabilitation schemes to Norway, we are nothing compared to them. Norway have a greater range of rehabilitation techniques which England can learn from such as the Daddy Programme where once every three months, if the prisoner has been on good behaviour, he can have the weekend lodge booked which is inside the prison gates for him and his family to stay. I feel like this would solve many family issues that people face whilst as prison. 

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What Are The Most Significant Factors In Answering

Personally, I feel that the most significant factors in answering this question are to use useful sources and information, use current techniques to compare and evaluate with, and also actually make sure that the question is answered. One way in which I completed these factors is that many of the sources and information that I gained were from government websites who couldn't lie about the statistics so I feel like that is one way in which I used useful sources and information. I feel like this is important because if your sources aren't useful or reliable then the whole dissertation will fall apart as it relies heavily upon correct research. Another significant factor I achieved was to be able to write about the current techniques and to also be able to evaluate and compare them with other sectors of my dissertation. This is a significant factor for my question because without having these in your argument, then you don't really have an argument or anything to discuss. A final significant factor is to talk about how far you would agree with the argument otherwise you don't answer the question. I feel like I have weaved my conclusion throughout my dissertation saying that something is a strength or a weakness to a certain extent. 

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What Are My Key Conclusions and How Convincing Is

My key conclusion I would say is that I don't fully agree that the UK prisons contribute to rehabilitating prisoners. I feel like many of the issues with the UK prison rehabilitation service don't actually help prisoners rehabilitate, I feel like it is other factors that cause them to be able to rehabilitate such as going to self help classes after they leave prison. For example, if a prisoner has anger management issues that they personally recognise they have but the prison doesn't recognise it, once they have been let out of prison they can attend an anger management course which allows them to of a situation and not do something that could land them in prison again. However, I do agree that the prison contributes to some extent by allowing the prisoners to achieve an education and also some forms of workshops inside the prison, such as woodwork and hairdressing. 
For my sources, I feel like my evidence is convincing because I have mainly used sources from government statistics and information not just for the UK but for three other countries; Thailand, the US and also Norway. I have also used sources from people who have written articles who have degrees in anything to do with the prison service such as probation or if they worked in a prison. For these reasons I feel like my evidence is very convincing. 

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