Episode 154 - parkrun in prisons
2019-04-24
— open the full-size coverHostsMelissa Erbacher Scott Trickett
GuestsColin Thompson Glen Turner
Show notes
From the Facebook post
Health & Wellbeing Lead for Australia and NZ, Glen Turner is back for a third visit as we do a deep dive into the parkrun in prisons initiative.
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From the podcast feed
The parkrun adventurers explore the history-making launch of the first prison-based parkrun in the Southern Hemisphere. Health & Wellbeing Lead for parkrun Australia and NZ, Glen Turner is back to give us his insights into the launch of Dhurringile (opens in a new tab) parkrun.
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Enhanced transcript
Speakers named, sound described and segments marked by the editing pass — not yet checked by a person.
Read the transcriptGuests
Glen Turner
The launch of Dhurringile parkrun, the first prison-based parkrun in the Southern Hemisphere. Glen opens with his own initial opposition to prison parkrun in the UK, rooted in a close friend having been the victim of a violent crime, and how he came round to it; answers what to say to parkrunners who are themselves victims of crime; explains why a small, under-resourced team is investing in prison events; describes Dhurringile as a 400-acre working farm and transitional facility with about 350 minimum-security prisoners; covers how prison events differ (closed to the public, pared-back websites, prisoner pseudonyms in results, printed results and newsletters, multi-lap courses, post-run tea and coffee); why women's and juvenile facilities are a harder proposition despite fast-rising female incarceration; and what comes next after Dhurringile and Mobilong.
Colin Thompson
A pre-recorded field interview taped inside the prison on the day of the formal launch announcement. Thompson explains why Dhurringile pursued a parkrun (constructive activity, health and wellbeing, and links back into the community for a transitional prison), what it means to be first in the Southern Hemisphere, his own experience of the launch morning ("I don't know about parkrun, it was a park walk for me"), the official launch event attended by the Deputy Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner and Hume Regional Director, and his advice to other Victorian facilities now approaching him about starting their own.
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:19
Mel Erbacher and Scott Trickett on the tail end of the Easter long weekend: Mel dedicates episode 154 to napping and to the half-price chocolate she stocks up on the day after Easter, while Scott has had enough chocolate and deflects Mel's 'incriminating evidence' of him marshalling Westerfolds juniors on Easter Sunday in a furry animal outfit. Scott's Saturday was at the show's first prison-based parkrun event, so they break with tradition and go straight to the Glen Turner interview.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 40:59"Where is the cake?"
Two new events this week, both trails: Grand Ridge Rail Trail in Victoria and Yeldulknie Weir Trail in South Australia, the latter prompting a story about the event ambassador flying his own light aircraft across the gulf for the recce (25 minutes by plane versus nine or ten hours by road). Then a long run of first anniversaries, read alternately by the two hosts, for events launched en masse a year earlier with a major sponsor: Ararat (VIC), Bellerive (TAS), Clare Valley (SA), Emerald (QLD), Gainsborough Greens (QLD), Ginninderra (ACT), Goolwa (SA), Kununurra (WA), Lilydale Lake (VIC), Moana (SA), Mount Ainslie (ACT), Ocean Grove (VIC), Picton (NSW), Queanbeyan (NSW), Rockingham (WA), Sale (VIC) and Stones Corner (QLD).
Sign-off starts at 44:55
After the long roll call of Uber-weekend anniversaries, Mel said they could spend the next ten minutes stuffing around talking nonsense but people had places to be and asked to leave it there; Scott said he thought people wanted nonsense but would not give it to them because Mel was tired, and wrapped up episode 154, "all about the prisons", asking what it had inspired her to do. Mel said she was certainly not going to commit a crime to attend a prison parkrun, but that it inspired her to see parkrun pushing the boundaries in Australia and finding creative ways to engage people who otherwise could not be engaged - a new adventure.