In the early 1960’s Lady Anne Tree, who was a prison visitor at Holloway, had a radical idea - that inmates, instead of sewing mailbags, might be encouraged to produce embroidery of the highest quality .. and get paid for it. The result was the charity Fine Cell Work. Volunteers visit twenty two prisons in England and Scotland, and help almost three hundred women and men to create exquisite cushions, rugs and quilts, which sell for considerable sums of money. Prisoners, with different abilities, also teach each other. The work is in the tradition of 19th century prison reformers like Elizabeth Fry. Judy Merry has been to meet some of the women at Drake Hall prison in Staffordshire.
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