Monthly Archives: February 2017

Arts Project I had the first session with the prisoner choir. There are about a dozen of them. I was, unusually, a little under – prepared. That will not happen again. They were really enthusiastic about the project and the songs. They’ve also agreed to double – up as extras, when required. We’ll probably use
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Comments Hello friend, Firstly, I want to say a big thank you to all of you who have left such supportive comments; every one of you matter to me. If you have gone to the time and trouble to leave a comment, it is really important for me to reply in a timeous fashion. I
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Arts Project Hello friend, Another interesting week. We lost our keyboard player; transferred. Such is the vagaries of prison life. There is no one else, outside of the band, who is competent enough. I’m not sure of the solution. One of the guys is a whiz at scoring music; I’m very slow. He has started
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Nerve Damage Hello friend, Since October 2013, when I was handcuffed for 6 days in hospital after my heart attack, I’ve had nerve problems affecting my right hand. Recently, it has become more serious; pain in my shoulder, arm, wrist and hand, loss of sensation, and tingling. I’m now being referred for a nerve conductivity
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Hello friend, I mentioned untrue file entries in my last blog: over the course of this year I will be challenging every untrue and inaccurate claim, allegation and file entry; I’ve already made a start. This will be interesting; keep reading Be happy, be safe. Graham Coutts, 29th January 2017

Sentence Plan Hello friend, I had a sentence plan meeting this week. This is where the prisoner is set targets to complete for the year. You have an ‘Offender Supervisor’ inside prison and an ‘Offender Manager’ outside (Probation). Usually, it’s just the OS at the meeting but this time OM attended by telephone. Apparently, she
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Arts Project Hello friend, We had a meeting this week with 2 managers. It was very positive. They were talking in terms of getting the set and costumes put together asap. Up to now, I was working on the premise that we would have to obtain funding for this type of work; I feel like
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TV Hello friend, A few weeks ago we were allowed to vote for 4 of our channels. We get, as mandatory, BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV, Channel 4and 5. We could choose a news channel (from BBC or SKY) and 3 others. Previously, we had BBC News 24, ITV 2 and 4, and Film 4.
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Christmas Concert Hello friend, Our end of year Christmas concert was unusual. Normally there are several big, rock numbers; not this time. It was all very laid back and polite. Although, I did a Foo Fighters medley of 3 numbers (The Pretender, Times like These and The best of you) with some of the guys;
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Black History Month Concert Hello friend A little catch-up on my musical activities during the latter part of last year. I recklessly suggested that we do a concert for Black History Month. I say recklessly as we only had about 4 weeks to put a band and a set together. It ended up being more
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