Out of Blog out of mind

I should have warned you that as addictive as my personality is to DOING things it is equally addictive to NOT doing things and I nearly forgot to blog this week. And this is my last day at work for a few days as I'm taking a little break.............so here's a very brief account of the last few days. Well the immediate last few days have been dominated by the weather. As you know it only takes a bit of snow (particularly here in the Soft South of England) for the country to grind to halt..........and NAPAC was no different. That's not entirely true. Helen managed to battle through the elements as did some of our wonderful volunteers but yours truly was content to be snowed in for a couple of days although the resultant housework I was instructed to undertake was far more irritating than battling the snow storms. But we all learn from our mistakes. I have now invested in a set of huskies and a slay............bring it on.
To more serious matters. Last week I visited Manchester Prison, Manchester Drug Service and Radio Key 103. All very different experiences but each, very productive. The lads I visited in the prison reminded me of why we are here.......to help one another. I won't go into their stuff , suffice to say they all suffered childhood abuse and ended up in the slammer as a direct result of their cruel upbringing. Let me emphasise - NAPAC does not visit child abusers.........just their victims. And the folk at the Drug Service and KEY 103 reminded me that there are a lot of good folk out there who want to help. Same with the prison officers in Manchester. They are a great bunch of people doing a difficult job with minimal resources but one by one they tell you that they know many of the people inside simply should not be there. Don't get me wrong. We're not soft on crime here at NAPAC but as one of our Trustees commented not so long ago........some people should be locked up for much longer BUT many more should not be there at all. Everyone, from Home Secretaries upwards seem to agree that prison, as a means of effective rehabilitation, just doesn't work and I will be writing to the current Home Secretary (and friend to NAPAC) Jacqui Smith to arrange a meeting. There is much work to be done in our prisons and given how much they cost us to run it's madness not to go there.

This is going to be a very brief blog because I'm about to dash for a train, but something else I did when I went to KEY 103 Radio was to hand over a few CDs by Secret Mission. The reporter there snapped them up and I think they will get some airtime quite soon. If you haven't got your Secret Mission album yet I suggest you visit their website without hesitation and buy one. The website is awesome.........as is the band. AND some of the profits from sales come to NAPAC. But apart from this it's perfectly true that it is guaranteed "you have never seen or heard anything like this band" We love 'em. Go to http://www.secretmissionband.com ...............now!

Stay warm. Keep the faith!
Support NAPAC.
Pete