EDUCATION • SERVICE • LEADERSHIP
LEARNING BECAME THE WAY FORWARD.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
— Nelson Mandela
Adam’s educational journey did not begin at university. It began inside prison through recovery, writing, reading and the discovery that knowledge becomes most powerful when it is shared in service of other people.
RECOVERY BECAME EDUCATION
In 2010, while at HMP Wayland, Adam entered the RAPT programme—now delivered by The Forward Trust—and was introduced to Twelve-Step recovery. Writing through his Step work became the beginning of a deeper intellectual and emotional journey: examining his history, confronting addiction and learning to translate experience into reflection. Adam became a RAPT peer mentor, supporting other prisoners with their Step work. He began reading extensively and discovered that recovery was not simply about stopping substance use; it involved learning, responsibility, service and the continuing reconstruction of identity.
STUDENT TO MENTOR
Adam subsequently became a peer mentor on PASRO—Prisoners Addressing Substance Related Offending—and supported the Sycamore Tree victim-awareness programme, helping prisoners engage with restorative justice, personal responsibility and the wider consequences of crime. He later became a mentor within the prison education department, supporting prisoners working towards Level 1 and Level 2 English and mathematics. Education became both a personal pathway and a practical means of helping others rediscover confidence, capability and direction.
LEARNING BEYOND CUSTODY
Following release and residential rehabilitation, Adam returned as a volunteer within rehabilitation services and also volunteered at Robert Gabriel House, supporting disadvantaged young people aged between 13 and 17. He returned to college, completed GCSE study, Adult Health and Social Care Levels 1 and 2, Counselling Levels 1 and 2 and a management programme. Alongside this education, he spent six years working within hospitality, eventually securing employment with Rick Stein on the Sandbanks Peninsula and undertaking further front-of-house management and leadership development. These experiences connected education with employment, communication, responsibility and service—showing that learning could be translated into practical leadership.
SCHOLARSHIP THROUGH THREE RECALLS
Across three IPP recalls, Adam continued studying, completed his BA (Hons) in Criminology and Psychology and began an MA in Crime and Justice before his release in February 2025. He completed the final stage of the MA in the community and graduated with Distinction. During those recalls, he also established and facilitated Twelve-Step meetings and undertook extensive legal research, case preparation and written work alongside prisoners at HMP The Mount, HMP Thameside, HMP Holme House and HMP Durham. At Thameside, he mentored young people affected by knife crime, helping them develop business plans, personal goals and alternative visions for their futures. At The Mount during the COVID-19 lockdown—when prisoners could spend approximately 23½ hours each day behind their doors—he developed a project distributing educational books throughout the prison.
EDUCATION TO SYSTEMIC AND INTERCONTINENTAL LEADERSHIP
At HMP Holme House, Adam spent two years contributing to strategy meetings with prison managers focused on reducing violence and self-harm. He also engaged with government inspectors, bringing direct prisoner experience into discussions concerning safety, rehabilitation and institutional practice. Since the summer of 2025, Adam has served as an EPOP representative—Engaging People on Probation—working alongside inspectors, probation officers, senior probation officers and chief probation officers to support better outcomes for people subject to probation, the criminal justice system and wider society.
Alongside Shirley Debono and through IPP Committee in Action, Adam is now co-leading the establishment of an independent, evidence-led People’s Inquiry into the IPP sentence. The Inquiry will examine the sentence’s creation, operation and continuing consequences through lived experience, family testimony, victim and survivor perspectives, institutional evidence, legal analysis and multidisciplinary research. This work includes supporting and training emerging student researchers, building relationships with international legal and human-rights experts and developing the National Lived Experience and Victims/Survivors Council. The Council will provide a meaningful structure through which affected people can shape the Inquiry’s questions, evidence, recommendations and demands for systemic change. The Inquiry is also intended to provide an evidence base for the planned Intercontinental Youth Justice Manifesto—connecting lived experience, research, law and reform across national boundaries to develop principles capable of informing safer, fairer and more humane approaches to youth justice.
This journey explains why education within Exemplar Group is understood as far more than formal qualification. Education has become a foundation for collective action: developing researchers, strengthening public participation, challenging institutional harm and creating new possibilities for justice. Knowledge changed the direction of Adam’s life. Helping others develop and apply knowledge gives that transformation its wider purpose.
RECOVERY • EDUCATION • REALISED POTENTIAL
FROM PRISON STUDY TO THE BARBICAN STAGE
n September 2025, months after release, Adam crossed the stage at the Barbican Centre to receive his BA (Hons) in Criminology and Psychology. The ceremony represented far more than the award of a degree. It marked the visible culmination of years spent studying through imprisonment, repeated recall and uncertainty—and honoured the friends, mentors, recovery communities, educators and professionals whose support made that journey possible.
Adam J. Robinson receiving his BA (Hons) in Criminology and Psychology at the Barbican Centre, London, September 2025.
With Jon Wedger, a former Metropolitan Police detective with 27 years’ service, at the Barbican Centre graduation ceremony.
Celebrating with close friends at King’s Cross following the ceremony. No meaningful transformation occurs alone: friendship, belonging and shared belief are part of the achievement.
PUBLIC LEADERSHIP • COLLABORATION • ENGAGEMENT
FROM LIVED EXPERIENCE TO PUBLIC INFLUENCE
Exemplar Group is being developed through active engagement across justice, enterprise, civic leadership, social investment, public policy and national media. These moments document the continuing movement from lived experience towards credible participation in the relationships, institutions and public conversations capable of creating change. Exemplar’s independence does not mean isolation. Our work is strengthened through dialogue with people who bring different forms of knowledge, influence and responsibility—while our purpose, analysis and public voice remain distinctly our own.
