I wrote Sarah in response to the murder of Sarah Everard while studying psychology with the Open University during my IPP imprisonment. At the time, I was learning about the Istanbul Convention and thinking deeply about violence against women, police power and the responsibilities of the state. The poem gave me a way to sit with those questions and honour Sarah’s life. I share it with respect for Sarah and her family, without claiming to speak for them.

This is an IPP sentence recovery story, but above all, it is a story about human connection. Across almost twenty years under the IPP sentence, my life was shaped by addiction, repeated recall, psychological distress and profound uncertainty. Yet it was also transformed by recovery, education and people who refused to give up on me. The support I received from New Connections Support CIC became a decisive part of that journey—helping me survive my final four-year recall, prepare for release and begin rebuilding a life beyond prison. IPP SENTENCE RECOVERY My early life was shaped by displacement, family breakdown and an escalating search for belonging. After moving from Northumberland to Norwich as a child, I began using cannabis and alcohol at twelve. School exclusions, placements in care and repeated periods of running away followed. By fourteen, I had entered secure accommodation; at fifteen, I received my first custodial sentence at Feltham Young Offender Institution. Between 1997 and 2025, I spent sixteen years across young offender institutions and adult prisons throughout England. My offending was inseparable from addiction, homelessness and unresolved trauma. In 2006, aged twenty-four, I received an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence with a two-year tariff after robbing a sandwich shop, threatening the cashier with a knife and taking £250. At the time, I was homeless and dependent upon heroin and crack cocaine. I was first released into residential rehabilitation in Bournemouth in 2011 after being introduced to the Twelve Steps. For six years, I remained in the community, attended college, gained qualifications and built a career in hospitality. After relapsing, however, I was recalled in 2016. Three IPP recalls followed, bringing years of renewed imprisonment, psychological distress and uncertainty. My most recent release would not come until 10 February 2025. THE PEOPLE WHO REFUSED TO GIVE UP The repeated recalls were among the most difficult periods of my life. The indeterminate nature of the IPP sentence created a profound sense of hopelessness: release dates disappeared, parole hearings were repeatedly delayed and the possibility of rebuilding a life seemed to move further away. During these years, my mental health deteriorated and I was periodically supported through the prison system’s ACCT suicide and self-harm prevention process. In early 2021, during my final recall, I contacted Edward Baillie at New Connections Support CIC. From our first telephone conversation, Edward treated me as a person with a future—not simply as a prisoner, a risk assessment or a collection of past mistakes. He opened a file for my complex IPP case and began working with me to understand the barriers preventing my progression. Edward travelled considerable distances to visit me in custody. He examined the circumstances of my recall, prepared a comprehensive report for my parole dossier and communicated with prison, probation, legal and community professionals on my behalf. Together, we began constructing a detailed recovery and release plan capable of supporting both my immediate resettlement and my longer-term stability. What followed was not a straightforward route to freedom. My parole process was repeatedly adjourned and stretched across almost four years. Throughout that uncertainty, Edward, Dean Louis and the wider New Connections team remained present. They advocated for me, challenged hopelessness and continued investing their time and belief when the process felt endless. Their support did not remove my responsibility for change. It helped create the conditions in which I could continue accepting that responsibility. RECOVERY IN THE DARKEST YEARS Throughout my final recall, I remained abstinent and drew upon the recovery principles first introduced to me through the RAPT Twelve-Step programme in 2010. While living on the Psychologically Informed Planned Environment—PIPE—at HMP Holme House, I established Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for residents and helped create a regular space for honesty, reflection and mutual support. Prayer, meditation, gratitude, journalling and step work with a prison NA sponsor became daily disciplines. So did service to others. On days when hopelessness, insomnia and psychological exhaustion threatened to overwhelm me, those practices—combined with the dependable support of New Connections, trusted prison staff, friends, recovery communities and fellow residents—helped me remain focused upon the possibility of another life. I also returned to the interests that had given me meaning before addiction and imprisonment took hold. I wrote extensively, reconnected with music and football, began developing songs and continued producing academic work. In May 2023, I completed my BA (Hons) in Criminology and Psychology through The Open University. Later that year, I began an MA in Crime and Justice. Recovery was no longer simply about avoiding drugs or surviving another day in prison. It became a process of confronting trauma, understanding my behaviour and discovering how education, creativity and service could transform pain into purpose. Slowly, I began to believe that my experiences did not have to define the limits of my future. THE HEARING THAT OPENED THE DOOR n January 2025, Edward Baillie attended my final parole hearing and gave evidence to the panel. His contribution formed part of a much wider body of professional evidence, personal work and release planning developed across years. After repeated adjournments and prolonged uncertainty, the Parole Board directed my release. On 10 February 2025, I walked out of prison and entered an Approved Premises in Gateshead. Dean Louis from New Connections met me alongside members of my family and accompanied me to the hostel. He returned the following day and helped me begin navigating the ordinary practicalities of life outside—tasks that can feel unfamiliar and overwhelming after years of imprisonment. My first day of freedom on the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle with Dean Louis from New Connections, 10 February 2025. The Approved Premises was challenging, but the recovery and release plan gave me structure. I continued my daily disciplines, connected with a community NA sponsor and travelled across Northumberland, Newcastle and County Durham to attend meetings—through sunshine, rain and snow. I rebuilt relationships, returned to playing football and began establishing a life grounded in recovery and responsibility. On 7 May 2025, I progressed from the Approved Premises into independent living in Northumberland. It was a major transition: not merely leaving institutional accommodation, but beginning to create a home, a community and a future of my own. My first day of freedom on the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle with Dean Louis from New Connections, 10 February 2025. RECOVERY ROOTED IN COMMUNITY Release did not mark the end of recovery work; it moved that work into a new and demanding environment. I continued attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings across Northumberland, Newcastle and County Durham, worked with a community sponsor and maintained the disciplines that had helped sustain me throughout imprisonment. Every meeting, journey and new relationship strengthened my recovery capital. I began reconnecting with ordinary life—friendship, football, responsibility and community—while learning how to navigate independence after prolonged institutionalisation. In June 2025, I established the first Narcotics Anonymous meeting in Morpeth’s history, returning to the town where I had spent the earliest years of my childhood. The meeting grew into a consistent recovery community whose members carried the message into hospitals, probation offices, GP surgeries and mental-health services. On Boxing Day 2025, the group hosted its first Morpeth NA Unity Day, welcoming members from across the region and as far away as Scotland. What began as part of my own search for recovery had become a source of connection, hope and practical support for others. Morpeth’s first Narcotics Anonymous meeting, established in June 2025. EDUCATION, PURPOSE AND PUBLIC SERVICE Education became another bridge between imprisonment and possibility. Much of my undergraduate study had been completed through confinement, repeated recall and parole uncertainty. In September 2025, I crossed the stage at the Barbican Centre in London to receive my BA (Hons) in Criminology and Psychology—an achievement shared with every person who had supported, taught and believed in me throughout that journey. The following month, I completed my MA in Crime and Justice with Distinction. Academic study enabled me to place personal experience within a wider understanding of psychology, criminology, institutional power, rehabilitation and social harm. It gave me a language through which lived experience could contribute to serious analysis and constructive change. I also began contributing to EPOP—Engaging People on Probation—working alongside probation practitioners, senior leaders and people with lived experience to support better services and outcomes. My journey was no longer only about rebuilding my own life. It was becoming a foundation from which I could help strengthen the systems, communities and opportunities surrounding others. Receiving my BA (Hons) in Criminology and Psychology at the Barbican Centre, London, September 2025. FROM SUPPORT RECEIVED TO SUPPORT OFFERED The support invested in me created a responsibility to invest in others. The lessons I carried from recovery, education, imprisonment and community support began developing into a wider vision: one capable of combining lived experience with professional knowledge, creative expression and practical pathways towards transformation. In February 2026, I launched Exemplar Group at Alnwick Business Festival. Exemplar brings together justice consultancy, lived-experience media and ambitious plans for therapeutic residential support. Its founding principle—From Survival to Significance—reflects the journey from enduring adversity to using what has been learned in the service of others. Exemplar Justice Advisory subsequently began trading and secured its first client work. At the same time, New Connections, Edward Baillie, Dean Louis and I continued exploring how specialist post-release support could be strengthened and expanded—particularly for people leaving prolonged or indeterminate imprisonment with complex recovery, mental-health and resettlement needs. That same month, I was shortlisted for the Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership to pursue doctoral research. Each development reinforced a truth I had gradually come to understand: with sustained support, meaningful opportunity and personal responsibility, experiences of imprisonment and addiction can become sources of knowledge, leadership and social contribution. Launching Exemplar Group at Alnwick Business Festival, February 2026. WHAT CONNECTION MAKES POSSIBLE Marcus Aurelius wrote that “we were born to work together.” My experience with New Connections gave those words practical meaning. Change did not happen because one person rescued me, nor because I achieved everything alone. It became possible through responsibility, sustained human connection and people from different organisations working towards a shared purpose. Effective rehabilitation cannot end at the prison gate. People leaving prolonged imprisonment may face institutionalisation, fragile mental health, addiction, damaged relationships, housing insecurity and the overwhelming task of rebuilding an identity outside custody. Support must begin before release, continue throughout the parole process and remain dependable during the difficult transition into community life. New Connections demonstrated what becomes possible when lived experience, professional collaboration and genuine belief are brought together. Edward, Dean and their colleagues offered consistency through uncertainty. They supported recovery while respecting responsibility, and they helped transform an abstract release plan into a pathway that could be lived. My life remains a work in progress. Recovery continues, as does the process of learning, serving and rebuilding. But I now know that pain does not have to be the end of a person’s story. With the right relationships, opportunities and determination, it can become the beginning of purpose. No one rebuilds a life alone. Celebrating my graduation with some of my closest friends in King’s Cross, London, September 2025—a moment made possible by recovery, friendship and years of sustained support. Adam J. Robinson MA, BA (Hons) Founder, Exemplar Group

The IPP Diaries began as writings during years of IPP containment and have grown into personal journals spanning many years. This cover belongs to a series I wrote on the substance misuse therapeutic community unit at HMP Holme House during lockdown. I was writing about my dreams, the struggle of recall, and the life I was still trying to build. The cover artwork was created by a fellow resident on the unit. These pieces are part of an evolving personal record, written as I lived through it.