Initial concerns around joining BrightHorizons

The majority of prisoners in this sample then were highly motivated to join BrightHorizons from the outset. Despite this, most of them spoke of having had some initial concerns about joining. This was sometimes due to not having any previous experience to draw upon. For Elouise: “I’d never done anything like this before so I was quite anxious”. Other times because they did not know what to expect: “joining the programme you don’t really know what’s involved in it” (James). This could lead to doubts about whether they would be suitable for the role: “when I came here and I was like okay… you have to get up in front of people and speak and write on a board and I was like oh my god, I can’t do this…” (Anthony). Such concerns around standing up in front of a group and presenting workshops, particularly roleplays, were common: “No, no, no I am not standing up, I am not going to do that. I’m not doing no role plays, I can’t stand up in front of people, no, that’s not me” (Claire). As were worries about how the young people would respond to them: “…you just think how am I going to talk to these little girls?...You get that oh my gosh, how will I relate to them or how am I going to talk to them or who am I to talk to them?”(Keira).

Due to such initial concerns, many mentioned that they had needed encouragement from somebody else to apply to BrightHorizons- suggesting that motivation to join was also partly externalised. This was either a fellow prisoner or friend (often with personal experience of

142 BrightHorizons), a member of prison staff (most commonly somebody they felt close to and trusted such as an offender manager), or a member of BrightHorizons staff. Lauren, for example, explained how a BrightHorizons team member that she had previously done TC with had persuaded her to join:

“…Elouise has worked on here a long time, loves it and she come to me and said, “I think you’d be really good for BrightHorizons.” I didn’t think I would be because I’d never been arrested before, I wasn’t up to the stuff that most of, you know… I didn’t think I’d be good but Elouise said obviously different young people have different needs, they’ve been through different life experiences so…yes, I applied for it…”

Once they applied, many spoke about how observing an Event Day reinforced their initial motivation to participate. Seeing first-hand the potential positive impact they could have on the young people meant that their excitement to be a part of the programme outweighed any initial doubts. As Ed reflected: “I was successful [at BrightHorizons interview], came and saw an event and yes, I could see it was effective, it was, it seemed profound and there was, it seemed to be resonating somehow, you know, the young guys listening…” Indeed, many spoke about how observing an Event Day was the final deciding factor, because seeing the programme in action made its purpose, and its accordance with their own experiences and beliefs, all the more clear:

“…when I first watched it I was blown away by it…I think it is really professional and each workshop it just, you just think, “Oh yes” like the purpose of it is obvious by the end of it… I think it’s very clever…” (Lauren)

In terms of SDT this would suggest that initial external pressure from others began to be internalised early on, and internal conflict alleviated as the personal relevance of the programme became clear. Only a few described having no concerns when joining BrightHorizons, because the stage they had reached on their rehabilitative journey meant they had felt sufficiently competent to deliver it with no qualms:

“Concerns? No, not really, I mean because I think for me I think I’d reached the place to do that, yeah, because obviously I’d accepted my crime; I’d

143 accepted responsibility for you know, my actions out there… so there wasn’t

any complications of me still kind of having doubts about oh well you know, I didn’t do this and I didn’t do that, which kind of makes it complicated for you then to kind of deliver a message because you still…kind of at the crossroad – […] I knew well you know what, I’m here, this is what I want to do…” (Jordan)

5. 3 Extrinsic factors

As outlined in section 3.4.3, behaviours motivated by external regulation are engaged in to attain or avoid consequences separable to the activity itself, such as to gain rewards or avoid punishment (Ryan and Deci, 2000a). SDT further posits that behaviours motivated by identified regulation are engaged in out of recognition and acceptance of the underlying importance of the behaviour for achieving personally valued separable outcomes (Ryan and Deci, 2000a). Thus, externally regulated behaviours are executed entirely non-autonomously (ie. controlled), whilst those engaged in out of identified regulation are only somewhat controlled. External and identified regulations appeared to be interlinked for many prisoners in the current study, which is reflected in three sub-themes. Firstly, that prisoners were motivated to participate in BrightHorizons because it was better than other opportunities in the prison. Thus, participating meant they could avoid the negative consequences of not doing so, namely, doing nothing or having to undertake alternative (less desirable) prison jobs or programmes (SDT’s external regulation). Secondly, that prisoners were motivated to participate in BrightHorizons because they recognised its potential utility to help them achieve the personally valued goal of gaining skills that could be used upon release (SDT’s identified regulation). Lastly, a few prisoners were motivated to participate in the hope it might help them gain early release (SDT’s external regulation).