John Roberts is director and publisher at Inside Time. Founded in 1990, the non-profit newspaper is owned by the New Bridge Foundation and is predominantly written by prisoners, for prisoners.
Before this, John was chairman and managing director of distribution and manufacturing businesses. In this in-depth conversation, John discusses the publication’s huge transformation – their mission to remain balanced and positive and how they grew to a monthly distribution of 60,000 copies; explains where his motivation to support prisoners came from, and their aim to “halve their readers” by seeing fewer people in prison, effective rehabilitation and post-release employment programmes to resulting in a reducing prison population; and shares insight into the future of the publication, their efforts to change the narrative of the imprisoned and an increased focus on supporting their families.
