Prisoners are recorded telling a story with the use of a microphone and a minidisk recorder. The story is downloaded onto a computer and any mistakes are edited out. Music and sound effects are added (from a database of many hundreds) and the final story is put onto a CD. The beauty of the scheme is that poor readers (or even non readers) are not excluded from the scheme because the editing process can eliminate mistakes or coaching from a mentor. The result is very professional; the children and the parents are always amazed at the results. Digital editing makes all the difference as this makes the stories come alive for the children; they can't work out how the sound effects got there.

Click the button above to hear an edited story lasting four minutes.*

We have equipped two editing suites at Dartmoor prison and selected prisoners are trained to be editors. A story that takes ten or fifteen minutes to read can take two or three hours to edit, especially if there have been many mistakes. The editors have to be scrupulous in their work, with a great deal of attention to detail and also incorporate a certain amount of artistic flair. They gain extremely valuable skills in digital audio editing and they can gain an OCN qualification in Sound and Audio production which is very useful for those who are looking to carry on with further training in this area upon their release.

We are offering our editing service to other prisons so that more families can benefit from our work. All they need is a minidisk recorder, a microphone and some books, and they send their recordings to Dartmoor where they are edited and enhanced before being returned. We currently provide this service for twenty-five other prisons (and still growing). Over 1,700 prisoners have taken part.

*The story is called, Kisses for Daddy, written by Frances Watts. ISBN 1877003786. Published and reproduced by kind permission of Little Hare publishing.