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On Your Farm: Hydebank Prison Sheep Farm

04/02/2024

Hydebank Prison Sheep Farm

BBC Radio 4 - On Your Farm, Hydebank Prison Sheep Farm

We visit the sheep farm which is helping rehabilitate young offenders in Northern Ireland.

Karen Patterson visits a unique farm project in Northern Ireland set up by a prison officer, where the award-winning Blue Leicester sheep are reared and fed by young offenders.

Tomas and Caolan are two young offenders serving their time in Hydebank on the outskirts of Belfast - formerly a young offenders centre, now re-designated a secure training college. At the end of February they'll be spending several weeks not locked in their cells, but out in the prison grounds, lambing.  They're trusted to stay overnight, unsupervised, in a small wooden hut, so they are on hand to look after the ewes and the newborn lambs.  

Prison officer Ricky Graham, who is also a part time farmer, set up the project eight years ago. He was keen to see whether looking after animals would help rehabilitate young offenders and maybe encourage them to look for employment opportunities in agriculture once they're released.  The project started off with four sheep and now has a flock of around twenty. Tomas and Caolan tell Karen Patterson that they enjoy picking up farming skills from Ricky.  Last summer two prisoners showed one of the farm's rams at Balmoral, Northern Ireland's leading agricultural show.  Ricky's team also look after the lawns and gardens at Hydebank, growing bedding plants and providing hanging baskets to local charities.  

"It's not for everyone, " Ricky says, "They are not all success stories, let's not kid ourselves." But he believes that even if the farm only stops one young offender from re-offending, its' proved a success. Last year Ricky was presented with a Butler Trust award, the highest tribute a prison officer can receive. Governor Richard Taylor says that while they can't change the past for young offenders in their charge, they can help change the future. He believes Hydebank Sheep Farm is part of that effort.

Produced by Kathleen Carragher

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