Nature, respect and work all help to reduce prisoners’ reoffending | Letters
Your article about the prisoner rehabilitation project LandWorks, excellent though it was, arguably placed too much emphasis on nature as the chief factor accounting for the project’s undoubted success (‘A natural antidepressant’: how working with the land is helping ex-prisoners, 16 August),I have been a keen supporter of the project since it was set up 12 years ago,The remarkably low reoffending rate (5%) seems to me to be due largely to participants being treated with respect, together with the wraparound care they receive while working at LandWorks,This ranges, as the article explains, from help with accommodation to finding work,I am sure that, with the same dedication and kindness, a similar project could be set up in the middle of a city, also with remarkably low costs.
Gillian HamiltonBudleigh Salterton, Devon I read the article about LandWorks with joy.I know the project and the effect it has on people.Margaret Thatcher brought in the “community care” initiative in 1983, closing psychiatric hospitals and selling off farmland.I was a psychiatric nurse.My patients loved working and being on the hospital’s farm – it gave them a reason to get up in the morning.
Cut to Bristol city later that year: lots of the long-stay patients were placed in the local “community”, with nowhere to go all day, and only the promise of a fry-up in a local cafe.After that they were left on their own.So we made a place, Windmill Hill city farm, where they could come – it was just a secondhand caravan on some farmland with a former psychiatric nurse (me) on hand.It worked, and still does more than 40 years later.Give people an opportunity to belong, and to matter.
Sow the seeds and watch them grow.People need to belong to feel hope.That’s why “land works”.Juliana DartPoundsgate, Devon The obvious question is that if this works, why not have gardening clubs in schools, and set up schemes for youngsters to work with allotment groups or to tend a patch themselves? Imagine how much money would be saved.Add in fishing, which has also reduced recidivism.
If people have a purpose and a connection to a community, it stops antisocial behaviour.In 10 years someone will do a research project and get paid to tell us these actions work.Do it now.A small investment will have a big impact.Heather Penny-Larter Swindon, Wiltshire Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Raducanu thrashes Ena Shibahara for first US Open victory since 2021 title
Four years after her three life-changing weeks in New York, Emma Raducanu overcame a significant mental hurdle as she secured her first victory at the US Open since her 2021 title run in impressive fashion, dismantling the qualifier Ena Shibahara 6-1, 6-2 to finally return to the second round.After painful first-round defeats by Alizé Cornet and Sofia Kenin, plus a withdrawal in 2023 during an eight-month injury layoff, Raducanu showed her growth and newfound self-assurance by putting together a solid, clean performance against an inferior opponent.“It has been on my mind,” Raducanu said of her inability to win a match in New York. “It’s been four years, and it’s a very special tournament for me. I did feel different coming into it this year
Fremantle meet the moment as AFL’s final round unfolds in dramatic fashion | Jonathan Horn
I’ve never been one to run with the “let’s just stick to football” line. But every person has their breaking point. Mine came this week when Andrew Dillon – a man who’d spent the previous four days weighing and measuring a slur, and four days negotiating five weeks down to four – carved out a good chunk of his press conference reminding us that Snoop Dogg was “a grandfather and a philanthropist”. A few hours later, footage emerged of a less than grandfatherly and less than philanthropic headline act, accompanied by the headline “Snoop Dogg’s Dig at Gay Parents”. That was it for me
Ireland open with six-try win over Japan to give them hope of making last eight
The shadow of the defending champions, New Zealand, looms over Pool C and on that basis Ireland could not afford to lose. They kicked off their World Cup campaign with a fluent win, in which every element of their game functioned well on the immaculate Franklin’s Gardens pitch.Japan won the previous match between these two, a 29-10 victory in 2022, and had they upset the odds it would hardly have represented a sequel to the Miracle of Brighton. But Ireland are a different proposition under Scott Bemand and their physicality and accuracy, for the most part, was just too much for their willing opponents. Japan were outclassed and overpowered, but two converted tries gave their impressive supporters something to shout about
Australia rout South Africa by 276 runs in third men’s ODI – as it happened
And that is that from us. As far as OBO action goes though, there will be plenty more across most of the following series.The South African men next go to England in early September, then to Ireland. Australia’s women have a warm-up tour to India before the women’s World Cup from the end of September. Australia’s men have three T20s in New Zealand in October, before England replace them for T20s and ODIs, while Australia return home for India's white-ball tour of Australia
Australia stack up runs and salvage pride with huge win over South Africa
Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh and Cameron Green smashed blistering hundreds as Australia steamrollered South Africa by 276 runs in the third and final one-day international of the series in Mackay.South Africa had already clinched the series, leaving the 50-over world champions to play for pride in the last match. Australia’s opening pair set the tone with a 250-run partnership between player-of-the-match Head (142) and Marsh (100), before an incendiary unbeaten 118 from Green powered Australia to a mammoth 2-431.The hosts hit 18 sixes as they posted their second-highest total in men’s ODIs – behind only their 434 against the same opposition in 2006. In response, South Africa were all out for 155 in 24
Gliders battle thunderstorms and wildfire smoke at women’s world championship | Emma John
Anne Soltow’s glider was leading the field all day. Now it is in an actual field and a kilometre short of the finish. The single-seater sailplane looks like a giant alien bug: long slender fuselage, a canopy encasing the cockpit like a single eye, epic wings, 15 metres tip to tip. They were all that was keeping Soltow’s engineless aircraft in the sky – until 10 minutes ago.The pilot is furious with herself
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