12/08/2020
Prisoner. PhD. Drug dealer. Father. Each of those words conjures up a different picture. None of them tell you exactly who someone is.
Stephen Akpabio-Klementowski is a PhD candidate and lecturer in criminology at The Open University, but his life wasn't always like this. Each of these labels has at some point been his.
The first three months of Stephen's 16-year sentence for importing of class A drugs were a huge shock, but he calls his decision to begin a degree a ‘seminal moment’ in his life:
"... the most difficult barrier was actually inside of me. I’d left school with no qualifications. Nothing. I was scared of my future and so I decided to try."
“I remember receiving my course materials and being completely absorbed by them,” he said. “The books, assignments and study calendar which set-out my programme of study all contributed to a feeling that finally, I was doing something positive with my life.”
"... other prisoners and guards kept asking me why I was wasting my time - studying wouldn’t matter with my criminal record. I felt I was changing. I discovered I loved learning. And that was enough to keep me going"
Stephen Akpabio-Klementowski - Open University - © Chris Floyd
Stephen achieved his OU degree and two Masters degrees from Oxford Brookes mostly while serving his sentence. He credits his impressive turnaround to the OU and “the enlightened academics prepared to tutor a prisoner” for giving him the hope and the tools to turn his life around and rehabilitate successfully into society.
“My experience of the education system on the outside had been negative. In my wildest dreams, I never expected that I was capable of going to university.”
Listen to the podcast at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/i-went-from-prisoner-to-phd/p08mpxtt?playlist=made-in-partnership-with-the-open-university