Prisoner ‘mugshots’ help to challenge preconceptions over tea

Published On Wed 24 May 2017 by Grant Hill

A Graphic Design student exhibiting at this year’s University of Dundee Art, Design and Architecture Degree Show has used Britain’s love of tea as a way of highlighting the humanity of prisoners, regardless of their crimes.

Monica Dunne (21), originally from Alloa, created ‘Mugshot’ in response to a brief to explore a stigmatised community. Monica visited prisons and probation centres across the UK to speak with offenders about their life over a cup of tea. From there, the idea of using the mugshot, one of the images most readily associated with criminals, and flipping it to allow prisoners to tell their own story came about.

Monica created a campaign to start discussions by using familiar mug designs and replacing their clichéd slogans with emotive quotes from the people she spoke to. ‘World’s Best Mum’ becomes ‘I know I’ve not been the World’s best mum’ and ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ is turned into ‘I Couldn’t Just Keep Calm and Carry On’.

Often the message is shocking or initially makes little sense. However, when someone drinks from the cup or pours hot liquid into it, a hidden second part of the story is revealed or the message changes and develops into a longer quote.

“I wanted to get across the point that there is always two sides to every story,” explained Monica. “The first thing British people do when there’s a need to talk is put the kettle on and when I met former and current prisoners to hear their stories it was over a cup of tea.

“They recognised their mistakes but felt misunderstood and frustrated. They wanted to be seen not as inherently bad but as imperfect humans like everyone else. To be honest I had my own preconceptions and probably would have stigmatised someone if I found out they had been in prison but I learned so much from speaking to the people I did.

“I heard all about their backgrounds and the circumstances that led them to commit the crimes they did. They made mistakes and bad choices but you don’t need to condone their actions to understand that they are still human. I wanted to tell the story behind the sentence to get that across. We need to understand why people have done what they have if we want to stop others going down the same path.”

Their criminal record acting as a barrier to employment was commonly cited by the prisoners and ex-prisoners Monica spoke to as one of the biggest challenges they faced and a reason for re-offending. To build on the theme of tea acting as a social lubricant, Monica developed the concept of cafes to be staffed by ex-offenders and the mugs used there to challenge preconceptions.

“Mugshot provides a way of simultaneously improving situations and informing the public,” she explained. “Cafes in towns and cities works on this principle. Employees will be those quoted on mugs to allow the public to see the face behind the words and allow the ex-prisoners a second chance.”

Monica is a graduand of the BDes Graphic Design course, which was last week ranked Number 1 in the UK in the Guardian University Guide 2018. She is one of almost 350 students from Duncan of Jordanstone and the University’s Architecture programme exhibiting at this year’s Degree Show.

Admission is free and the show if open from 10am until 8pm (Monday – Friday) and 10am to 4pm (Saturday – Sunday) until Sunday, 28th May.

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Grant Hill
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