Founded 1980
Chair:
Secretary:
Treasurer:
Graham Smith
Jan Thompson
Graham Mumby-Croft
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Awarded Distinguished Life Membership of the Prison Governors Association on retirement in October 2010.rried with one grown up daughter. Moved to Huddersfield after leaving the service. Continued to serve the PGA in retirement as Chair of Standing Orders 2011-13, and as Annual Conference Chair 2014-15. Since retiring has written three books including his prison service memoirs, "26 Years Behind Bars: The Recollections of a Prison Governor" which has been withdrawn from sale pending updating by the author and editing by new publishers. Expected to be back on sale in Spring 2019. Member of RPGA Committee and editor of the RPGA Newsletter. Chair of the West Yorkshire Branch of the Civil Service Pensioners Alliance. Member of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and former chair and membership secretary of the Huddersfield and District Branch. Paul's other interests include reading, horse racing, Lancashire County Cricket Club where he is a member, and following the fortunes of his beloved Blackburn Rovers.
Committee Members
An elected body drawn from RPGA members are responsible to the Association members for the day to day running of the RPGA.
Members are elected at the AGM and serve a four year term of office, but may be re-elected to serve further terms of office at the end of their four year term.
The current committee members are:
Paul Laxton
Born 1952 in Darwen, Lancashire. Son of a train driver and educated at St Mary's College, Blackburn, then a Catholic Grammar School for boys. Graduate of Keele University, Upper Second Class Honours in History and Education. High School teacher until 1984 when joined the Prison Service as a prison officer. Served at Stafford, (joining establishment), Werrington House, Bedford, Wakefield, Woodhill, PSC Newbold Revel, Dover (Deputy Governor), Ford (Deputy Governor), Surrey and Sussex Area Office, Coldingley (temporary Governor), Lewes (Deputy Governor), and finally Population Management Unit in Headquarters. A committed trade unionist serving as PGA representative at Woodhill, PSC Newbold Revel and Dover. Chaired Annual Conference in 2006 and 2007, then joined the NEC and became editor of "The Key," the association's in-house magazine.
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The revised and updated version of ‘26 Years Behind Bars: The Recollections of a Prison Governor’ by Paul Laxton, has recently been published by Austin Macauley, and can be ordered from your local bookshop or online. A kindle version is also available.
Written from the perspective of a participant observer, The author gives a unique insight into the modern prison service and the workings of the public sector. The book is educational describing the prison system over three decades in the context of social, political and organisational change, in particular the impact of the decline of deference, the growth of public managerialism, and the rise of identity politics. The final chapter lays bare the current crisis in a service where we were once proud to work.
Other publications by Paul Laxton
Motor Neurone Disease is a vile affliction that gradually robs the sufferer of all their independence and dignity, locking both invalid and carer into a death spiral. This book charts one couple’s journey and its brutal physical and emotional impact.
Despite being an always fatal condition, MND enjoys only Cinderella status in respect of both research funding and charitable giving. As such all the royalties from this book will be donated to MND Association.
It charts also the truism that fighting a terminal illness is only a part of your battle when you run up against those great organs of the British state; the local authority and the NHS. As it turned out my wife died before we got into any battles about funding, but there was no avoiding conflict with the NHS, with Covid and the response to it as an inescapable backcloth. The book charts the emotionally exhausting battle with bureaucrats, when our freedoms were surrendered to an unfeeling officialdom that at times seemed drunk on its power. I am reminded of the words of Benjamin Franklin; ‘Those who choose safety over liberty deserve neither.’ This book is a microcosm of how we were governed during the pandemic.
MND: One Couples' Journey (Available at Amazon)
