Scottish arts organisation Glass Performance delivers rich and sustained body of radio work in HMP & YOI Polmont, using broadcasting as a creative tool for participation, skill‑building and voice within the prison. Projects including We Talk, Polmont Community Radio, and The JukeBox are all created, recorded and hosted by people in custody in the prison’s Media Centre, with participants taking on roles such as presenting, editing, researching and producing.
The programmes feature music, interviews, discussion, quizzes and creative segments shaped by participants’ own interests and experiences, and are broadcast across the prison, with some content also reaching external community radio stations. Collectively, this work supports confidence, communication skills and collaborative learning, while offering meaningful opportunities for self‑expression and connection—demonstrating how arts‑led radio practice can foster agency, wellbeing and a sense of being heard within custodial settings.
Polmont Community Radio is an ongoing project which is aired both inside the prison across the in-house radio station and outside the prison on Clydebuilt Radio, Radio Buena Vida and EHFM.
