Evidence
Training
Circuit One: Publishing
New Central Media: Plug in new — knowledge, voices, blueprints.
27
Lived Experience Published Authors
542
Books sold
2
Edited Books Published
“Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”
- Chinua Achebe (African proverb)
Who we are
New Central Media is a switchboard for the generation of new knowledge. We connect circuits between lived experience, research, policy and practice, creating insight and action. We are a hub where unheard voices get plugged in, activated, and amplified, feeding currents of creativity, vision and change. We believe knowledge should be a live current, carried by many, not the few.
What we do
We generate and share new knowledge by wiring together new and diverse perspectives — people with lived experience of addiction, recovery, and criminal justice alongside academics, activists, and communities. Our books, projects, and platforms act like conduits, carrying power from the margins to the centre and back again, ensuring the current flows both ways.
Why it matters
Knowledge is power. It is never neutral — it can silence or it can spark. Too often, dominant systems unplug people from their own expertise, cutting their power circuit. At New Central Media, we rewire the system. By plugging in new knowledge sources, activating voices, and generating fresh blueprints, we open pathways to more just, creative, and connected futures.
Listen to two New Central Media authors as they are interviewed on BBC Radio about their experiences of becoming an author.
Prison Book Recommendations accepted as evidence by the UK Parliament Justice Committee Review of Drugs in Prison
The lived experience recommendations in the concluding chapter of the ‘Recovery Capital Pathways Through Prison’ book have been accepted as evidence in the UK Parliament Justice Committee Review of Drugs in Prison.
You can read their recommendations here and then click on the University of Derby submission (published on 13th February 2025), where Dr David Patton works as an Associate Professor.
The book asked each of the thirteen authors to provide recommendations for change to help recovery flourish within prisons. Their lived experience insights of being in prison whilst in an addiction or recovery pathway are powerful and vital to the future policy directions of UK prisons.
Justice Committee Chair Andy Slaughter MP said: “The Committee will analyse the factors driving demand, the use of technology including drones and mobile phones in facilitating activity and look at how current measures to tackle drugs in prisons, including drug treatment, could be improved. At a time of acute pressure across the whole of the prison estate, it is vital that effective solutions are found to reduce the many harms caused by drugs.”
