AN ALLOA woman has held a unique exhibition in Dundee in an effort to challenge preconceived notions of Scotland's prisoners.

Monica Dunne used Britain's love of tea as a way of highlighting the humanity of all inmates, regardless of their crimes.

The 21-year-old studies graphic design at University of Dundee Art and developed her exhibition, called Mugshot, after being tasked with exploring a stigmatised community.

She visited prisons and probation centres across the UK to speak with offenders about their life over a cup of tea.

From there, she took idea of a mugshot, one of the images most readily associated with criminals, and flipped it to help 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.

Therefore, 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, after drinking from the cup or when hot liquid is poured in, a hidden message is revealed or the initial line develops into a longer quote.

For Monica, the project helped her to challenge her own misconceptions of those serving sentences.

She said: "I wanted to get across the point that there is always two sides to every story.

"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."

Monica added: "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 said. "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."