I have been pretty critical of prisons in these articles but today I thought I’d try to do something different. I’m going to try to argue that actually prisons are doing a good job and that they are necessary. One of the key roles of the prison system is to remove people from a society…

I’ve just been speaking to a load of guys at the gym. I’m sure you can build a picture in your mind: big bodybuilder, tough guys who can bench press double decker busses. Hard men, gangster enforcers, me I would never have met and should never have met. Well, we all agreed that we really…

Ooh blimey, that title was a surprise for me when my pen wrote it. Has my pen gone mad and developed a delusional mind of its own? Has it been in prison for too long? Before we cast judgement on the poor, ball-pointed device, let’s think. Allow me to have a look around me. Is…

Prisons are very murky, shadowy places. They are dark and dangerous at the best of times but at night, they take on a whole new level of ominousness. When that cell door closes at the end of the day and you know it won’t be opening for the next 12 hours, it fills you with…

Oh my word! The delusion of so many prisoners makes me so frustrated! I hear lots of stories about the lack of opportunities in here but actually that isn’t true. The longer I am here, the more I realise the importance of driving patiently. Prisoners need to have the determination to make things happen but…

Was in Frank Sinatra who sang “My Way”? Whoever it was must have been talking about prisoners because, oh my word, prisoners like things to be done their way. Let me explain what I mean. I have seen so many examples of people thinking that something should be done in a particular way and I…

I really, really dislike talking to people about their convictions or trial. I go out of my way to avoid it and normally I manage to distance myself from it. However, this morning I was caught and was well and truly trapped. This is how the conversations go: “I’ve been told by [lawyer/social worker/friend/etc etc]…

I have Man Flu, full on Man Flu. On the outside, this is a serious affliction but in prison it takes on a whole new level of gravity. I reckon prison is a truly grotty place to be ill. Now, of course, I am being somewhat jovial about my current bout of man flu (serious…

For a long time, I’ve been considering the notion of freedom. I’ve used the word “notion” because it now seems clear to me that there is a belief in freedom as oppose to actually being free. This morning, whilst I’m sitting here in my prison cell, I thought I’d write about freedom. one of the…

The sun is out today and it’s the first time this year I’ve truly noticed it. Sometimes it seems like the rays of the sun don’t actually ever reach prison but today it’s obvious that of course they do. Access to nature is one of the many things of which we have been deprived so…