In 2013, Khamran Uddin wrote a letter to the man he had violently assaulted in a random attack on a deserted railway platform. The victim was coming home from work as he did every day when Khamran seriously injured him with a baseball bat. What followed was an extraordinary meeting which changed both their lives.

Keeva Baxter is the Campaigns and Communications Manager for Why me? They're a charity that aim to advocate for the greater availability of Restorative Justice to victims and those who have committed crimes, and to improve public understanding of this radical approach to addressing harm.

You can find out more about the work of Why me? here.

Presenters:

Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association

Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock

Producer: Andrew Wilkie

Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn

The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.

To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. 

Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Gauke is the former Conservative Member of Parliament for South West Hertfordshire, the former Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, and the Chair of the Labour government's Independent Sentencing Review.

Phil and Paula ask him about the progress of the report, delve into the politics of crime and justice, and finish with challenge around the use of the terms 'offender' and 'ex-offender' which elicits a fascinating response.

You can read part one of the report here.

You can read David's New Statesman article from October 2024 here.

Presenters:

Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association

Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock

Producer: Andrew Wilkie

Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn

The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.

To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. 

Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Richie Makepeace was just trying to keep his head down and get through his prison sentence in HMP Brixton when he was offered a job in the prison's radio production training workshop. Like many people in prison, he was really worried about whether he would be able to find employment. But after release he got offered a job helping to deliver National Prison Radio's Outside In traineeship, and is now part of the Prison Radio Association's staff team working to train others who have recently been released from prison themselves.

Nancy Prentice is the Prison Radio Association's Head of Talent Development. Her job is to spot people inside prison who might benefit from continued training in radio production after release. She oversees the Outside In traineeship and the podcast that showcases the work of the trainees.

You can listen and subscribe to the Outside In podcast here.

Presenters:

Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association

Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock

Producer: Andrew Wilkie

Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn

The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.

To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. 

Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spice, a name for a group of synthetic drugs that have gripped prisons over the past decade, are said by researchers at Middlesex University's Drug and Alcohol Research Centre to have played a role in almost half of all non-natural deaths in prisons over a five year period.

Michael Kennedy had already used spice on one occasion before he went to prison. For him it was a way of self-medicating for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). But in prison he was fully in its grip. During a music technology class in HMP Stoke Heath he wrote a song imploring people to avoid spice. He's now clean, and is a volunteer for the Forward Trust, who support people to break the cycles of addiction and crime.

You can listen to Michael's track Mamba Attack here.

Ian Vandersluys is Head of Safety at HMP Wormwood Scrubs, having worked for almost three decades in prisons. He describes some of the shocking scenes that have accompanied the rise of synthetic drugs, the impact it has on staff and prisoners, and some of the ways prisons tackle the epidemic.

Presenters:

Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association

Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock

Producer: Andrew Wilkie

Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn

The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.

To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. 

Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scout Tzofiya Bolton is a poet, activist, radio producer and the author of The Mad Art of Doing Time. She went to prison in 2023 where she received excellent care for the mental health conditions that led to her offence.

You can read Scout's recent article for The Guardian here.

You can listen to Scout's documentary for BBC Radio 4, entitled The Ballad of Scout and the Alcohol Tag.

Scout's latest book, The Mad Art of Doing Time, is available from Broken Sleep Books.

Michelle Walsh is a key worker at the Merseyside Women's Team for the Together Women project. She supports women with diagnosed and undiagnosed mental health conditions after release from prison and advocates on their behalf.

You can find out more about the work of Together Women here.

Presenters:

Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association

Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock

Producer: Andrew Wilkie

Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn

The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.

To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. 

Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim Owen KC is a criminal barrister who has sat as a Deputy High Court Judge. He is a co-host of Double Jeopardy: The Law and Politics Podcast. 

You can find the sentencing guidelines for all offences heard in the Magistrates and Crown Courts on the Sentencing Council website.

Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock

Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn

The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.

To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. 

Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mickey Dehara is a screenwriter who has frequently collaborated with the director Guy Richie, including playing a starring role in the film Snatch. He served a prison sentence in the early 2010s when he got involved with National Prison Radio and won the Sandford St. Martin and Jerusalem Awards for a dramatisation of the Good Friday story which he wrote and starred in. On release from prison he set up Films4Life which aimed to change people's lives through the medium of film-making.

Max Porter is the award-winning author of several novels, including Grief Is A Thing With Feathers which is currently being adapted into a film starring Benedict Cumberbatch. He delvers storytelling workshops in palliative care settings, prisons and war zones. He has recently returned from Palestine where he worked with people caught up in the conflict, and he is the Writer in Residence at HMP Erlestoke.

Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock

Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn

The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.

To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. 

Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jamie Bennett is is the author of a new book which looks at the challenges of managing prisons. He is Prison Contracts Group Director at His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service. He has been Governor of Morton Hall, Long Lartin, Grendon and Spring Hill prisons.

Andrew Morris served a sentence in HMP Spring Hill while Jamie was the Governor there. After release, he founded the New Wave Trust which aims to provide mentorships for young black men. He's a Trustee at the Howard League for Penal Reform and for the Raphael Rowe Foundation. He's also worked as an assessment officer at the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.

Read more: Managing Prisons: Managerialism, Austerity and Moral Blindness by Jamie Bennett

Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock

Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn

The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.

To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. 

Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In November 2024, Janey Starling from the charity Level Up, called out the presenter of LBC's breakfast show Nick Ferrari live on air for his apparent ignorance of the facts around the imprisonment of women.

In response to that interview, we invited friend of the podcast Dr. Kimmett Edgar to the studio to help us understand what the numbers can tell us about prisons and the people who live in them.

Kimmett is a former Senior Research Officer at the Oxford Centre for Criminological Research and was Head of Research at the Prison Reform Trust.

After finishing this podcast, why not listen to Paula's appearance on BBC Radio 4's Feedback?

Some data sources from this programme: 

• You can find prison population statistics from His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service here.
• Data on reoffending rates is published here.
• Data on ethnicity in the prison popuation can be found here.
• Details of the running costs of individual prisons is published by the Ministry of Justice here.
• Analysis of government spending and performance of prisons by the Institute for Government is published here.
• A study of the impact of short custodial sentences on reoffending was released by the Ministry of Justice here.
• An international comparison of prison populations from the Council of Europe is published here.
• The evidence review of the impact of imprisonment on families is published by the charity Clinks here.
• Data on the causes of death of people in prison published by the Office for National for National Statistics can be found here.
• Ministry of Justice data on self harm in prison is published here.
• A BBC News report on the links between prison and homelessness can be found here.
• You can find a treasure trove of data about prisons in the annual Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile, published by the Prison Reform Trust.

Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock

Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn

The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.

To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. 

Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greg Eskridge was released from San Quentin Rehabilitation Center in California, formerly known as San Quentin state prison, on 23 July 2024 after serving 30 years and 25 days.

In prison Greg became a founding member of the Uncuffed radio program and podcast, a project run by the public radio station KALW.

Greg now works full-time as Uncuffed’s first Leadership Fellow, preparing him for leadership roles in the project. 

Eli Wirtschafter is the Program Director for Uncuffed and got to know Greg through his work behind the walls of San Quentin. He trains people in California prisons how to produce radio and podcasts, developing professional broadcasting skills and creating shows.

Listen to the Uncuffed podcast.

The Secret Life of Prisons wishes you a very happy Christmas. We'll be back in the new year with weekly shows dropping every Monday.

Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock

Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Producer: Faye Dunn

The Prison Radio Association is a charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people serving prison sentences. We employ people in prison to develop their skills, find their best voices and help them discover ways to lead crime-free lives after release.

To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. 

Registered Charity in England & Wales 1114760

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.