I have been writing about prison related issues for more than ten years now, for the past four and a half years from the privileged position of being on the outside of the walls. People occasionally ask, “Don’t you ever get fed up of writing about prison?” Well I did for a while – concentrated on building a small business and a couple of totally different writing projects – but then I found I missed being involved in the prison debate. My prison experience taught me that as a society we do not use it effectively, we do not understand the reality of prison and more importantly, we do not care sufficiently about how we use prison, (despite being the most prolific jailers in the EU.) I do not consider myself a prisoner’s spokesman – wouldn’t dream of it – I am certainly no apologist for those who cause harm and distress to others. On the contrary I believe that anyone who behaves in such a way needs to be seperated from the general community for whatever the relevant officials decide is the appropriate period of time. My writing is driven in the main from my prison experience but I really I am just a writer. And my concern in relation to our prisons is that our ill thought out heavily punitive attitudes and approach do not give us the best return for the massive financial and human investment we put into our prison system. I reject any accusation that I am overly concerned with the “needs of offenders,” over and above the “needs of victims.” (The favourite rhetoric of the Home Office and MOJ.) My only concern is that we should be using prison intelligently – so that it serves the needs of all of society as well as it can. A system that fails prisoners fails victims and potential victims. Today I wrote a blog for the Guardian’s CIF site on the issue of sex in prison. Sex in prison is a big unacknowledged probem. One that the authorities have never taken seriously. The deprivation of healthy sexual functioning for long periods of time in the quite intense and peculiar circumstances of prison has uncertain effects on the people we incarcerate. My experience of prison leads me to think that the effects may be quite profound and have greater negative implications for wider society. It needs to be discussed. And I’m happy to write about it.