Michael was on great form when I spoke to him at his home in Barnet last  Friday. He was very chatty and as you would expect since the release of his father, very upbeat. But I was hugely aware that it is still a very sensitive time for him and his family. Ronnie is a very poorly man and the prognosis is not good. Somebody said to me, “I hear Ronnie has had a miraculous recovery.” Well who wouldn’t perk up after being released from a thirty year prison sentence? But it is obvious that he has had nothing like a miraculous recovery. I think the family were very lucky indeed that he managed to survive as long as he has through that appalling prison experience.  It was fair that he be returned to prison when he came back from Rio – but for Jack Straw to have blocked his release after it was recommended by the parole board last month was surely a travesty of fairness. Most of the other train robbers served around a third of their sentences, a little more in some cases. But they were young strong men when they were serving their time. Doing time in high security when you are old and frail is a different kettle of fish – some will say, “so what?” – he’s a criminal. But he’s human too - and his  family were never criminals. The added pain they had to suffer because of Ronnie Biggs’ condition surely deserved some consideration? The family of Mr Mills, the train driver who was battered might think differently. His and their pain and suffering are just as important. But it was clear to me that Michael is a very decent person with a lovely loving family. And yet – with a notorious father and having witnessed the glamourisation of criminality at close quarters – he could have “gone the other way” as they say quite easily. Criminality is clearly not inherited – not that his dad was ever a serious professional criminal – proof of which is his avoidence of any dodgy activity during his thirty six years as a fugitive, other than what was required to maintain his freedom of course. But he didn’t steal or rob or cheat or harm anyone. He lived a relatively honest life under many significant pressures and through it all demonstrated his “rehabilitaition” – the most potent proof of which is the way Michael has turned out. I say good luck to them.

The prison system is in crisis. It has been seriously that way for at least the last ten years or more. Since New Labour came to power in 1997 and for some years before that not a single politician has demonstrated one shred of political will to make the sytem genuinely more effective, which in part has led to the failures culminating in Daniel Sonnex being free to take part in the murders of French students Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez. So long as we remain complacent about our prison system and continue to allow politicians to get away with their nonsensical prison rhetoric the danger of similiar horrors occurring in the future will increase. 

I have made an almighty balls up with my deceit in the Guardian piece refered to in today’s G2. There is no excuse for it – I’ve tried to explain it, but even to me it does not make a great deal of sense. One of the most important things I learned in prison was that you cannot beat the truth. It is like a solid rock foundation of civilisation. All the greatest and most influential people throughout history, the people that have really shaped our world, from Socrates to Obama, have been men of truth. I am sorry I lied for such dubious reasons, sorry to have let so many people down. I’ve always struggled with this new existence – never planned it that’s for sure. Just wanted to be a writer.  So very sorry to have offended.  

I spent a great couple of days last week at a Quakers in Criminal Justice conference. I had been invited as a speaker and was delighted to meet the delegates. What struck me most was their committment to social justice, particularly in relation to what happens in our prisons. Of course the Quaker philosophy embraces pacifism, which to those not acquainted with Quakerism may give the impression that Quakers are “soft.” Whilst the people I met at the weekend had a collective gentleness among them that was almost palpable, the strength of their resolve was like solid steel. I often attended religious meetings when I was in prison – mainly Anglican services, but I also joined groups of other faiths when I was invited. I was always open to the ideas of others and learned much from the faith groups. The most satisfying for me however were the Quaker meetings. I remember how wonderful it felt to discover, “a society of friends.” A Friend is the term Quakers use when addressing each other. The power of the silent meditations the Quakers shared brought me close to embracing the Quaker faith a couple of times. But my wariness of handing over responsibility for my thoughts and actions to a “faith,” was always too strong. I was determined to get by and achieve whatever I could on self-discipline, the foundation of which I developed whilst serving in the French Foreign Legion in the early 1980s. I’ve written a little piece in today’s Guardian about my experiences there  in response to recent reports that a number of legionnaires had been subjected to abuse and bullying. I guess to many civilised people the general ethos of the Foreign Legion might appear abusive. But most of those who go to join have already experienced robust and arguably abusive lives. The Legion is skilled in ironing out an individual’s past, in order to create a uniform philosophy which binds legionnaires together like no other army in the world. Most of the process is psychological, but the physical processes are equally involved. Being able to endure extreme conditions demands extreme training. It doesn’t seem rational, but some of that may involve beatings and senseless physical tasks: digging holes in the desert, running with pebbles in the mouth, or breaking the ice on a frozen lake for a morning swim are just a selection of what I experienced. It was demanding and punitive but ultimately fulfilling. Once you are established as a legionnaire it is a good life. The legion is a family and fellow legionnaires are like brothers who would risk life and limb for each other and for their legion family without hesitation. Legio Patria Nostra is the legion motto – The Legion is my country, my home, my family. Of course the overall reason for your existence as a legionnaire is that you are trained to kill effectively or to die well in your efforts. These are the most basic reasons to live for sure. But for some the possibility of a redeeming death is something that can be a readily acceptable risk. To live honourably with the chance of dying gloriously may be an attractive proposition for those who have only expereinced dissatisfaction with life. In truth it was my time as a legionnaire that gave me the strength to manage my prison time so well. The self-discipline and focus I had aquired whilst serving in the 2eme Regiment Etranger du Parachutists  gave me the edge over many of my neighbours in prison. During the early years of my sentence I lived like a soldier but was always searching for an authentic way to “be.” Attending religious meetings gave me some answers, but it was the Quaker meetings that brought me the most peace. People who are at peace with each other, I discovered, are able to give so much more to others. I felt that again last weekend. Thank you Friends.

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.

For the second time in my life my head has been full of John Martyn for a couple of days. The first time was after his concert at Long Lartin prison in Evesham where I was resident for a while in the late eighties and early nineties. (I wrote about it for the Guardian here ) – and now again with his sad passing. The sadness of losing such a gifted and talented individual is exacerabated by his relative youth – 60 is no age these days – but also because his lifestyle had contributed so much to his early demise. Look on the covers of his early albums and you see a good looking, vibrant young man, bursting with energy and life – and hair. He looked like a man that could go on forever. I managed to get a copy of Solid Air  in HMV in Covent Garden at the weekend – it was the only copy left. When I got home the first track I put on was May You Never - at full volume.  Brought back so many memories, of ups and downs. The song always gave me hope – still does. So grateful that John Martyn lived.

My recent visit to Skien prison was sobering. Walking onto the exercise yard and talking to men who were serving long sentences was surreal in many ways. The prison walls were high. The men were serving up to thirty years. We chatted about the respective regimes of the UK and Norway. They knew little about the UK system – but I could see the difference. The biggest was the fact that prisoners at Skien are allowed access to the Internet via computer in their cells. Access is monitored and firewalls are set up to avoid any embarrassing security breaches. In the UK few prisoners are allowed access to computers, never mind the Internet. A friend of mine, who has been in prison for decades was allowed to have a lap top in his cell four years ago. His mother and I clubbed together to buy it for him. Now the lap top is malfunctioning and needs repairs – but it would be cheaper for him to purchase another laptop. The only problem is the prison now has a different governor who does not like prisoners having computers in their cells. If my friend hands out his lap top he will not be allowed to have a replacement – “no more computers in cells,” says the governor. The Norwegian prison is secure and the prisoners are not going anywhere. But while they are in they are provided with opportunites to improve and feel that they are still connected to the world. Is that such a terrible thing?

It was a great evening, I mean a really great evening. Charlotte Raven and her partner Tom Sheehan opened the doors of their beautiful Kentish Town home for friends, family and fans of The Grass Arena. It was a magnificent gesture of generosity from Charlotte and Tom and everyone who made it appreciated it. The long drawing room made an impressive but intimate venue for John to present his reading. Tom first of all read a piece that John had written some years ago putting The Grass Arena in context for anyone present who might not know its history. That was followed by a brief airing of some archive audio and video footage of John in interview mode. The television interview of John on the Good Morning programme almost 20 years ago was startling. John was sharp, funny and amazingly telegenic. It was the first time I had seen the footage and I was struck by how well he looked and how articulate he was. The drawing room was packed - there were 60 seated and another thirty or so standing. After the footage John, absent from the proceedings thus far, entered the room. The atmosphere was full of anticipation. The audience went very quiet while John took his place – then burst into applause as he prepared himself. “Thank you,” he said and then began. He read about the time he was arrested on suspicion of murder. It is a powerful piece and John performed it with an even,  measured tone. He read on for half an hour and then looked up when he had finished. “Thank you,” he said again and the audience responded with another huge round of applause. Then he took some questions. “What does it mean to you now that your book has been re-published as a modern classic?” I asked first. He replied that he hoped it might pave the way for a new publishing deal for his new work, “Because I haven’t got any more classics under the bed,” he quipped. The Q&As were good natured and lively and the queue for his book signing afterwards was long and patient. Charlotte had spent the previous day cooking vast pots of delicious food that Tom’s mother and father served later on the evening of the event. It was excellent. John is appearing at the Bluecoat Arts Centre in Liverpool on Monday October 13th as part of the Bluecoat’s first Chapter and Verse Literary Festival. After his reading he and I will be on stage in conversation. 

 Daniel Day Lewis on The Grass Arena: “The last thing John Healy needs is a tidy snippet of blurb from the likes of me which is a good thing because economy defeats me; I don’t know how to be moderate or concise in praise of his startling autobiography `The Grass Arena’. So economy I’ll leave to him, a master storyteller with an ear, an eye and a voice that should be the envy of many men with weightier reputations. There is no perceptible distance between the words, which seem to have chosen themselves and the experiences from which they blossomed like a garden of wild flowers. Armed to the teeth with his wit and self-knowledge he takes us to that other place, his grass arena, the one which we pass how many times in any given day, averting our eyes? The one into whose violent clutches we might descend more easily than we dare to contemplate. He is our jaunty, gleeful tour guide and messenger from hell. His fellow combatants, exuberant, murderous and sentimental, by turns touchingly loyal, vengeful and treacherous seem to have sprung from the same bloodlines as Falstaff, Pistol, Nell and their fellows. They pitch their tents in the same refuse-filled shadows as their forebears; a confederacy of the dispossessed. Healy’s life, were it not for an astonishing turn of events, seems predestined to be a short one. As in Knut Hamsun’s mighty book `Hunger’, we are utterly compelled both by the power of Healy’s story and his great power in the telling of it, no matter how bleak the outlook, to stay by his side until the last word is writ.”

28 August 2008
Dear Secretary of State for Justice

On the day that the Government’s consultation closes, we are writing to you to highlight our opposition to the building of Titan prisons.

The Government’s proposals to build three Titans, each housing around 2,500 prisoners, would cement this country’s position as the prison capital of western Europe, while squandering billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money which could be better spent elsewhere. The proposals ignore evidence that smaller, local prisons work better than large ones, raise serious concerns about the wellbeing and safety of prisoners and prison staff, and would put at risk relationships between prisoners and their families.

The Government cannot build its way out of the current crisis in the prison system, as you have previously acknowledged, and further expansion of the prison estate would be damaging both socially and economically. Instead of rushing headlong into an expensive prison-building programme, the Government must shelve its plans for Titan prisons and instead focus on addressing the causes of the growing prison population.

The evidence is clear; Titan prisons are not the solution to the prisons crisis. As members of the Criminal Justice Alliance, a coalition of organisations working in the criminal justice system, we urge you to abandon these misguided proposals for Titan prisons before they become a reality.

Yours sincerely

Lucy Gampell, Director, Action for Prisoners’ Families
Davlin Brydson, Chair, Association of Black Probation Officers
Angela Clay, Chairman, Association of Members of Independent Monitoring Boards
Emma Norton, Bindmans LLP
Denise Marshall, Group Co-ordinator, Birth Companions
Christopher Jones, Chair, Churches’ Criminal Justice Forum
Clive Martin, Director, Clinks
Dr Katherine Rake, Director, Fawcett Society
Professor Mike Hough, Director, Institute for Criminal Policy Research
Rob Allen, Director, International Centre for Prison Studies
Deb Coles and Helen Shaw, Co-Directors, INQUEST
Sally Ireland, Senior Legal Officer (Criminal Justice), JUSTICE
Gareth Crossman, Policy Director, Liberty
Paul Cavadino, Chief Executive, Nacro
Harry Fletcher, Assistant General Secretary, Napo
Chris Thomas, Chief Executive, New Bridge
Andy Keen-Downs, Director, pact
Colin Moses, National Chair, Prison Officers’ Association
Juliet Lyon, Director, Prison Reform Trust
Pat Jones, Director, Prisoners’ Education Trust
Alan Hooker, Director, Prisoners’ Families and Friends Service
Paula Harvey, Programme Manager, Quaker Crime, Community and Justice Group
Joyce Moseley, Chief Executive, Rainer Crime Concern
Sebastian Saville, Executive Director, Release
Harriet Bailey, Chief Executive, Restorative Justice Consortium
Paul Corry, Director of Public Affairs, Rethink
Baroness Linklater, Chair, Rethinking Crime and Punishment
Kevin Ireland, Interim Chief Executive, Revolving Doors Agency
Fran Sainsbury, RSA Prison Learning Network
Sean Duggan, Director of Prisons and Criminal Justice Programme, Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health
Lucie Russell, Director, SmartJustice
Gary Kernaghan, New Business Director, SOVA
Steve Rolles, Research Co-ordinator, Transform Drug Policy Foundation
Bobby Cummines, Chief Executive, UNLOCK
Suzanne Sibillin, Director, Women in Prison

Lord Carter’s interview this week in the Guardian was very disappointing. It read to me like a load of ducking and diving around this crucial issue of whether or not the so called Titan prisons, holding at least 2500 prisoners, are going to benefit our society in any way. As far as answering his critics goes, he said very little.

The government have been persuing an expansion of the prison system almost from when they came to power in 1997, and have constantly been justifying it in a most disingenuous way. It seems to me that what Carter has done with this new plan, to provide accommodation for a further 20,000 prisoners at a capital cost of £2.3billion by the way, is to hand the government a sort of mandate to increase the prisoner population – providing reassurance that what they have been doing anyway is the right thing to do. The fact that Carter is very close to Justice Minister Jack Straw, (Carter was Straw’s best man at both his weddings) smacks of something unsavoury going on, especially since Carter’s recommendations following his review of offender management were taken up but failed to deliver what he and the governmemt anticipated. Isn’t it time for someone else to take a look at this?

And why has Carter been able to get away with coming up with all these big ideas and not having to present a single shred of evidence to support his recommendations? I know that the media and government believe that people generally are not really interested in prisons, other than the scandal stories and tabloid romps about cons having it too good – and maybe that’s why the government habitually behaves so irresponsibly in its prisons policy. It knows it can get away with it. But if people are properly informed about the reality of the issues I believe they would think very carefully indeed about how we use prison, and in particular about whether we really need a prisoner population of 100,000 plus. Please correct me if I’m wrong on this.