The Secret Life of Prisons

As the Sentencing Act 2026 receives royal assent, Phil and Paula take to the stage at Conway Hall in London as part of the Clinks annual conference 2026. Lord James Timpson was Chief Executive of Timpsons, where he pioneered the employment, at scale, of people who have been through the criminal justice system. He was Chair of the Prison Reform Trust before joining government in 2024 as Minister of...

Andy West teaches philosophy in prisons. His father and brother spent time behind bars and he wrote a memoir, The Life Inside , about his career in prisons which we featured in an episode back in May 2025. That book has now been adapted for a BBC1 series, Waiting For The Out , which starts in the new year. Ric Renton spent time in three prisons in the north-east of England, including HMP Durham. H...

Every year the radio industry gathers for the Radio Festival in London. The event, run by a wonderful organisation called the Radio Academy , brings together radio professionals from across the country to see the finest broadcasting talent talking about what's happening at the cutting edge of our industry. This year's event was entitled World Of Sound, showcasing the UK as a global leader. Phil wa...

In 2006, Phil Maguire OBE left his job at the BBC to work in prisons. He joined a small group of committed, inspirational people to found a charity, the Prison Radio Association, which went on to transform how we communicate in prisons and set up the world's first national radio station for people in prison. Phil is Chief Executive of the charity. Today, Phil has some news which he wants to share...

Beatrice Auty was released from prison last year and has since become a Longford Scholar, pursuing her academic interest in criminology. Before prison, Beatrice visited death row in the US and dreamt of becoming a human rights lawyer. Beatrice's case and trial attracted a good deal of media attention, and since release Beatrice has appeared in the media to talk about her experiences in prison. Cha...

The Audio Production Awards take place every year to honour the very best in radio and podcast production in the UK. They're run by Audio UK, which represents audio producers, and are competed for by the very best in the production and broadcast industries. And this year, The Secret Life of Prisons won GOLD in the Sport category for our episode about the HMP Brixton Half Marathon! So this week we...

If you would like to support the Prison Radio Association, visit prison.radio/biggive and your donation will be doubled! Faye Dunn and Toni Garrigos first met each other while serving sentences in HMP Styal. Faye is now the Assistant Producer of this podcast, while Toni is employed in sales. Check out their story. Presenters: Phil Maguire  – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Har...

Drug Recovery Wings are specialist units in prisons that work to help people dealing with addictions as part of their prison sentences. Ash is no stranger to imprisonment and has lived with addiction since he was a child. But a remarkable encounter transformed his life. He now works for Better Way Recovery, a charity based in Litchfield near Birmingham, as an Integrated Offender Manager Link Worke...

The Longford Lecture is a centrepiece event of the criminal justice sector's year. Run by the Longford Trust, a charity that provides opportunities for study and mentoring for people in prison and detention, it takes place at Church House in Westminster. This year's lecture was a call for the abolition of the imprisonment of children, given by the Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel De Souza , who...

Andy Aitchison has been photographing prisons for more than 20 years. He selects five of his favourite photographs of prisons and talks to us about what we can learn from prisons by keeping our eyes open. Andy's new book is called Incarcerated and will be released soon. You can follow Andy on Instagram here . Presenters: Phil Maguire  – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott...

In the summer of 2023, 17 year-old Charlie Cosser went to an organised house party in a small village in West Sussex and never came home. A fight broke out on the dance floor and Charlie was stabbed. He died later in hospital. As he was lying on his hospital bed, Charlie's father Martin Cosser made a promise to Charlie that he would spend the rest of his life educating young people about the dange...

Sarah was released from prison after spending 16 years behind bars as part of a life sentence. She was released to an approved premises two hours away from her friends and family. She had no ID, no bank account, no job, and the world had completely changed in those 16 years. She received support from Paula and her charity Unlock before and after release. This is Sarah's story. Presenters: Phil Mag...

Ian Watkins , the disgraced former front man of the rock band Lostprophets, died in HMP Wakefield on Saturday 11 October. Two men have been charged with his murder. Watkins was serving a 29-year sentence for crimes that were so shocking, the judge in his trial said the case 'broke new ground' and 'plunged into new depths of depravity'. HMP Wakefield is a category A prison that holds people convict...

When Laura found herself in HMP Eastwood Park serving the latest of a string of prison terms, something magical happened when she met Isie Potter , a music teacher who had recently become Musician Residence at the prison. In this emotional episode, they tell the extraordinary story of how Laura's life was transformed thanks to Isie's approach to her role for the charity Changing Tunes . You can do...

Shahid Amin was serving a long sentence in HMP Grendon when he began studying criminology. This came after teenage years in which being engaged with the police and the criminal justice system overshadowed any early experiences with education. He has continued his further education and become an academic researcher after he was released from prison. Dr. Ruth Armstrong is a Postdoctorate Research As...

One month into Frank Stedman's prison sentence, he lost his brother to suicide. Unable to attend the funeral, the prison put Frank into segregation because he was considered to be an escape risk. He spent 10 days on the block before being moved to a category A prison, HMP Belmarsh. Fast forward several years, Frank has completed his sentence and runs his own business. But he retains a desire to he...

We love receiving your questions, thoughts and comments. Email us at podcasts@prison.radio . In this final episode before we take a summer break, we answer questions from listeners inside prison and listeners on the outside. David Breakspear is a peer mentor, advocate and ambassador for people who have been to prison. He spent time behind bars between 1985 and 2017, and uses his lived experience t...

In 2014, probation services in England and Wales underwent the most radical shake-up for generations in a part-privatisation process known as Transforming Rehabilitation.   Seven years later, in 2021, these reforms were reversed as the public and private arms of probation were brought back together under a newly-constituted public Probation Service.   In June 2024 a group of people with...

James Batchelor is an educator, musician, film-maker and producer. He spent a time behind bars where he became a presenter for National Prison Radio. Jimmy has continued to work with the Prison Radio Association in the many years since his release, and he’s been leading a series of workshops in prisons over the past few weeks as part of National Prison Radio’s contribution to Windrush Day.  C...

Tamar spent a short period of time in HMP Holloway, a women's prison in North London, in 2016. Months later, the prison was closed for good. The buildings became derelict. Several years later, Tamar was one of a group of six women who had all spent time in Holloway to go back into the prison with film-makers to take part in a remarkable documentary called Holloway , Daisy-May Hudson is one of the...

Zak Addae-Kodua is one half of Zak and Jules, the presenting team behind the award-winning Life After Prison podcast. He has experienced several stints out on licence and explains why it's not always as straightforward to keep to your licence conditions as you might imagine. Cecilia Goodwin is the founder and Managing Director of Goodwin and Rose Solicitors. She has extensive experience of represe...

Ten years ago, David Kendall decided to put on an entire festival of arts and literature inside HMP Lewes. This was the birth of Penned Up , a unique annual event which is now in its tenth year, and which has found a home in HMP Erlestoke in Wiltshire. Today we learn about how on Earth you go about organising a festival in a prison, and some of the guests who have taken part over the years, includ...

On the day David Gauke, the former Justice Secretary, publishes his long-awaited Independent Sentencing Review , we get analysis from the journalist David Shipley who served a sentence for fraud in 2020-2021 and now broadcasts for several publications, including The Spectator. Presenters: Phil Maguire  – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott  – Chief Executive, Unlock...

Nigel Bromage was a prominent member of several far-right groups, including British Movement and Combat 18, for 20 years. During that time, he was close to events that could easily have led him to prison. He became disillusioned with the life in the late 1990s and began a long and dangerous process of moving away from the far-right. He now runs an organisation called Exit Hate , which aims to supp...

Cherie Blair KC became a barrister in 1976 and went on to be a county court and crown court judge. In 2024 she was appointed to the Leadership Board of the charity Women in Prison , where she has stressed the importance of supporting women and girls  before  they come into contact with the criminal justice system. Kate Morrissey is on the Women’s Justice Partnership Delivery Group which...