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The Secret Life of Prisons is produced by a charity, the Prison Radio Association. To make a donation please visit prison.radio/donate. The podcast tells the hidden stories from behind bars. Paula Harriott is Chief Executive of Unlock. She spent time in prison and now works to help those who have been to prison to contribute to the debate around crime and justice. Phil Maguire is the Chief Executive of the Prison Radio Association. He's worked in prisons for two decades and received an OBE f ...
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How to run a festival in a prison | David Kendall and Jailhouse Moose
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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 …
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*Emergency Podcast* The Independent Sentencing Review | David Shipley
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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 Paul…
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The extreme far-right in prison | Nigel Bromage and Graham Finochio
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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 …
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To fix the filing cabinet or the person? | Cherie Blair KC and Kate Morrissey
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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 Just…
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The Prison Philosophers | Andy West and Ray Smith
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Andy West is the author of The Life Inside: A Memoir of Prison, Family and Learning to be Free, which is currently being adapted into a BBC television drama. Andy has been teaching philosophy in prisons since 2016. You can buy Andy's book while supporting local independent bookshops here. Ray Smith writes for Inside Time, the monthly newspaper for …
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Two days before the 2025 London Marathon, a very special half marathon took place behind the walls of HMP Brixton in aid of the Prison Reform Trust. And The Secret Life of Prisons was granted exclusive access to bring you the sounds of a momentous morning. Nine of HMP Brixton's residents undertook a 16-week training programme, supported by members …
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Justice vs the culture wars | Your questions answered
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We love to hear your thoughts, your views and your questions. To contact the show, please email [email protected]. In this week's episode we answer questions from listeners inside and outside prison. Presenters: Phil Maguire – Chief Executive, Prison Radio Association Paula Harriott – Chief Executive, Unlock Producer: Andrew Wilkie Assistant Pr…
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We've visited a *lot* of prisons | Duewaine Marshalleck-Baker and Arthur Hagues
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This week we've got two guests who, for very different reasons, have spent time in a lot of different prisons. We asked them to compare notes and tell us their best stories. Duewaine Marshalleck-Baker was released from prison for the final time in 2016, having spent more than eighteen years in prison on and off. He now works for National Prison Rad…
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Who was Chris Tchaikovsky? | Kate Fraser and Deborah Coles
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Chris Tchaikovsky was a founder of the charity Women in Prison, the charity that campaigns on behalf of women in the criminal justice system. She died in 2002, having lived an extraordinary life. Today's episode marks the end of Women's History Month and is dedicated to her life and her legacy. Kate Fraser spent 17 years in heroin addiction, engage…
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Disclosure and barring | Peter Lewis and Penelope Gibbs
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Peter Lewis served a prison sentence for receiving a corrupt payment. Shortly after his release, during the pandemic, he applied for a voluntary role directing cars at a Covid vaccination centre and his application was rejected, apparently because of his criminal record. He is now an ambassador for the FairChecks campaign. Penelope Gibbs is the Dir…
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When Mo went to prison hundreds of miles from home, his older sister would visit him but he didn't see his mum in person until he was more than two years into his sentence, and his youngest sister didn't come to visit him at all. He went five years without seeing her. How did he and his family come to these decisions, and what was it like reconnect…
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Finding the common ground | Alice Dawnay and Kam
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Alice Dawnay founded the charity Switchback in 2008, which supports young Londoners to find a way out of the justice system. She's now part of the team that's just launched the Common Ground Justice Project, which is an initiative to find the common ground in the sometimes polarised debate around crime and justice. Kam was helped by Switchback when…
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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 C…
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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 challe…
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Talent development | Richie Makepeace and Nancy Prentice
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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 Nationa…
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The most serious development in decades | Michael Kennedy and Ian Vandersluys
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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 pr…
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Diagnosis | Scout Tzofiya Bolton and Michelle Walsh
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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 Ba…
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