Guardian: Good things can happen in our prisons

1st June 2010

"...[R]ehabilitation is a word that used to make me want to to spit."

These are the words of writer and Guardian blogger, Erwin James. James, a former prisoner who served 20 years inside, entered the prison system as, in his own words, a "damaged, ignorant brute".

Turned on to the study of history and philosophy by a prison psychologist, James earned his first degree via the Open University while still in prison, and began writing newspaper articles from within prison, before becoming a regular blogger for the Guardian in 2000.

Alternately cynical and hopeful about the prospects of rehabilitation, James was recently nominated for a Performance Award and believes that the goal of rehabilitation is still something worth striving for.

Read the original article in the Guardian.