Erwin James
Erwin James is a Guardian columnist. He served 20 years of a life sentence in prison before his release in August 2004
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Ministers face an uphill battle to reform failing and decrepit jailsAs the Wormwood Scrubs report shows, the government’s plan to transform prisons will require a big increase in staff and funding
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Former prison governors’ leader: yes to Gove, no to league tablesEoin McLennan-Murray, who ran the prison with the lowest reoffending rates says league tables for individual jails would be ‘silly’ but a national target could work
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Prison Reform Trust writing competition 2015: hopeful words after a tough yearWith a record number of entries, this year’s work showed inspiring enthusiasm and self-discipline from the authors
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We don’t need new prisons, we need a new prison cultureAfter serving 20 years in jail, I know that most detainees hope to live a crime-free life on release, but until the corrupt atmosphere of our prisons is tackled, rehabilitation will remain a distant dream
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Will the smoking ban in prisons lead to riots?Cigarettes will be banned in some UK prisons from January. But a smoke is a small freedom that can help prisoners cope inside – and many will resort to desperate measure to get it, says one former inmate
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Books kept me alive in prisonThe end of the ban on sending books to prisoners in the UK reminds me just how vital they were to my survival inside, and to the life I have lived since
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Coming out: LGBT people lift the lid on life in prisonA new book reveals through first-hand accounts the struggles of those who are openly gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender behind bars
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Lord Woolf: 25 years on from Strangeways, prisons are still in crisisHarry Woolf, the former chief justice who wrote the report on the 1991 Strangeways prison riot, says its lessons haven’t been learned
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The would-be minister with inside knowledge of the prisons beatLabour’s shadow prisons minister Jenny Chapman hopes her insights into life behind bars could hold the key to a fairer penal system after May’s election
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Bring Back Borstal? Not based on my experienceErwin James: ITV’s televisual experiment has its merits. But as a borstal boy in the 70s, the punitive regime failed me
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Our family’s criminal pastJulie Shaw brings a unique perspective to the crime books she writes about the notorious Hudson clan – the main characters are her uncles. She talks about her family’s roots on the wrong side of the tracks
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‘Prison is not for punishment in Sweden. We get people into better shape’Erwin James: With prisoner numbers falling and jails closing, Swedish criminal justice works, says director-general Nils Öberg
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Prison Reform Trust writing competition: voices from insideJudges including Michael Morpurgo saw a record number of entries from incarcerated men, women and children, in spite of diminishing creative opportunities in UK prisons, writes Erwin James
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Feeling the pressure on prisoner releaseErwin James: David Calvert-Smith leads a parole board confronted by an unprecedented backlog of hearings and little option but to keep inmates waiting in overcrowded prisons
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'Mentoring is what young men crave without realising it'Erwin James: A Band of Brothers shows disenfranchised youths a way to become better men – and make a better life for themselves and their families
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Prisoners penalised by 'vindictive' book banErwin James: New Prison Reform Trust research shows book and parcel ban jeopardises prisoners' rehabilitation and damages relationships
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Criminal justice reforms: 'Empathy has been sidelined'Erwin James: Clive Martin, campaigner for groups that support offenders and their families says that Chris Grayling's massive reorganisation of rehabilitation will not in itself cut reoffending
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Why is Sweden closing its prisons?
Sweden's prison population has dropped so dramatically that the country plans to close four of its prisons. What lessons can the UK learn, asks Erwin James
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Prisoners are our future neighbours. So is rehabilitation such a dangerous idea?Erwin James: So long as any society has a system that lets people out of prison, it is in everyone’s interests that they are let out in better shape than they were when they went in
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Vicky Pryce: 'Prison clearly does not work'
Fresh from jail, the economist and author of Prisonomics explains why the system costs too much, locks up the wrong people and does not prevent reoffending
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A tribute to Ed GuitonErwin James: His G2 column about life as a quadriplegic, Life Goes On, opened readers' eyes to disability
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Bastoy: the Norwegian prison that works
Erwin James: Arne Kvernvik Nilsen, the departing governor of a prison with a reoffending rate of just 16%, shares the secrets of his remarkable success
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Charles Bronson: why it is time for him to be released
Erwin James: Thanks to his violent behaviour in prison, Charles Bronson has spent 40 years behind bars, since his conviction for robbing a post office in 1974. But surely he has now served his time?
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Reading in prison is not a trivial storyErwin James: Questionable reports that Guantánamo detainees love Fifty Shades of Grey belittle this crucial bit of freedom in captivity
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Hope for a prison lifer is exhausting
Erwin James: But for those serving a life sentence who cannot find a purpose, the prospects are bleak
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A Norwegian idea for Australian and British prisons
Guardian writer and former prisoner Erwin James discusses how jail can work, with Channel Ten's Hamish Macdonald
Inside the special prison unit where rehabilitation rules the roost