As my mother has just said, I spent 22 years, almost 23 years inside prison. I went in when I was sixteen years of age. I think that gives me room enough to be honest with all of you and feel comfortable about talking about the realities of prison. Prisons don't work. Prisons work in the opposite way.
Prisons are gardens.
They are bad gardens. They need love. In truth the supply of love is actually structured out of the existence of prisoners' lives and their families' lives and it shouldn't be. I don't have to tell all of you how ugly prisons can be or how hard it is to be locked down. But what I want to make clear is that prisoners and their families do not have it easy.