Prison Break

Josie meets her husband Rob at the prison gates, after he's served four-and-a-half years of a nine year sentence for fraud. She takes stock of where the experience of his incarceration has left her and the family, and the dramatic ways it has impacted her understanding of how the criminal justice system in the UK works - or doesn't work.

Josie introduces Rob to Carl Cattermole, who wrote Prison: A Survival Guide following his own term in Wormwood Scrubs. She talks with former prison governor Peter Dawson, who is now director of the Prison Reform Trust, about how honest public discourse is about prison and she meets Dave Merritt, whose son Jack was working with former prisoners when he was killed in a terror attack at Fishmongers' Hall, London in November 2019.

Josie's previous podcast series Prison Bag - one family's unflinching confrontation with the prison system - is available on BBC Sounds.

Produced by Rebecca Lloyd-Evans and Alan Hall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

She meets John Crilly, now the proud holder of a degree in law from the Open University, but formerly an addict who served 13 years for manslaughter. Josie also talks with Donna whose brother Tommy's mental health deteriorated dramatically while serving an IPP, an indeterminate sentence with no fixed end. The early experiences of both John and Tommy mirror each other and the 'prison pipeline' that can lead with alarming predictability from childhood trauma to petty crime, addiction or mental health issues and prison.

Josie's previous podcast series Prison Bag - one family's unflinching confrontation with the prison system - is available on BBC Sounds.

Including archive from the Evening Standard

Produced by Rebecca Lloyd-Evans and Alan Hall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Former 'prison wife' Josie Bevan confronts the failings of the prison system.

Josie visits Devon to meet the family of Luke, who died aged 16 after taking ecstasy. With Luke's sister and mother, she talks with the teenage boy who had supplied the tablets and who they saved from a prison sentence.

Illegal drugs are a major factor both in who ends up in prison and what goes on there. Josie talks with former prison governor Ian Acheson about order and safety in our jails and with Niamh Eastwood of Release about why she believes criminalisation is more harmful than drugs.

Josie's previous podcast series Prison Bag - one family's unflinching confrontation with the prison system - is available on BBC Sounds.

Produced by Rebecca Lloyd-Evans and Alan Hall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Josie traces the evolution of what we've inherited as the UK penal system, our definitions of crime, harm, punishment, justice - and the history of 'reform'. She talks with Sir Robert Neill MP, the Chair of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Justice, Frances Crook of the Howard League for Penal Reform, Chris Daw QC, author of Justice on Trial, and Dr Adam Elliott-Cooper, a sociologist and Black Lives Matter activist.

Josie's previous podcast series Prison Bag - one family's unflinching confrontation with the prison system - is available on BBC Sounds.

Produced by Rebecca Lloyd-Evans and Alan Hall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

In this concluding episode, Josie returns to the attack at Fishmongers' Hall in November 2019, in which John Crilly, who previously served 13 years for manslaughter, was briefly hailed as a hero for tackling the terrorist with a fire extinguisher, while Dave Merritt shares more about what motivated his dead son Jack's work with prisoners.

Josie also talks with Alex Chalk MP - Minister for Prisons, Probation and Youth Justice - about the balance of harm and healing on the scales of justice, historian Dr David Scott and Maureen Mansfield of Abolitionist Futures.

Josie's previous podcast series Prison Bag - one family's unflinching confrontation with the prison system - is available on BBC Sounds.

Produced by Rebecca Lloyd-Evans and Alan Hall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4