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

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 Show less