My time in prison made me fight for radical reform – and I’ve found some surprising allies along the way

At a demo held in solidarity with abused prisoners, I befriended some unlikely fellow campaigners. It gave me hope that change is possible

Our criminal justice system and our attitudes towards it are mostly nonsensical: that needs to change (Getty)

Prisoners have been getting beaten by officers at one of Britain’s worst jails. You won’t see these beatings in the news, firstly because this stuff is commonplace; secondly because prisoners are largely voiceless and without proper recourse to justice; and, lastly, when one prisoner says "the officers did it!" and three officers say "rubbish, he fell down the stairs", well, there's no case is there, however black and blue they are beaten.

So, in true reprobate fashion, we took the issue into our own hands. Fifteen people stood outside the prison and did a “noise demo” (which basically translates to making a racket). With a banner, a stick to beat the lamppost, and a megaphone, we communicated a message over that big old wall to let people know they're not alone.

As soon as we started we could hear the wing erupting, howling, shouting, and a lot of “banging the door” (this means when you kick the massive iron cell door, it's a sign of appreciation generally reserved for football or when someone gets lucky on EastEnders).

A couple of local dogwalkers came to see what the hell the noise was all about. I don’t mean to stereotype but they were very of the area - middle aged, chinos, with a little dog that behaves itself. When I say “they came to see”, I mean it in a very English way. They peered at me warily, so I engaged and asked if they lived locally – "two streets away" – if they knew anyone in the prison – "no!" – if they had considered the plight of those nearly 2000 people on their doorstep – "well... not really".

So, being the big mouth I am, I told them about the beatings. From 0 to 100mph, it wasn't long before we got them on the megaphone "SOME OF YOU... SHOULD BE FREED!" (tentative steps for middle class Britain but steps nonetheless). I told them the best way to show love would be to shout "BANG THE DOOR!", and there he was, an upstanding British gentleman showing solidarity with the prison.

Beyond just the shouting, the couple fully engaged with us about why prison isn't effective; who needs to be taken out of society and where they should go; and whether we should seek to make people better or worse after they have offended. When I got home and checked my emails I had an order through my website for my book, Prison: A Survival Guide, which have some lessons I learnt from my own time inside that will have hopefully helped them fill in the gaps.

Point being: people want to know about prisons. They're salacious, the stuff of legend, and very much hidden places that peak people’s fascination. But they’re also integral to our current social machine – anyone who cares about society should care about prison.

Our criminal justice system and our attitudes towards it are mostly nonsensical: most people know the system is in a state of absolute cruel chaos, most people sense that prisons don't work, but (like my gran who loves her Romanian carer but still regurgitates anti-European sentiment verbatim from the paper she reads), we've now been socialised to believe that prison is the only way to punish people.

What I’m saying is that, like most issues, maybe the prison issue is less a moral maze and more plainly unimaginative. In 2019 it’s too easy to be 2D: I stick to the straight and narrow, I work, I have kids. They however are criminals: they’re a risk to me, they’re from a different community and I don’t feel their pain.

Justice misinformation is just one cog in the chaos of contemporary society. We should remove these cogs one at a time. It should be your duty to know the basics about any subject that depends on your ignorance to keep it functioning – the wall is there to keep prisoners from the outside world, but also to stop the outside world from looking in.

Just like the middle class couple we met outside the prison, those who have been socialised to see prisoners as detritus should re-educate themselves. Resist the narrative and think for yourself. One afternoon with my book is the closest you'll come to serving an actual sentence. I hope it is a desperately (and I mean desperately) needed break from harmful tropes.

Carl Cattermole is an ex-prisoner who writes about his experiences of Britain's prison system. His book Prison: A Survival Guide is out now