In 2004 Erwin James, who has died suddenly aged 66, came out of jail after serving 20 years of a life sentence for murder. For six of those years behind bars, he had been writing for the Guardian, latterly a column called A Life Inside, which painted a picture of the prison world. He described his feelings on re-entering society: “All my life I had been a liar, a thief and a cheat. Now I had to face the rest of my life as a convicted murderer.”
Determined to show the public that change is possible, he shared his experiences and insights in newspapers and magazines, in talks, interviews and three books. Eventually, in 2016, he became editor of the national newspaper for prisons, Inside Time, which he described as “his dream job”.
