It is remarkable how things turn out sometimes. I am not only able to celebrate my 100th blog, but I am also able to celebrate, and of course, promote ; ) my debut book ‘A Father’s Son.’

I have banged on for ages and will continue to do so, about the importance of education, especially in secure environments. I believe that education, along with creative writing, should be an integral part of a reform package, individually tailored to meet the needs of the learner. Education has to be provided to all, and in a way that enables learners to study, with support, at their own level and in their own time. The technology is available for this to be the case. I am not suggesting that technology should replace the classroom. What I am suggesting, however, is that education should be made available to all in prison. One of the negative sides of prison education is the low rates of pay that education provides. It is one of the lowest wages, on average, within the prison estate.

Providing the technology for educational content to be streamed into every cell in our prisons, may be controversial and no doubt would have the Daily Mail readers frothing at the mouth, but think about it? The school/education environment, as in my own experience, was a negative one, as it was for many of my peers. The classroom itself can be a huge barrier to overcome, even before the low remuneration has been considered. Streaming content direct into cells would immediately remove this barrier. I’m no technological wizard but am competent enough to know it is not impossible. A little investment and foresight are all that is needed, along with action and not just words. Speaking of which.

I wanted to do something different for my 100th blog, although blogging about my debut book is definitely different. So, I thought what better way for a blog with a title of ‘Journey of a reformed man’ than to show my own education journey by sharing the certificates I gained which are from level 1 all the way to, well, you’ll have to see, but I’m sure most can guess.

Not only have I served a number of years, over the years, behind the wall, I have also extensively (my missus just said “don’t forget to add obsessively”) researched the history of our prisons, along with the history of prison education. The following gallery of images may also help people to understand why my perspective of prison is somewhat different from others and different from, I suppose, the ‘norm’, whatever that is. Bear in mind, that before my 14th birthday, I had been excluded, totally, from our societies education system.