Answers Tues 17th Nov

Anon asked-
1. Are you still in touch with your family?

No. My family is a large one, I am one of 7 siblings, but I'm the youngest by many years. When my mother died, when I was 9, I was taken on by one of my sisters but we really didn't get along and I began running away from home. They put me in local authority care when I was 11 and that was the end of any meaningful contact between myself and my family.

2. Do you have any 'proper’ or long term friends?

Relationships in prison tend to temporary and not take on the shape of relationships outside.

Even close relationships have to function in the knowledge that, at some point, you will be moved on somewhere else and the only possible contact is via mail. And we need the permission of both Governors to write to each other.

So whilst I do have a group of people around me, there must be a limit to the level of emotional investment that can be made. With lifers, though, even though we are shuffled around there is always the knowledge that we are likely to bump into people again at some stage.

And so those closest to me tend to be people outside, mostly women for some reason. Perhaps being in forced communion with men all my life has left me with a preference for the company of women, who I find more interesting. This is by way of angling for more snail-mail…

3. Does anyone visit you?

Yes, and demand for Visiting Orders has increased due to the blog.