Personal Blogging

I came to a divergence in the path - and I chose the wrong way forward.

When I began this blog I took the decision to make it personal. How else could I show prisoners, including myself, as three dimensional beings unless I shared my personal journey? And so you had an eclectic mix of blogs, the highs, the lows, and sheer inanity that is daily prison life. It was a journey that you shared.

And then came release. Four years ago today: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/22/ben-gunn-prison-blogging ...how time flies. And the blog changed. My fault for listening to advice! It was strongly impressed on me that the wider world wouldn’t be as quick to embrace me. Most pertinently, I was advised to manage my image, to show only my most professional face. I’m not known for taking advice, yet this seemed very sensible stuff.

The problem with this approach is that I feel it is slightly dishonest, as if I have shut a door in the face of readers who have shared this journey. Release and trying to forge a life are as inherently part of the journey as prison. To confine myself to trying to appear professional at all times seems deceitful.

And so I have decided to return to the eclecticism I used to enjoy, and I suspect you did as well.

First Post

Reflecting on the history of the blog, I noticed that it is nearly 3 years old.  The very first post was on the 31st August 2009, and called "Interesting People, Interesting Places".  http://prisonerben.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/interesting-people-interesting-places_31.html
We were so excited when we had 9 readers!

Ben asked me this evening to say a big "Thank you" to everyone.  He will be blogging live (i.e. not via me and the Royal Mail) from midweek, and maybe even on his way home on the day his is released. His brother is picking him up at the gate and has an i-pad, so it is quite likely!

Any suggestions on the new title (Ben-decompressing-from-Prison-Blog?) would be welcome!

Message from Ben

On the phone this eve Ben said this: "the experience of the parole hearing seems to have broken my hideous depression and resolved my writer’s block.  Good blog stuff is on its way over the next couple of days,  and I thank you for your patience and good wishes."

Nosey Buggers

The Judge who chaired my Parole Board hearing, just long enough to abandon it, has issued his official list of demands. Amongst other things, he wants "further information on Mr Gunn's blog and whether and how this is monitored".

Interesting. The test for my continued detention is whether I pose a "more than minimal risk to life or limb".

What possible connection is there between this legal test and this blog? Or is this a rare glimpse into a more sinister agenda?