Brixton Prison Radio

I POPPED into Brixton today to meet the Governor, Paul McDowell and his deputy governor, Amy Rees. 

I've always wanted to get into a prison, and having passed it on the bus to work over the last six months, I finally made it. 

The prison was splashed all over the papers earlier this month and I did a feature for SLP after the in-house radio station - Electric Radio Brixton won four Sony Radio Awards against the likes of the BBC, which was pretty impressive. 

The station is run by inmates who have to do six-weeks of media training run by the Prison Radio Association before they can get into the studio. 

Brixton is a bit different as it's a remand prison and turnover is high as inmates are awaiting trial and move on after being sentenced.

I was struck by how open and honest Paul and Amy were, and happy to talk about whatever I raised, which was surprising and refreshing in a situation of such tight security. 

It took a while to get in - there are locks on every door and no two doors can be open at the same time, and it's a pretty compact place with around 800 prisoners and 400 odd staff.

I didn't get a tour of the place this time but as we talked about stories I could cover in future, Paul, who himself sets aside one hour a month for governor's questions came up with the idea of me going in and being interviewed about working as a journalist. 

I was speechless and jumped at the chance to write a feature about the experience. 

I suspect it might take a while getting used to being asked the questions, but hey it'll be interesting.

And the pay off is that next time I've been promised a tour.