CLOTHES, YOUR REDUNDANT LEXICAL CHOICES, YOUR OVERDRAFT. YOUR SUMMER JOB, YOUR GAP YEAR PLANS, YOUR CAREER PROSPECTS. THE MONEY AND THE WIFE AND THE SHAGGING, AND THE NIGHT WHERE THE RAINDR21OPS MI

un-doing timeEARLY RELEASE SCHEMES ARE TURNING CONVICTED CRIMINALS AWAY FROM PRISON BEFORE THEIR SENTENCES ARE SERVED. THE LACK OF REHABILITATION IS RESPONSIBLE FOR RISING NUMBERS OF RE-OFFENDERS. WHILST OUR PARENTS HAVE ALWAYS TOLD US TO STAY OUT OF PRISON, CRAIG HOGG DISCOVERS THAT THE REAL TRICK IS HOW TO STAY IN.

Them, them in there, will not take her”. Mum’s voice was strong, de-

fiant. “Fuckers think one minute they can say one thing and then turn it on its head the next. Not happening, no way.’ She shook her head and quick-ened her pace. ‘My Rox is staying where she is now. Where she is hap-py.”

Mum was Sandy, a twenty three year old single mother of one. A lit-tle over four months into a two year

sentence for GBH, she was one of a number of inmates who had agreed to be interviewed for Girls Behind Bars, a BBC documentary on Scotland’s only ‘all women’ prison.

Sandy’s seemingly melodramatic outcry was the desperate reaction to the knowledge that her appeal to re-tain custody of her child had failed. Little Roxy was to be moved on to al-ternative foster parents with immedi-ate effect.

Mum processed this information. Without warning, she decided to take a power walk. “She’s only two, man” Sandy said, working her way around the grey pre-fabs of HMP Cornton Vale like Zola Bud on speed. “My baby is only two and she’s seen more homes than a feckin’ postman.”

I felt real empathy towards Sandy and Roxy. I had never thought of the knock-on effect prison had on young families before.

“