Paul Cowley says Alpha changed his life

It is now run by 7,000 churches of all denominations, who are finding prisons to be particulary fruitful recruiting grounds.

Prison evangelist Paul Cowley takes the Alpha programme all over the country and says he knows it works, because it changed his life.

"I've been married for six years, I'm not a womaniser anymore, I don't drink, I'm not involved in violence, I'm not in trouble with the police , I'm now a pastor and I'm studying at theology college.

'No bible bashing'

"So that's quite a change in my life and its not down to me, well part of it's down to me, but part of it's down to the promises of God saying if you trust me and you want to change I'll help you."

He thinks the course is such a success because of the choice it offers to prisoners.

"It doesn't bible bash you, it doesn't turn you into anything, it lays the evidence like a brief would before a jury and it's up to you to make a decision what you want to do with it, " says Mr Cowley.

The course does attract its share of cynicism

Alpha attracts its fair share of cynicism but for the prison authorities the bottom line is whether religion makes a prison an easier place to run and whether it cuts re-offending rates

Ian Dingwall, the deputy governor at Rochester Prison has seen Alpha run in three prisons and, while he is not a Christian, he believes the course is having a positive effect.

"It certainly affects their behaviour within the prison and they start to plan for the future," he said.

"They start to think what they can do as members of a community and not as individuals out for what they can get for themselves."