Episode 4: How did it come to this?

Available for over a year

Former 'prison wife' Josie Bevan confronts the failings of the prison system. Josie traces the evolution of what we've inherited as the UK penal system, our definitions of crime, harm, punishment, justice - and the history of 'reform'. She talks with Sir Robert Neill MP, the Chair of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Justice, Frances Crook of the Howard League for Penal Reform, Chris Daw QC, author of Justice on Trial, and Dr Adam Elliott-Cooper, a sociologist and Black Lives Matter activist. Josie's previous podcast series Prison Bag - one family's unflinching confrontation with the prison system - is available on BBC Sounds. Produced by Rebecca Lloyd-Evans and Alan Hall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4