In 2004 Erwin James, who has died all of the sudden aged 66, got here out of jail after serving 20 years of a life sentence for homicide. For six of these years behind bars, he had been writing for the Guardian, latterly a column known as A Life Inside, which painted an image of the jail world. He described his emotions on re-entering society: “All my life I had been a liar, a thief and a cheat. Now I needed to face the remainder of my life as a convicted assassin.”
Decided to point out the general public that change is feasible, he shared his experiences and insights in newspapers and magazines, in talks, interviews and three books. Ultimately, in 2016, he grew to become editor of the nationwide newspaper for prisons, Inside Time, which he described as “his dream job”.
James, together with a co-defendant, William Ross, had been convicted of two murders in 1984, the ultimate conviction in a sequence of 53 – together with housebreaking, theft, prison injury, assault and mugging – that started when he was 10 years outdated. He didn’t anticipate to be forgiven, as a result of he couldn’t forgive himself.
In 2009, he wrote within the Guardian: “For these actions I might be eternally ashamed and, nonetheless pathetic and inadequate it might appear, I can solely specific my heartfelt sorrow for what I did.” No matter his change in circumstances, his previous by no means left him, giving him immense sympathy for many who had fallen and inspiring them to rise and make roles for themselves inside society.
As an editor, he unselfishly assumed that encouragement would carry one of the best out of everyone and that enjoyment in work could be a part of the image. He was insistent that Inside Time, though reporting on issues within the jail service, ought to at all times go away house for hope amongst his predominately inmate readership, and report on constructive initiatives.
Intelligent and charismatic, he was equally able to main a dialogue in a jail, a gathering with one of many many charities he helped, such because the Jail Reform Belief, or, on a scorching summer season’s day, chairing an Inside Time convention below an apple tree. But his determined begin in life and the tragedies that adopted would have made such a life appear unimaginable.
Born to Scottish mother and father in Somerset, he was the son of Jeanie and Erwin Monahan, a labourer. A yr after his sister, Alison, was born, when James was seven, his mother and father had been in a automotive crash wherein his mom was killed and his father injured. “Massive Erwin”, as James known as him, got here out of hospital “a egocentric, grieving, violent drunk”. By the age of 10, Alison having been despatched away to reside with an aunt, James was sleeping tough. He described the story of his life in three exceptional books, A Life Inside (2003), The House Stretch (2005) and Redeemable (2016).
James turned to crime. His first offence when nonetheless a toddler was for breaking right into a candy store and he was taken into care. Whereas James mentioned the house, in Yorkshire, was not a foul place, there was little they may do to resolve his issues.
He ran away many instances and, as soon as allowed to go away, aged 15, grew to become a drifter, committing crimes to outlive. As his personal ingesting escalated and his behaviour grew to become much more out-of-control, he and Ross carried out two robberies wherein two males had been killed. Greville Hallam, a theatrical agent, was strangled in his north London house in September 1982. Angus Cochrane, a solicitor, died after being mugged within the West Finish three months later.
James fled to France, the place he joined the Overseas Legion. There he responded to the strict self-discipline and routine, however the values they instilled in him additionally elevated his guilt and disgrace at his crimes. After spending time in Corsica and Africa, he was informed that his co-accused was speaking to the police. He determined to provide himself up and was extradited to face trial on the Previous Bailey.
Each James and Ross pleaded not responsible, blaming one another; every got life sentences of 14 years. This was later raised by the house secretary to 25 years, and subsequently diminished to twenty for good behaviour.
Nonetheless in his 20s and dealing with a few years in jail, James turned to training – part of his life beforehand unexplored. Combining this with a brand new studying behavior, he progressed swiftly, gaining an Open College diploma in historical past.
His first article was for the Unbiased, after he had written to the paper in 1994 about misguided reporting on jail points. Extra adopted, below his first two names (he dropped his surname, Monahan), together with a Guardian piece on jail suicides, earlier than his column A Life Inside started in 2000.
Alan Rusbridger, the then editor of the paper, described James’s writing as “stuffed with humanity and insights into life inside and the aim of jail – in concept and in apply”. A former jail governor, John Podmore, mentioned: “He helped open the door to a closed world.”
When he was made editor of Inside Time, James wrote about what it meant to him: “As a life prisoner within the Nineties, I bear in mind nicely the introduction of Inside Time into prisons. For the primary time ever, it not solely gave prisoners a voice but additionally a useful supply of dependable details about jail points … Over time I used to be an occasional contributor: I used to be in jail, however I used to be free to assume and free to jot down. In my wildest goals I even imagined that if I labored arduous sufficient at considering and writing, in the future I’d make it as a journalist.”
It was within the jail training division that James met Margaret, who helped him along with his writing, they usually married on his launch.
Training, key to James’s change, and which in childhood he had so tragically lacked, was at all times on the forefront of his ideas, whether or not it was selling the Prisoners’ Training Belief or speaking to prisoners himself. Charities and organisations such because the Jail Studying Group, the Longford Belief, Koestler Arts, and Clear Break at all times knew they might discover a place in Inside Time. Certainly one of his first improvements was to introduce a sequence known as Inside Voices, the place prisoners contributed their very own experiences.
James was equally fascinated by historical past regarding prisons, akin to a sequence describing the lives of Nineteenth-century inmates, as within the potentialities of recent expertise. He inspired the paper to enlarge its on-line presence each inside and outside jail.
His motivation for all his work stemmed from his robust want that no one ought to lead the life that he led as a toddler and younger man.
He’s survived by Margaret, two daughters from earlier relationships, and Alison.
