In memory of Erwin James: Reflections from a Lifer

The Forensic Psychology Podcast

Last week we very sadly lost Erwin James, who was a champion of prison reform through his journalism - a career he started while still serving a life sentence in prison.

In 2021, we were honoured to welcome Erwin as a guest on the Forensic Psychology Podcast, and we wanted to repost that interview to remind ourselves of his thoughts on the role forensic psychologists played in his time in prison.

Erwin James was a Guardian columnist and contributor - a career he started in 1998 while still serving in prison. He then became Editor in Chief of Inside Time, the national newspaper for people in prison. He became a writer in prison where he served 20 years of a mandatory life sentence. He was a Commissioner on the panel of the Westminster Commission on Miscarriages of Justice. Erwin was the author of three books: A Life Inside: A Prisoners Notebook, The Home Stretch: From Prison to Parole, and Redeemable: a Memoir of Darkness and Hope.

Further reading:

Levering Lewis. D. (1994, first published 1973). Prisoners of Honor: The Dreyfus Affair (1994). Henry Holt & Company

Solzhenitsyn, A. (2003, first published 1966). Cancer Ward. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Tolstoy, L. (1998, first published 1869). War and Peace. Oxford University Press

www.thereader.org.uk