The Great Escape is definitely in my top five films of all time. Also up there I would put The Shawshank Redemption, The Colditz Story, The Wooden Horse and Escape from Alcatraz. Maybe even films like McVicar and Doing Time. I have always had a bit of a fascination with films that have anything to do with escapes.

In my days working in the City of <city><place>London I would often sit at my desk and daydream about relieving her Majesty of a few of her non-paying guests. Just the planning and research work would, I thought, be fascinating.

Finding out about the prison and its surrounding areas and its daily routine,

I suppose the trigger for the birth of Escape Inc. was when Her Majesty relieved a friend and myself of our partners.

 Escape Inc. was born, or formed, call it what you like, in the summer of 1999, with the express intention of relieving the Home Office of certain individuals whom are detained in Her Majesty’s Prisons. We started small, in my house in <place>Solihull, <place>West Midlands, but it grew and grew until…. well read on and find out.

We, being a friend of mine called Andy and myself Steve Wilcox, both had our wives “on holiday with the Queen.” One day out of the blue we decided it just a little unfair and we ought to do something about it. Now, we have expanded and will attempt to liberate anyone who meets our strict selection criteria and, of course, can pay us.

Over the years it brought us more than a few heart stopping moments and brushes with authority.

It has also, for me at least, brought a purpose in life. They say everybody is put on this Earth for a reason and, well, I think I have found my reason.  Another thing it has brought us is an insight into two what we thought were very different types of minds; the police and the criminal.  Over the years that Escape Inc was active, we came to the conclusion that the police and the criminal mind are not that far apart.

This then is the story of my overriding obsession with anything to do with the British Penal System. I can’t say I agree with the Penal System in this country, but until someone comes up with a better alternative we shall still have prisons.

The <place>British Isles, along with the old ‘white’ <country-region><place>South Africa and of course the US of A imprison more people and for longer than most of the other so- called civilised societies.  Since the percentage of ex-cons that re-offend is so appalling it is a wonder that we, the good old tax-payers haven’t been up in arms, complaining from the highest roof top at such an appalling waste of tax payer’s money. 

Yes, I hear you say, what about the IRA and killers and child molesters and here, I agree, they should not be let loose on society. But for the everyday run of the mill lawbreaker, there must be another way of punishing that person. Depriving him or her of their freedom and locking them up with murderers and rapists can not be the right thing to do.

Did the French have the right idea with <place>Devil’s Island, ridding their country of the ‘incorrigibles’ or did the Americans have any more success with <place>Alcatraz or what about the Germans with their concentration camps? None of these ideas worked. People just rebel against such treatment.  So what is the answer? Community service, national service, shipping the offenders off to some far off land like <country-region><place>Australia? I certainly don’t know and neither do the politicians who run this country. Perhaps in many years to come there will be an answer, and we can get rid of some of the Victorian monstrosities we call prisons. We shall still need some sort of incarceration for the likes of Nielsen, Sutcliffe, West and I.R.A. members, but for the petty criminal who breaks the law is it right to lock them up with murderers and rapists?

I know what I would do with rapists paedophiles and the like and, yes it would make your eyes water, but not having much chance of being elected a M.P I think they are safe from that.

Step inside, then and see for yourself the world of prisons and their guests, the working of the criminal and not so criminal minds. Along the way I guarantee you will get an insight into this world, maybe have a few laughs along the way and maybe even some tears.