This morning I visited HMP Acklington in Northumberland as part of the annual British-American Project conference. I'd never been to a prison before, and was somewhat concerned by how I would react on being inside a Category C prison, and how it would feel to meet men who are imprisoned there.

We were warned before we went to remember that we were going inside inside these inmates' home, and we were warned not to ask what they had done to be there. So, when we sat down with five prisoners little did any of us expect that they would tell us very clearly why they were there.

"I'm serving life for murder" said Robert. "And I deserve to be here for what I did to my partner". I was shocked, moved, and found myself sympathising warmly with this troubled young man. He went on, "And let me tell you what I think. I'm sure prison works. It has made me think about other people and not just about me". 

Amongst the group that we met was a rapist, a wife abuser, a drug dealer, and a sex offender. The Law says that these are hardened criminals. And yet, and totally contrary to how I possibly expected to react, I felt a deep appreciation of the willingness of these men to share their stories with us, for their admission of what they had done, and I was moved by their hope for how their lives can be better and they might earn their freedom. 

Harpul is a Sikh from Ealing. For 10 years he sexually abused his wife and is now on a sex offenders course at Acklington. Does prison work? Harpul thinks so because it is causing him to think deeply about himself and who he has been and who he might yet be. His greatest concern is how his Punjabi-speaking mother and his family feel for what he has done. He has become a caring man and a penitent soul. 

We had a tour around their cells. One of the Americans in our group thought the cells small. In comparison with my spartan cubicle at school in Malvern twenty years ago it was relative luxury. It had the prisoner's own curtain, photographs, a PlayStation and a television. But it also had bars across the windows. And unlike an English Public School there is no way out. There is no family, no love, and a poster on a wall outside of a condom packet recommending: "before you rock, roll". 

I left Acklington deeply grateful to the prisoners, staff, and Governor Mick Lees for their welcome and hospitality. Does prison work? These inmates told us so. I just wish fewer had to find out.

During the afternoon we heard a presentation from Burl Cain, governor of the Louisiana State Penitentiary. He described how his vast prison rehabilitates offenders through participation in a wide range of activities including gardens and a rodeo. But, having met a convicted murderer this morning, to then hear from a US prison governor who had held a petrified man's hand as a lethal injection was given troubled me considerably. Warden Cain told us that as he administered the death penalty he thought of the prisoner's victims. I just wondered that in one day I had met two men who had taken a human being's life. But only one of them was deeply troubled by what he had done.