Yesterday I visited a prison

I don't know what I expected but it certainly wasn't what I experienced. It was disconcerting to discover at the beginning that I could not tell who were prisoners and who were other visitors or education staff. And so many of them were much younger than I had imagined and as I later learnt on indeterminate sentences - they don't know when they will be released.

I already knew that the level of debate would be high from the questions we had seen ahead of time, but their level of concentration and the supplementary questions and comments was impressive. As I looked round the room some of the eyes were wary but that faded as they found that we didn't all say the same things and they could agree with one panellist on one subject but not on another. At the end one said to me "I hope my question won't get me into trouble". I enquired and was assured it would not.

Given the opportunity they were eager to talk to us individually as a conversation started others would join the group and join in, on one occasion to quietly tell me that someone had committed suicide last week. The questions and comments lacked worldly cynicism; in fact they have a touching certainty that we the people from the outside can change things. The flip side of this is that most do not seem to realise the 'red top' fuelled view the public have of Prisoners.

I hear in my head now one describe himself as "one of you" because he had been a Councillor, another tell me he read politics at university and another proudly tell me how he had gained 4 diplomas. I will treasure the gift of a hand thrown pottery bowl that we were each given. The gangster I met, his own description, was charming and one of the visiting speakers.

And yes they very nearly kept us all! My Conservative colleague Claire Perry pressed the emergency button by the door as we were leaving, all the alarms went of and prison officers came racing towards us from all directions.