Prisoners’ Advice Service was shocked to hear of the death at 66 last week of a long-standing friend to the charity, Erwin James.

Journalist and author, Erwin James Monahan, served a life sentence for murder and became known for turning his life around, winning a Koestler Award for his first article, written for The Independent in 1994, whilst still in prison, and being discharged with an Open University degree in 2004.

James went on to write for The Guardian, again while serving his sentence, and published a number of books including his memoir, Redeemable, in 2017.  He was editor-in-chief of Inside Time, the national free newspaper for people in prison, from 2016 to 2023.

Having been sentenced to life in 1984, in the early 1990s James discovered that the minimum term he would have to serve before release had been set at 25 years by the Home Secretary.  PAS successfully represented him in an appeal to reduce his tariff by five years and a relationship was fostered that lasted until his death.

While still in open prison, and already writing for The Guardian, James was granted temporary release to work at PAS, first as a volunteer and then as a paid member of staff. When released from prison on life licence by the Parole Board in 2004, he went on to become Development Manager at PAS. He was instrumental in securing extant, long term funding for the charity and also donated part of the proceeds from the sale of his own books to us.

It was with great sadness that colleagues learned of James’ death. He will be remembered as a steadfast champion of prisoners’ rights.