I still remember the first moment I stepped into a prison. It was a cold autumn evening and I was attending an information night. I had only registered my interest a couple of days prior and was surprised at the speed of the next step in the process, aprocess I wasn't even entirely sure I wanted to pursue. We were all screened, scanned, given a pat down and led through into a tiny room; what's known as an airlock. Once there were a number of us, around a dozen or so, an officer showed us through a door and led us down a narrow walkway, high fences on either side, topped by razor wire. To say I wasn't intimidated would be a lie. I was shitting myself. We walked through another door into a large hall, which I would later find out to be the visitor's centre.