Erwin embodies how courage derives from the ultimate surrender.

Born to a homelife that a prison psychologist once described as “brutal and rootless,” Erwin gained his first criminal conviction at age ten. At fifteen he left the care home he’d been staying in to live with extended family, and continued his criminal activities. His directionless way of life, which included a stint in the French Foreign Legion, ended in 1984, when he began his life sentence for murder. 

While in prison he began studying, and within six years graduated from the Open University with a history degree. He published his first article for a national newspaper in 1994. In 1998 he began writing his “A Life Inside” column for The Guardian, where he remains a contributor to this day.

@THEERWINJAMES