I am a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Westminster. I work with a variety of non-statutory organizations working in criminal justice. My primary research focus is on desistance from crime, and the detailed exploration of former prisoners’ experiences of self-change. And relative to this, the transformational potential of higher education in the desistance process. I am actively involved in a number of prison to university pipeline projects, which aim to improve the lives of those currently incarcerated and those formerly incarcerated . As a former prisoner myself and having lived a ‘colourful life’ prior to my academic career, I have had first-hand experience of ‘crime’ and the criminal justice system. As noted, I am involved in a number of projects that emphasize the importance of education in prisons and the role it can play in facilitating desistance. I am a founder member of the UK cohort of Convict Criminology, (formerly BCC) a relatively new critical perspective, originating in the US, that challenges traditional understandings of crime, the penal system and ‘prisoners’ and how such matters are conceptualised, represented and discussed.