‘I’m going to be a good boy now’

Every week in England and Wales, 1,000 men and women leave prison. Some feel joy at being reunited with loved ones, others fear homelessness and uncertainty – but it’s usually a private moment. Last month that changed, when the nation’s media were outside prison gates to record the moment when 1,750 prisoners were released on the same day. Here’s what some of them had to say.

• Calvin Foster, 25, jailed for conspiracy to commit robbery, leaving HMP Isis: “I kept my head down inside and didn’t get involved with any gangs. I am going to be a good boy now, and going to chill, and work with my girlfriend. It’s a joke, my actual release day was tomorrow. Just one day early but I’ll take it. It’s sweet, isn’t it?”
• Djaber Benallaoua, 20, convicted drug dealer, Isis: “This has made me a lifelong Labour voter. It is a very good policy to cut overcrowding and made me feel positive. I am going to get lit tonight.”
• Liam Fitzpatrick, 34, in for a driving offence and fighting, was sprayed with Champagne by friends as he left Wandsworth: “I’m happy to be out. I’m a lifelong Labour supporter. There are a lot of happy people here today.”
• Steven Quinn, Brixton: “Those who approved the plans must be out of their minds. If you release people in waves, you get crime in waves. Anyone on a GPS tag is guaranteed to be recalled in three months, if not for probation recalls but for further offences. 

My mates said they will be back in 28 days.”

• Peter Jarvis, Pentonville: “I do not feel rehabilitated after 14 months of my 32-month sentence for commercial burglary. There is education and courses in there, but outside the gates there is no more help. It is up to me to keep on the straight and narrow.”
• Ben Savage, 33, Thameside, said he would celebrate with a pint of beer: “I am starving, I missed breakfast this morning. I’ve been in for three weeks so it isn’t a lot of my sentence.”
• Christopher Hope, 32, Holme House, released three months early from a burglary sentence: “It’s amazing to be out, I can’t wait to see my family and step daughter. I don’t want to go back in. There is too much Spice, the prison system is ruined.”
• Stuart Bennett, 48, jailed for skipping a court hearing for shoplifting, danced for joy outside HMP Leeds: “I have learned my lesson and have no intention of going back.”
• Jackie Creighton, 54, Wandsworth: “The reality of leaving prison has not set in yet, but I really would have rather stayed in because I know I will be on a park bench tonight. I don’t want to sound like I want to be in prison but there is a bed and a TV and a hot meal.”
• Mark Burke, 52, Brixton, sentenced to 32 months for shoplifting: “I have been in and out of prison and it doesn’t work. I am a bit anxious. The drug free wing helped me a lot. I hope I won’t be back, but you can never say, can you?”