From prison strip cells and roof-top protests at one end of the scale, to being Editor of the definitive 1,000+page annual reference book on the prison system of England and Wales at the other, Mark Leech has travelled an astonishing journey.
Though he claims no acccolade for it Mark served almost 20 years in 62 of Britain's jails, from Inverness in the north of Scotland to Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, his prison career was characterised by riots, roof top protests and more than 40 successful legal battles against the prison authorities fought in every legal arena from the County Court to the House of Lords.
Once a tenacious thorn in the side of the prison authorities Mark, who was released from prison in 1995, has risen to become the country's foremost ex-offender expert on the policy and practice of the penal system. For the last 15 years he has been Editor of The Prisons Handbook, the definitive 1,000+page annual guide to the penal system of England and Wales, and also the Editor of Converse the highest circulation national newspaper for prisoners - distributing around 50,000 copies per month. Mark is the Director of the Institute of Prison Law, a Law Society and Bar Council accredited legal training organisation, and he is the Founder and former Chief Executive of the national ex-offenders charity UNLOCK.
Mark is a regular prisons commentator on BBC Newsnight, BBC News, Sky News, BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show and he is much sought after as an after dinner speaker.
Mark is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Mark lives with his partner in Manchester where they own Thai restaurants and, outside of work, his interests are in aviation; Mark is a qualified Helicopter pilot.
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