Good Luck Ben

It's good to see that long-term prisoner Ben Gunn has finally been released on Life Licence. As I've said before, to go so long over tariff indicates a high degree of effort on the part of the prisoner in frustrating progression. However, I'm equally sure that the Parole Board pondered the case long and hard, and in the end felt able to acknowledge the progress that had been made. 

For Ben the really hard bit is about to begin and he's already had a taste of tribulations that might lie ahead by the reaction to his piece in the Guardian recently. I was not entirely surprised, and suspect that the online readership might not be the same liberal types that shell out daily for a hard copy of the paper. 

Having read Ben's blog avidly for some time I know it's unfair to say that he doesn't express remorse, because he does. The trouble is that he doesn't do humility a great deal and often casts himself in the role of victim. It was definitely a mistake to invoke the image of Nelson Mandela and hopefully Ben will learn from the reaction he got. Unfortunately, apart from a few trolls, I suspect he has been developing a somewhat distorted view of the world as expressed by his blog fan base.

Adjusting to life outside prison after so long is not going to be easy and a task made that much more difficult by any temptation to continue a self-stylisation of victim hood. In my view in order to make a success of release on licence, Ben will have to work on an entirely different mindset that focuses on the positive, rather than the negative. It's not going to be easy and he will need help from all those around him, including his supervising probation officer. I wish him well though and will watch with interest.