‘You have no control or dignity’

From prisoner to podcast host - Jules Rowan reveals how two-and-a-half years behind bars changed the course of her life

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Aged 20 and just out of university, Jules Rowan should have had a bright future ahead of her. But instead she was going to jail to start a two and a half year sentence for GBH with intent.

It marked the end of one nightmare and the beginning of an experience that would test her to her limits - but ultimately it set her on a path she says has made her a “better person”.

Today, Jules, 28, juggles being a personal trainer and co-host of Life After Prison, a National Prison Radio podcast for ex-inmates adjusting to the outside world. Yet, when she looks back at her life, she is still shocked at how things turned out.

FIGHT

“I came from a very loving family, with a mum, dad and sisters. I had a really lovely childhood,” she says. She played under-14 rounders for England and had good friends. “In my later teens there was a lot of drinking, partying and being around not the best people,” she says. “But I wanted to have fun.”

While studying for an events management degree at University College Birmingham she returned to St Albans for a night out. An early hours fight broke out at a nightclub and a woman was badly beaten with severe mouth injuries.