The Big Issue

Beside Me ‘OPPORTUNITIES LIKE THIS CAN BE LIFECHANGING’

At a party in Perth, six young men are dancing in white T-shirts and kilts to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now. The men punch the air, grinning and whooping. Some of their kids join them on the dancefloor, mimicking their dads’ moves, as their mums watch on from tables in a room criss-crossed by strings of pearl lights and elegant linen drapes.

They’re having such a good time, as the lyrics say. They’re having a ball.

They’re also serving life sentences.

These kilted performers are inmates at HMP Perth, the doormen are prison officers and the only drink at this hoolie is

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