Let’s hope Vicky Pryce’s book does teach us about prison

The departure of Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce from prison yesterday has its lessons for us all, on how to make the most of adverse circumstances. Certainly that’s the happiest view of the news that Vicky Pryce is to publish a book about her experiences, called Prisonomics… yep, usefully echoing the title of her previous book, Greekonomics. That one had the merit that Ms Pryce knew quite a bit about the subject, as a Greek and an economist; but her two months at the soft end of the penal system in East Sutton Park prison in Kent may not give her much of an insight into the condition of women in, say, Holloway, where she spent remarkably little time before being moved.

But I think we know what to make of the book on the basis of her remarks through the publisher, Biteback:

‘I kept a diary while in prison and I have some strong views on how the prison system works, especially with regard to how it treats women.