presence of staff with solid experience of managing people in custodial environments. Perhaps, custodial services in the immigration estate should be entrusted to fully trained and experienced prison officers. IRCs are prisons in all apart from their legal definitions. Maybe Dungavel should be used as a model for all IRCs? How about ensuring all IRC staff undergo training equivalent to that of prisons officers? After release, I spent another four years signing on at the Home Office. This was a dreadful experience despite the fact that I had registered with my local borough, was an engineering student and complied fully with the Border Agency. None of that counted in my favor. Every Friday I had to sign on and the threat of re-detention was ever present. The thought of going back to detention was terrifying, but I kept signing on. I had developed a strategy of getting in all my university assignments handed in the day before I had to sign and I always made sure I had a drink with my friends the day before, prepared my emergency contacts and took some money in change, just in case I was re-detained. This was my weekly routine for about three years after release. I am now a permanent resident of the UK. I graduated in 2010 with a 2:1 in materials engineering and am currently teaching physics. I spent four years completing my engineering degree after release and have been conferred with the right to use the ‘Eng’ postfix after my name, something some of my students find intriguing. ‘Sir! Why are you teaching when you are an engineer?’. My response is ‘because you are in year 10 and you need to concentrate on your exams.’ Not the fact that the manufacturing industry in the UK has been on the decline and we need to train more scientists to push innovation and invention in the country. People have previously asked me whether I am angry at having been through this experience and my response is ‘not in the slightest’. I have met amazing people on my journey from being known as detainee number 45991 to Engineer Kizza. I have made wonderful friends in the UK, people who empathised with my plight, people that in my view were the true reflection of British society. These friends have inspired a very strong sense of achievement and Britishness in me (though I will support my country of origin in the Olympics). I feel that I want to be woven into the fabric of this country, teach a subject I have loved all my life and contribute to the wellbeing of a country that has given me so much. I can only wonder what would have become of me if I did not have this support. I am proud to be able to give something back to UK society by teaching future generations, through charity work I have done and by supporting inspections. Amazingly, my local borough is such a strong believer in my conviction to contribute to society that they have consistently reminded me over the years when and how to pay my council tax. In these times of austerity, some (including settled immigrants) may be threatened by immigration. Talk of revising or scrapping clauses in the human rights legislation is driven in my view by knee jerk reactions to tabloid headlines. In my view, tweaking human rights clauses is bound to affect all Humans, not only immigrants, keyword here is Human. Personally, I believe current legislation if implemented correctly is solid enough to protect us all. My journey has taken me to the darkest corners of the UK and shone light on some of the brightest, most inclusive communities I have ever lived in. I recall decent IRC staff with whom I played table tennis, shared a joke and followed diligently to the waiting vans; I also recall friends who offered me accommodation and financial support. As I prepare for the start of the academic year in September, I am very conscious of the fact that I need to use all my experience to instill a strong sense of responsibility to mankind in my students, or to quote Confucius ‘Consideration for others is the basis of a good life, a good society’. I have met amazing people on my journey from being known as detainee number 45991 to Engineer Kizza. Issue 205 Prison Service Journal 7