A former prisoner has said he didn't serve time in jail, but the time actually served him.
Wayne Hart spent almost 17 years in prison with 54 convictions, ranging from petty theft to drug dealing.
He was speaking as part of a new Ask Me Anything series on Lunchtime Live, which will see people come into studio and answer your questions every Friday.
Wayne now spends much of his time helping young prisoners reform.
He told the show he knew a lot of people in prison already.
"If you're involved in criminality or drugs or anything like that, the chances are you're going to know a lot of people in there," he said.
"On my first conviction, I think there was about 40 to 50 people from the local area [in the prison].
"It's like a community, it's another society.
"When I went in I didn't have that kind of fear, or needing to know anyone or wanting to get to know anybody."
Prison hierarchy?
Answering a listener question, Wayne said prison hierarchy can be complicated.
"If you take the current situation in Ireland, the feuds that's going on, you definitely would have a hierarchy within them gangs - but they're separated," he explained.
"When I was going in, if you were from the Kilbarrack/Coolock area and you were known, I had a capability then you were kind of looked up to and left alone.
"There was no such thing as a hierarchy at that point.
"You'd always group together, you'd find your own.
"I'd generate towards the Coolock/Kilbarrack lads, I've spent most of my life out there, but I'd also know a lot of lads from town.
"So I could bounce between both; I was quite lucky like that."
Education
Asked about the education system in prison, Wayne said it's quite similar to the one outside.
"I would have done my Junior Cert, and I was highly dyslexic - I got assessed in prison," he said.
"I'd the reading and writing ability of a 12-year-old, so I went to the school and I asked them to kind of teach me.
"I done my Junior Cert three times before I passed it, but that was the start of my whole recovery from the education process.
"I done a GAA coaching course in there, I got an FAI coaching licence in prison, the NCFE.
"There's all that, I was involved in the acting as well - there is choices.
"I just didn't want to be walking around the yard listening to blags, jags and wonderbags.
"I didn't serve time in the end, time served me."
Is it a deterrent?
Wayne was asked whether being locked up is really a deterrent to returning to prison.
"That's relative to each individual," he said.
"I got to a point when I was 25 and I was like, 'I'm not cut out for this, I'm not cut from this cloth, this is not me'.
"I wanted to stop hurting people.
"The theories out there say when you age out or when you get married, have kids or get a job, or end up in the Army.
"I hear all them, but I'd no education attainment so I couldn't get a job.
"In the '80s they wanted Leaving Certs to pack shelves in Dunnes, you couldn't get a job.
"All the other stuff didn't kind of really didn't matter, I needed the paperwork," he added.
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