He has a key to every door in the place – and can let himself in and out whenever he pleases.

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Mr Stanley, 55, is the new chairman of the Leeds prison's independent monitoring board (IMB).

The board is made up of volunteers, checked by the Home Office and appointed by a Minister.

The volunteers' role is to see prisoners are treated decently, to investigate complaints and problems and take them up with staff.

And the board wields significant power. A wing at Armley was shut down after members condemned it as unfit for human habitation. A multi-million pound restoration project will be completed this year.

Every prison has an IMB and Armley's is considered one of the most effective and progressive.

Mr Stanley, who took over as monitoring board chairman in January, shares a belief with prison governor Rob Kellett that each prisoner's punishment is the loss of liberty and being taken from his family.

He believes if a man is treated decently in prison there is a better chance he will behave decently when he is released.

But 65 per cent of Armley's prisoners will be reconvicted within two years and Mr Stanley believes the system isn't working.

Britain's prison population has doubled in the last four decades, but people still keep offending.
He would like to see more investment in education and training for prisoners.

Armley, while not a top security prison, numbers murderers, violent robbers, thieves and sex offenders among its inmates.

Although Mr Stanley took up the work only two years ago, his introduction to the jail goes back more than 30 years to when he was a student.

"I think it was 1973," he said. "I was a member of the Christian Union at Leeds University. I was asked to visit a Canadian man who was in for armed robbery and had no-one to visit him. I joined the board of visitors."

When a vacancy on the monitoring board came up he applied and was appointed.

"I reached a stage in my career where I had a little more time, and I wanted to use it constructively.

"The reality of prison life is very different from the public's perception."