Rob Rinder makes emotional confession on ITV's Lorraine: "It's about time to think about the past"

Judge Rinder, who rose to fame with his eponymous TV show, has a new series coming out where he explores the secrets behind some of the UK’s most infamous prisons.

The documentary, called Britain Behind Bars: A Secret History, will be aired this weekend on Chanel 4, and a teaser shown on ITV’s Lorraine today (July 18) depicted Rinder walking past Dartmoor Prison, talking with a former inmate.

Speaking to Lorraine on the sofa, Rinder said: “I’m really proud of this programme and I really hope everyone watches it. People have strong opinions about prison, as they should - a lot of people out there will take the view that prison should be just about punishment and that makes sense, especially if you’ve been a victim of crime.

“But in my experience, when people get the chance to go into prisons, to listen and speak to a prisoner and staff, they are forever changed and take a different view. One of the things that we learn is that we’ve been doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different outcome.

“That isn’t justice to victims, who don’t want terrible things done to them knowing people are going to come out into the community and do the same thing to somebody else.

“What does it say about us when we have Feltham - the young offenders institute - full of young boys being the most violent prison in the country? It’s about time to think about the past, listen to the people who have been in there and realise that in due course, these people are going to be our neighbours.”

During the programme, Rinder speaks to both inmates and prison staff alike, getting a broader understanding of what life is like behind bars. One teaser clip shows an inmate explaining that without proper toilet facilities, he would have to defecate in a bucket during his prison stay.

Rinder added: “Every person has a human story. Human beings do terrible things sometimes but there’s not one of them you will hear from that won’t acknowledge their crime, that they had to pay. They even acknowledge that prison should be challenging - but that their lives were changed at a moment where they found education, or perhaps dealt with an addiction.

“The power of that is overwhelming and that is what we have to realise. There are such low rates of literacy in prison and high rates of addiction; we within our communities have the power to break the cycle and that has a limitless impact.

“It’s more expensive to put someone through the prison system than through a private school.”

Rob Rinder’s new programme will be broadcast by Channel 4 at 9pm on Sunday, July 21.