title: STATE RAISED: A Deep Look into the World of Prison
author: Matthew Wright
description: Matthew Wright was born and raised in Richmond Beach, Washington. His parents are now retired, and he has two sisters: Katie, who died in 1997; and Theodora, who is married with two children. Matthew is currently serving a forty-one-year sentence in a Washington state prison.
zlib_text: ![](Images/image00171.jpeg)
  
  _For Louise, as always_
  
  > _When you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at you._
  
  Friedrich Nietzsche
  
  **Chapter One**
  
   **Tuesday, 14 May 2019**
  
  The prisoner being transported in the back of the Serco van was having a laugh
  and joke with the two fresh-faced young prison officers sitting with him. He
  was being escorted from the high-security wing of HMP Wakefield to HMP Spring
  Hill, an open prison in Buckinghamshire, to complete the last few weeks of his
  six-year sentence. They chatted about last night’s Manchester United game, the
  sending-off and the high tackle that caused it. The two officers, Steve and
  Aaron, new recruits to the outsourcing firm, were relaxed. It was the last
  trip of their working day and this pension-age prisoner handcuffed to Aaron
  wasn’t going to be any trouble.
  
  Neil Wright was a wiry little guy with red Ferrari brand glasses, a soft white
  beard and just a few tufts of snowy hair. The paperwork gave his age as sixty-
  seven,