Hard time : a Brit in America's toughest jail

Using a golf pencil sharpened on a cell wall, Shaun Attwood wrote one of the first prison blogs, "Jon's Jail Journal", excerpts of which were published in "The Guardian" and attracted international media attention.

Brought up in England, Shaun took his business degree to Phoenix, Arizona, where he became an award winning stockbroker and then a millionaire day trader during the dot-com bubble.

But Shaun also led a double life. An early fan of the rave scene in Manchester, he formed an organisation that threw raves and distributed Class A drugs.

Before being convicted of money laundering and drug dealing, he served 26 months in the infamous jail system run by the notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio. "Hard Time" is the harrowing yet often darkly humorous account of the time Shaun spent submerged in a nightmarish world of gang violence, insect infested cells and food unfit for animals.

His remarkable story provides a revealing glimpse into the tragedy, brutality, comedy and eccentricity of prison life.