As a member of Risley Prison's Board of Visitors, she helps to monitor the treatment of its 750 inmates.

"Some people have done some terrible things but I believe all the prisoners should be treated fairly and properly," she said.

"I know the rules of what they are entitled to."

Mary and 16 other voluntary members of the board are allowed into the men's prison, near Warrington, at any time.

They have the right to speak to prisoners and staff in private and it's a job that the mother-of-two feels is essential.

"If you have a closed society like a prison you need independent people going in without notice to see what is going on," she said.

Her discussions with prisoners are often about their personal problems. Visits and loss of property are a frequent complaint. "Belongings can get lost as people are moved around the prison service," she said.

"But everything is always logged in the system and usually found."

But Mary accepts that, like all systems, the prison service can fail.

"It does get clogged up and things can take a long time," she said. "But we are able to go higher up in the system for the prisoner to try to get things moving again."

Prisoners' reactions to Mary vary from gratefulness to hostility.

But it is not her role to befriend them.

"If you can solve a problem they think you're brilliant, if not they think you are a waste of space," she said.

Only once has Mary, 55, felt intimidated by a prisoner.

When that happened, she relied upon her special training for Board of Visitor members to diffuse the situation.

"You have to be tactful and you have to be thorough and perceptive," she said.

"Often you have to see beyond what they are telling you to see what other problems lie beneath."

When Mary first started working in Risley, the prisoners' biggest complaint was the food.

"Previously prisoners could end up at the back of the queue and just get what was left," she said.

Now they've got a better service with inmates being able to pre-book their week's meals.

Mary has witnessed many changes in the physical conditions in Risley since she joined the Board of Visitors.

Prisoners no longer have to 'slop out' with all inmates having access to 24 hour sanitation.

Another change particularly welcomed by Mary was the introduction of education courses.

"I think the prison service is now beginning to challenge offending behaviour," she said.

"There are now a range of courses on offer."

Inmates can attend a number of behavioural programmes including anger management, alcohol abuse and drug rehabilitation courses.

Such courses have been omitted from the recent spate of 'real-life' and TV drama series about prison life.

Mary believes programmes like Jailbirds and Bad Girls have opened the public's eyes.

"I think many imagine that some of the people who commit these offences look different to everyone else," she said.

"Even people who have done terrible things look the same as we do."

But she said the programmes had also omitted day-to-day details of prison life.

"They showed things like how prisoners are dealt with when they'd broken the prison rules," she said.

"But they didn't show the work that went on behind the scenes like education."

Mary, a JP at Macclesfield, was asked if she wanted to become a member of Risley's Board of Visitors by a work colleague.

She took the voluntary position because she thought it would be a challenge.

"I am very interested in people, and of course prisons are very people-orientated," she said.

"Working in Risley puts your life into perspective and makes you realise how small your worries really are."

Her appointment to the statutory body was made by the Home Secretary - the same minister who the board is answerable to.

It is an unpaid position with limited expenses that takes up about two days a month.

"The board has existed for more than 100 years," said Mary. "There has been some kind of monitoring of prisons since Tudor Times."

Every prison and young offenders' institution in England and Wales has its own board that is independent of the prison service.

But it is a constant battle to find volunteers who can give up the time to work on them.

"We need a wide range of people of all ages, all backgrounds and experiences, and from all ethnic groups," said Mary.

"It is very important that we have a balanced board."

As chairman of the National Advisory Council, which represents all Boards of Visitors, Mary also takes their common concerns to the Government.

Anyone who would like to find out more working for the Boards of Visitors can contact their London office on 0171 217 8536

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.