BROADCASTER Reverend Richard Coles plans to volunteer in prisons to help people avoid going back into the justice system when he retires next year. 

Richard, 59, was in '80s duo The Communards, who are best known for single Don't Leave Me This Way, before he was ordained. 

He was in the band with Scots singer/ songwriter Jimmy Somerville who was born in Greenock. 

In new podcast Justice, Disrupted, produced in association with Community Justice Scotland, Richard explained: "I did a bit of prison chaplaincy in my first parish and I'm retiring next year and I'm going to do a bit more prison ministry then as a volunteer."

Speaking to host Byron Vincent, he said: "I think it's very obvious if you spend any time in the prison system, you'll get a sense really of how people's lives are distorted as a consequence of misfortune and lack of opportunity, the amount of people who have severe mental health problems, and other people who struggle with literacy.

"So in a way for someone who's looking at how the world might better conform to what it could be, prisons are good places to see where that work might lie I think."

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In the episode, which is released today, Richard said his main aim is to listen when he goes into prisons and he hopes he can help keep people out the justice system in the future. 

He said: "What I want to do is to hear people really, talk to people, especially people who are A) not used to being heard, and B) might not be easy to understand.

"It's an odd privilege you get with a dog collar, there must be some kind of sociological code, but people will talk to you. 

"In prisons you can sometimes be vulnerable if you speak freely, (so) to have someone you can speak to freely is often quite a productive thing, I think."

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Richard also opened up about the death of his husband David, who passed away aged just 42 in December 2019 after a battle with alcohol addiction, which he wrote about in his book The Madness of Grief.

"I was just writing n the middle of the experience of having just lost my husband, my life, the love of my life, who dies as a consequence of his alcohol addiction," he said. 

"It was a maelstrom. 

"I knew that what I was writing then would reflect the extraordinary circumstances I was in at the time. 

"I wanted to capture it, party because I think I wanted to capture some of him before he went away completely, partly because I was really determined that David should be seen in the round really, and not just an alcoholic. 

"I've always had a policy of, if not full disclosure, fuller disclosure than some might think was good for me."

He added: "I never had a problem loving David even when he was at his most self-destructive and indeed destructive.

"I was fortunate in that I had parts of my life separate from the chaos of his. 

"And that kept me sane."

Justice, Disrupted is available to listen to now.