Eric Allison, Guardian’s prison correspondent, dies at 79

Eric Allison became a well-respected authority on prisons and a passionate campaigner against miscarriages of justice. Photograph: Frank Baron/The Guardian

Eric Allison, who became the Guardian’s prison correspondent aged 60 after spending much of his life in jail, has died. He had been recently diagnosed with secondary bone cancer and was 79.

Allison, who claimed to be the only man to ever escape from Strangeways prison in Manchester, joined the Guardian in 2003 after serving multiple jail terms for fraud, theft and burglary.