In another terrible week for murders, the Guardian's former prison columnist was given rare access to young offenders who have used knives

In another venue, the group of young men sitting around the table chatting amiably would look like any group of ordinary teenagers who might meet up in a college or a club. The difference is that this table is in B wing of Parc young offenders institution, near Bridgend in Wales, and the young men are serving sentences ranging from two years to life.

We are talking about knife crime, of which most of them have first hand experience. They are aware of the concerns people outside have about the levels of violence among young people, but say that is just how it is.

"You've got to have protection," says Justin, who recounts an attack on one of his friends in a burger bar when another boy took some of his friend's fries. "He was stabbed in the stomach," he says. "He almost died, and nobody was arrested." Justin was 14 when he was arrested for attempted murder.

The biggest surprise is that violence, and offences involving knives in particular, are so widely accepted as part of life among these young people. Carrying a knife, and being prepared to use it, appears to have become routine for a significant number of teenagers.

I asked if anybody had any ideas of how to stop it. "Brooke Kinsella's right," says Daniel, 19, who is serving three years for burglary. The others start to nod. "They should make us go in the army, do some army training."

Kinsella, the former EastEnders actor whose brother, Ben, was stabbed to death, made an impassioned plea: "I want politicians to consider bringing back national service. If these evil people want to fight so badly, let them fight for their country."

I asked the group if any of them considered themselves to be evil. "We're not evil," says, Kevin, 19, who is serving four years for wounding. "I never really wanted to hurt anybody when I was fighting. But it's different now.

"When my dad was a lad and he had disputes, there was rules. He went over the fields and they fought with their fists. Now people are more frightened and they carry weapons in case it gets out of hand. The rules have changed."

Luke, 20, from Bristol

Serving four years for wounding

I'd never been in trouble before.This thing happened in a moment of madness.

I worked in the building trade. I took home two grand a month. Don't smoke. I never touched a drug in my life. I like a few beers, but I never went over the top.

When this happened I was working away in London for the whole week. I came back and was going to go out with my girlfriend, but she was going out herself. I thought stuff it, I'll go out myself. I got into town and met some of the boys. They had been out for a while so I was playing catch up, drinking loads, a bit faster than them. And then we went clubbing, we were having a wicked night. No drama, until I went to the kebab shop after.

There was a group of lads there and straight away you could tell something was going to kick off. It went quiet as me and my mate walked in. I knew it was going to start.

One of them was giving me the awkward eye, looking at me; I could see him out of the corner of my eye. I looked over to him and said, 'Aright?' And he got real funny with me, so I was like, oh, fuck this.

I just said fuck off then, whatever, and I looked at his mate and he pushed me in the back. And then like, I said 'What's you're problem?' I got frightened then, I realised there was loads of them, so I was like, 'I don't want to fight. There's loads of you, just leave it, leave it.' And 'cos there was loads of them I put my hand in my pocket and on my keys I had a little blade to cut cardboard boxes at work.

I was drunk, but I put it in my hand, clutched it in my fist.

If you ask me truthfully, I just don't know what I was thinking, I really don't. I had it clutched in my hand, ready to go. I was urging them to stop.

I could see a guy standing to the left of me with his fist clenched. So I thought, I'll watch him, I'll watch him. Then he hit me, and I just whacked straight back at him and the blade went straight in his eyeball and blinded him. And that's the biggest mistake of my life.

I don't know what else to say really, I'm so sorry for what I did to him. If I was sober I wouldn't have done that, no way would I have done that. I found out at court that he went back to his friend's house and stayed there all night before he went to hospital the next day.

I remember glimpses of him, and, he was just stood there like, bleeding down his face.

Then my mate dragged me away and we jumped in our car and left. When I heard how serious it was I turned myself in.

Since I've been in here I've had my eyes opened. I've driven my car outside before after drinking, but there are guys in here doing six years for drunk driving and running someone over.

When I get out I will never do anything wrong ever.

I've worked hard to make sure things are going to be alright when I get out. I've had a lot of help in here.

I've run marathons on the running machine in the gym for charity. There is a 22 week army course in here which I have done and the army careers man said they would take me if I keep going the way I have. My dream when I get out is to be in the army and one day be a sergeant.

Martin, 19

Serving three and a half years for wounding

I'm in for a stabbing. I stole my first car when I was 12. I hung around with people a lot older than me then. I think I was used a bit, but I thought about myself as one of the boys. I moved out of my mother's 'cos I didn't get on with my step-father, and I moved in with my father. And that's when I started getting into trouble.

I've got a younger brother and sister but they haven't been in trouble, just me. I got arrested after stealing my first car, but it didn't put me off. I loved the buzz of getting chased. Sometimes I got caught, sometimes I got away. I stole fast cars, sometimes just a couple of years old. It was a real buzz. It was just my life, that's how it was. I got arrested loads of times, they gave me cautions at first, but after I had to go to court. This is my ninth time, but my first time for serious violence.

What happened was, one night I was out drinking with all my mates, and having a good time and that, and then one of the boys offered us back to his house for a party. We went there and it was all right, there was music and some girls and this guy was there with a couple of his mates. We was just having a good time.

I left and went to get some more money to get some more drink and when I got back to the party I couldn't see my mates. I had another drink and then one of the girls said her phone had gone missing. The guy was still there, standing outside the front of the house with his two mates, so I went out and asked them if they had taken it.

He denied it. He said: "Are you calling me a thieving bastard?" I lost it then and started fighting with him and then his two mates joined in and I knew I was getting jumped. I managed to pull myself away and ran back in the house to see if I could find my two mates, but they still weren't there. As I walked back through the kitchen, I thought the only way to protect myself was to pick something up to hit them, I though it would just scare them off.

As I went outside I pulled the knife out and he just come running towards me. As he swung for me I stabbed him in his shoulder. I was so off it I went back into the house to the party. I was arrested about 10 minutes later.

When he phoned the ambulance the police came as well. The knife went through his arm, through his shoulder and out the other side. As I pulled it back out the blade snapped and stayed in him, so he had to have surgery as well. They said if it had been a couple of inches over to the left I'd be doing life.

I pleaded guilty. I was lucky to get the sentence I got. I offered in court to apologise, but nothing came back. My girlfriend is pregnant and she's waiting for me. That gives me hope.

Aftab, 19

Serving four years for drugs offences

I've been stabbed, when I was 15. I had trouble with this guy before. We had arguments. We used to be friends, well not friends, but we knew each other, living in the same area and hanging out together sometimes. I was just going round doing my business. A few times I got in trouble with the police - I was just trying to make a living.

Then me and this guy, him and his friends, I think they started to see me as a rival. There was bad feeling, they made threats. I wasn't worried. I could look after myself. Then one day he came up to me in the street and we started arguing. He got too close, so I spat in his face and we started fighting. I had a couple of my mates with me and they broke it up, pulled me off, and he left.

A few weeks later, I'm walking down the street with my mates, and this car pulls up and it's him. He's got his friend with him. The two of them get out and I started fighting with the one I'd spat at, and then the other one comes over. I never felt it. I thought he slapped me, and then he started jabbing into me. I was on the ground. He was punching at me.

My top was ripped but I didn't feel a thing. I didn't know at first that my top was ripped, then I saw it, but I didn't know, I couldn't feel what he was doing to me. Then one of my mates shouted: "You're stabbed." It was at the side of my back, here. I put my hand over it like that and it was all wet, and hot.. It was all wet, and hot with my blood.

As soon as I knew, I felt like a victim. When they heard my friends shouting, they ran back to the car and drove off. I lay there, I felt sick. Then the ambulance came and took me to hospital. When I woke up my father was there, he was upset, and angry. I wasn't angry, but I felt like a victim. It didn't make me want to carry a knife afterwards, not really.

I didn't want that kind of trouble. I still did my business after. I didn't think about prison, about getting caught dealing. But now I'm in, it doesn't bother me. I don't want to come back, but I'm out in 2010 and then I'll have to see what happens.

Jason, 19

Serving four years for grievous bodily harm

I've been in here a year. I don't like it. I'm a scaffolder on the out. Now I'm doing four years. Someone approached me and accused me of robbing his DVD player. I didn't rob it but I had it like and I wasn't giving it back. And he went off and phoned his brother to get his back up.

I left and got in my car and drove away. Later I was driving down the road with my father and I seen 'em. So I thought this has got to be sorted so I pulled over. I got out and called over to them, I said this has got to be sorted out.

My old man came over and then the guy got a bit of fencing and battered my old man over the head with it. So they were having a little tussle on the floor and his brother came running over and started kicking my old man when he was down.

So I went and pulled out the knife I kept in my works bag, that I take to work to cut the heavy line. I just stabbed him, and I stabbed his brother. I stabbed him once through his lung, and once through his forearm, and then his brother I stabbed him once through his arse and once through his leg.

To me I thought I was using reasonable force. When I saw my father getting hurt, I just thought I had to do what I had to do. Then I left them there in the street and got in my car and drove off. When the police came for me it was attempted murder.

It was on a main road and there were about 14 witnesses. I did explain to the police that I didn't even know that I had done so much damage. Till I got to the police station I thought I had only stabbed one of them.

When they say to me, explain how it happened, I think, well you've never been in that situation. You turn blank. I honestly thought I had only stabbed one of them. I didn't even know I stabbed one of them twice and then the other one twice. It was a big shock when I was sitting in the police station and they read it all out.

When I got remanded I had letters from the lawyers saying I was looking at nine years or at least six years. When I went to court the lawyer told me to brace myself for a six year IPP (Indeterminate sentence for the Protection of the Public with a six year tariff). In the end I only had four years, as a lot of people in the community supported me.

But when I look back I'm gutted by what I did. They said that a fraction to the left on one boy it would have cut his main artery. The other had an embolism in his brain caused by the knife wound, but he recovered, thank God. They could easily have both died and I would be doing 30 years.

I see myself as being a dangerous person but I don't like it. I don't want people to think I'm dangerous. In here I've done violence reduction and drug reduction. Out there it is all about reputation, don't fuck with me like, but I want to walk away in future if there is trouble. I think it's more of a man to walk away.

Kevin, 19

Serving three years for burglary

From the age of 11 I've been in crime till now. I started with theft, then car crime and things like that. I don't know when I am going to stop. I think, on the out, I needed help with my psychology and things like that, but I didn't get it, there was no one there to help me.

So for me its sort of an achievement, coming to prison. Because you can get qualifications. I've done the Enhanced Thinking Skills course, and drug awareness course. I've done education, writing and other learning. And I've had help from talking to people.

I was stabbed when I was 16 and owed a drug dealer £60. He sent his son to beat me up. Me and him ended up fighting. I'd been in trouble before that. But I wasn't really into fighting. But I'd always carried knives, 'cos I felt scared of other people, for my own protection.

All my boys, all my friends, carry knives, to blend in. Anyway, when the the drug dealer's son came for me it was in the street. I'd just left our house when he jumped out of a car and confronted me. I stood up to him, but then he pulled out a knife and stabbed me in the side, and that was about it. I went down, I wasn't sure what happened.

When I felt the blood I realised I was hurt. I was as angry, I wanted to do it back to him. But I never had a knife on me. Some people gathered round and then I woke up in hospital they told me that the tip of the knife grazed my gut. The police asked who it was, but I never told them, I didn't want it to go further.

Nobody apologised to me afterwards, and nothing was done about it. I just left it. It was one of those things that happens to people like me. After that, though, I never went anywhere without a knife. The kind of knives I carried were like kitchen knives, penknives you buy in stores, stuff like that.

· Erwin James's blog can be found at erwinjames.co.uk