British Prison Life

[ronnietoon]

what is to be expected etc

[jno]

some posts written from experience here

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question188950.html

[EDDIE51]

Are you due some 'porridge'?
Real prison life is not like the TV series and newspapers would have you believe .
In a closed prison , which is most of them , you are locked up for 23 hours a day.
read jno's link ^^I posted a reply on there by mistake thinking I was posting to this thread, my answers are the last 2 on there. i have worked in a prison as a tutor , my brother works in a prison as a maintenance worker . So I have first hand experience.
For a really good insight into prison life I can strongly recommend reading Jeffrey Archers 'Prison' series of books , they tell it like it is.

[Orderlimit]

It's highly unlikely for any inmate to be locked up 23hrs a day (unless you believe the ex-prisoners who all claim this)

[EDDIE51]

It happens all the time in Bedford jail Orderlimit , that is where my brother works.
I know from speaking to prisoners and warders that it happens in a lot of other jails as well.
It is not supposed to but it does. 4 to a cell made for 1 happens as well !

[EDDIE51]

Yes I have learned to sort out the truth from the' Bull sh** ' as well !

[Orderlimit]

I agree it does happen Ed, but far the common people are led to believe (even in the Cat A estates)

[Orderlimit]

*far less common than people are led ...

[BlackadderV]

I thought they were locked up 24 hours per day, or do they get an hour off at night to nip down the pub?

[nailit]

My own experience of prison....
1) Loneliness.
2) Never knowing what nutter you will have to share a cell with
3) Boredom (yes you CAN be locked up 23 hours a day)
4) Bullying prison staff
5) Bullying inmates
6) Lack of privacy (could you deficate in front of someone else?)
7) Stigma of having been a 'con'
8) Having to wear clothes that have been worn hundreds of times before by hundreds of different cons, inc underwear
9) Awful food

Prisons are not holiday camps.

[EDDIE51]

And far more common than the Prison service would have us believe !

[EDDIE51]

Prisons are overcrowded and often short staffed, 'lockins ' happen mainly because there are just not enough staff to do anything else. There is a huge difference between what is supposed to happen and what really does happen.

[nailit]

EDDIE, //For a really good insight into prison life I can strongly recommend reading Jeffrey Archers 'Prison' series of books , they tell it like it is.//
Also very good are Norman Parkers 'Parkhurst Tales' books.

[anneasquith]

you would think given what we do know about prison conditions . people would not commit crimes where a spell in prison is possible ?

[starone]

Going to try those books. Sound most interesting (especially to an old lady who is not likely, I hope, ever to have to suffer imprisonment).

[kylesmum]

It's enlightening to hear from someone who has experience rather than the stereotypical blurb we read about about.

I agree that it should be a punishment, a time to reflect and hopefully a time to reassess your life.

I don't think it's a cakewalk and for all the people who think it is then they're deluded.

If I struggle with a toilet lock in a pub for more than 10 seconds I almost flatline. I'm not being flippant.

Hope you have good coping mechanisms ronnietoon, if it's for yourself.I haven't been a help x

[wolf63]

I know it's different but I spent time in a psychiatric hospital. Things like not being able to go for a walk, signing for a plug for the bath and not being able to spend a penny without someone checking up on you all sound like minor annoyances. But we are so free in our normal day to day life that any restrictions on our freedom are really difficult to deal with.

Thankfully I escaped

[nailit]

You're right Kylesmum, its no cakewalk but despite everything I listed above I've had some good times and laughs in prison too. You learn to make the most of a bad situation.

[nailit]

wolf, ive done both. Sectioned to a psych unit and time in clink. I'd take the psych unit anytime over prison.

[EDDIE51]

75% of ALL people who have been in prison NEVER get work again , even after a short sentence, such is the stigma attached to being an ex convict. Little wonder then that the reoffending rate is around 80% what more is there to do?
It is the isolation from society that is the punishment not the conditions 'inside'.

[Barmaid]

Doesnt it matter what type of prison it is? I've been in a couple of Cat As and one Cat D. There was a world of difference between them.