The Rusty Wire Service

Take it from me, maintaining your innocence while serving a life sentence is a hard station but that is nothing compared to the particular kind of hell endured by prisoners with mental health issues. And there are plenty of them. It is a matter of statistical truth that approximately one in four people in wider society will at some stage in their lives suffer from mental health issues. That figure increases dramatically when you go inside. Since the Tories under Thatcher ‘rationalised’ (butchered) the UK’s mental health regime back in the 1980s, your prisons have been full of people who really should be in hospital. There have been at least 30 suicides in custody since the start of my incarceration. Many of them were people I knew, even friends. But it’s not just the deaths; there’s a fine line between self-harm and attempted suicide and I’ve seen plenty of desperate young men cross that line without a thought. Slit wrists and arms, slit throats and hangings; I even...

At some stage or another, nearly every prisoner in our nick has had the dubious pleasure of meeting ‘The Boss’. Over the years, I have witnessed extreme violence and degradation of inmates within the penal system but I’ve never seen anything reduce jaded lags to jelly like the mere mention of 'The Boss'. In a recent piece, I wrote about Islam i n the prison system  and the controversy surrounding this much misunderstood faith. But the truth is that most prisoners are more afraid of 'The Boss', even if they’ve got nothing to hide. This Boss is no Muslim Godfather of tabloid nightmares, yet his power to strike fear into the hard hearts of criminals is almost legendary. You could have the Bible and the Koran strapped to each arse cheek and he’ll still get the truth out of you.  You see, in one way, 'The Boss' is a bit like Santa Claus; he always knows when you’ve been naughty or nice: although there sadly, the similarity with Kris Kringle ends.  T...

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