Anyone been in prison

[RammyClaret61]

30 seconds isn't much of a sentence...what crime did you commit Darthlaw?

Didn’t pay tax on a Twix.

[Jakubclaret]

Big statement!...........Why don't you arrange a switch with somebody? There'll be plenty of volunteers....
.....careful what you wish for. I can't think of much worse.

That’s real swell I can just see the prison authorities running with the idea of a swap scheme with members of the general public.

[Bordeauxclaret]

That’s real swell I can just see the prison authorities running with the idea of a swap scheme with members of the general public.

Hold on Jakub, I’ve thought of another idea for your Saturday Night Sentencing Show.

People can vote to send people to prison but as our prisons are overcrowded someone has to be released.
The twist……… the public don’t find out who until after the vote.

I think we need to pitch this to ITV. We just need a presenter now.

[Tribesmen]

Not sure how long i could hack it to be honest .

Spoke to a lad who lives in Dubai and he said he had dealings with someone in jail in the Emirates and he said death would be better .

[timshorts]

Durham, Walton, Lancaster and Haverigg.

All on legal visits.

Likewise:-
Long lartin high security prison, which was quite nice. A newish place with long term offenders.

Cardiff, Lewes, one of the Isle of Wight jobs were all older and pretty unpleasant, but the inmates there are generally going to get out at some point.

[duncandisorderly]

A friend of mine did 9 months of an 18 month sentence.
I asked him if living the life he did prior to going to prison was worth the 9 month stretch and he said it was. I then asked him if he'd do it again and he said he'd rather die. He was a complicated chap.

[channelislandclaret]

I was in a prison in almeria several years ago for a couple of week, my first & last time hopefully behind bars, waa not a pleasant experience

[Billy Balfour]

if it was that bad, he wouldn’t re-offend would he?

We've already established that he wants the shortest sentence possible, and this is why we lock him up for longer, and don't take any TIC into account. Keep these bastards off our streets, and for good if the need be. Only release them on licence, and quickly recall them if they step out of line.

I don't see why our society should continue to tolerate habitual offenders. I'm all for giving people a second chance, but they certainly would not get a third one if it was up to me, or dare I say, the majority of the law-abiding public. In most towns, it's the same people who are responsible for most of the criminality.

[CleggHall]

Played football a few times against inmates, Buckley Hall Rochdale and a couple of institutions near Reading. They counted us in and out but the hardest, ill behaved players on the field were the prison wardens (Scottish mainly).

[Gordaleman]

Once went in Strangeways to play a snooker match against the staff when I worked for Ribble buses. Even the snooker room was dark and dank. That was in the 80s though, so it's probably much nicer since the riots there.

[fatboy47]

Bob, if it's that good - then why does he ask for any TIC? Obviously, he doesn't want to go to jail or else he wouldn't ask for TIC. Thing is, we are talking about criminals here and they'll tell you any old pony. Also, those who tell you it's a holiday camp are playing up to their 'hardman' image.

This.

I've spent an awful lot of time in prisons and YOIs. There is more crap spouted about them than you'd ever believe. Gullible red-top readers and empty-headed no-marks like PTN drink this crap up as they haven't the capacity to work out the reality for themselves.

[Jakubclaret]

oh and the bloke downstairs kept banging on his ceiling telling me he was going to rape me. he never did.

You can’t beat good old fashioned honesty for a Friday morning, the question is would you admit it if he did? It’s not something people openly broadcast.

[Darthlaw]

30 seconds isn't much of a sentence...what crime did you commit Darthlaw?

Did a bad impersonation of Clint Eastwood

[Quickenthetempo]

You can’t beat good old fashioned honesty for a Friday morning, the question is would you admit it if he did? It’s not something people openly broadcast.

Are you for real?

You want to talk about a message board poster and whether he would admit if he was raped or not?

Warped and twisted.

[Billy Balfour]

You can’t beat good old fashioned honesty for a Friday morning, the question is would you admit it if he did? It’s not something people openly broadcast.

What a grubby little man you are.

[TheFamilyCat]

Once went in Strangeways to play a snooker match against the staff when I worked for Ribble buses. Even the snooker room was dark and dank. That was in the 80s though, so it's probably much nicer since the riots there.

The holes in the roof would have let a bit more light into the snooker room.

[BLH_Claret]

I was an officer at Brixton for 13 years and worked at the Old Bailey also until it was privatised and Serco took it over.

[Rileybobs]

I was an officer at Brixton for 13 years and worked at the Old Bailey also until it was privatised and Serco took it over.

Would you recommend it? Apparently they’ve got playstations and the lot. Sounds lush.

[BLH_Claret]

Would you recommend it? Apparently they’ve got playstations and the lot. Sounds lush.

No PlayStation’s where I worked, it was/is an old Victorian building and was originally Cat A before being reduced to Cat B prison for remand prisoners. I left in 2003 so may have changed a bit but not much.

[Rileybobs]

No PlayStation’s where I worked, it was/is an old Victorian building and was originally Cat A before being reduced to Cat B prison for remand prisoners. I left in 2003 so may have changed a bit but not much.

You only worked there for 13 years though, so what do you know.

[IWOODLOVETT]

I was involved in the design of The Clink, which is a (payable) fine dining restaurant INSIDE several prisons. The restaurant is open to the public who must book, bring appropriate identification and leave all valuables, phones etc. in lockers before being escorted inside.
The (open plan) kitchen plus fixtures and fittings are donated by various suppliers and the restaurants are of high quality finish.
The waiting staff, chefs, sommelier etc. are a mixture of prisoners and guards, but all are anonymous.
The initiative gives prisoners the opportunity to gain a qualification and a skill for when they are released and it has become a huge ongoing success with staff and inmates.

[Jakubclaret]

Are you for real?

You want to talk about a message board poster and whether he would admit if he was raped or not?

Warped and twisted.

It was a rhetorical question we didn’t really need to know the outcome of the threat but the information was volunteered anyway, some things you are best keeping to yourself anyway. Any sort of answer wasn’t expected!

[Burnley1989]

You only worked there for 13 years though, so what do you know.

You love trying stir things up don’t you? Noticed it a lot recently, why this thread needs to go that way I’ll never know

[Jakubclaret]

No PlayStation’s where I worked, it was/is an old Victorian building and was originally Cat A before being reduced to Cat B prison for remand prisoners. I left in 2003 so may have changed a bit but not much.

Shall I compile a list of what can actually change in 18 years? If you want me to please reply.

[Rileybobs]

You love trying stir things up don’t you? Noticed it a lot recently, why this thread needs to go that way I’ll never know

I’m not trying to stir anything up, it’s an interesting topic which I’ve made a contribution to. I’m rubbishing the opinions of people who have suggested that prison is a cakewalk, despite having no personal experience of it. It’s interesting to hear from those who have, and none of them seem to agree with that.

[Burnley1989]

Shall I compile a list of what can actually change in 18 years? If you want me to please reply.

Tbf BLH was just answering the question

[Rileybobs]

You love trying stir things up don’t you? Noticed it a lot recently, why this thread needs to go that way I’ll never know

Edit as I missed the 3 min cut off - but you may be right that I do engage more with people that I disagree with on here, because if I strongly agree with a post I’ll usually just give it a like.

[AfloatinClaret]

I too have been in several for professional/work reasons and like others have mentioned, the young offenders institutions are worse than the adult jails; as an 18/19 year old I did a bit of work in a girls borstal near Batley and those girls absolutely terrified me! The worst though - by a very long way! - were visits (I managed to delegate the day to day stuff) to Broadmoor Hospital down in Surrey, that place was a whole new level of scary; almost as bad as going drinking in Newcastle Big market on a Friday night.

[Hibsclaret]

Not to be pedantic but Broadmoor is in Berkshire

[2 Bee Holed]

Once built a new prison outside Doncaster in the early 1990's.
They made me sign the official secrets act too.

[Bosscat]

Once built a new prison outside Doncaster in the early 1990's.
They made me sign the official secrets act too.

You haven't kept it very secret ... now we all know about it

[Pearcey]

I knew a lad in the RAF who went down for affray after being attacked by a group of lads. He chased one and gave him a hiding. He was at work on the squadron on the morning of sentencing. In the afternoon he was in a cell in Norwich prison watching a bloke who had also just arrived poo out a condom full of drugs on the floor.

My cousin was a prison officer for 20 years and now suffers from PTSD after being involved in some horrible things. He left a year ago and he says it’s worse now than it was when he started. It is definitely no picnic.

[JohnMac]

Never been but several years ago we had a few Offenders from North Sea Camp who cooked and served us a meal before and after a Pub Golf Day.

Speaking openly with a Bristolian with West Indian roots afterwards, he was convicted of murder, a by product of his upbringing and environment. He NEVER wanted to be locked up again once he was released on licence.

[Billy Balfour]

But won't he miss all those free PS4 games?

[IanMcL]

Mate of mine goes regularly…. When he gets caught he asks for his other stuff to be taken into consideration. He views the whole process as a reset. Three squares, bed, fags indoors, drugs if he wants them, job if he wants one, gym for free… he says it’s a doddle. He’d rather be out, but he maintains it’s easily do-able.

A mate?

[Billy Balfour]

A mate?

Probably a potato with a face painted on it.

[Pearcey]

A mate?

Why wouldn’t he be?

[Jakubclaret]

Tbf BLH was just answering the question

I know I wasn’t having a go, even though I’ve never served a custodial sentence myself I’ve undertaken counselling sessions with people post release & I’ve got a pretty good idea what goes on in there, some of the people I’ve had appointments with struggle to adjust to outside life & long to be back in prison where they don’t have to worry about accommodation, food, warmth, isolation, health negligence, & the fear of not being able to cope alone.

[Holmeclaret]

Likewise:-
Long lartin high security prison, which was quite nice. A newish place with long term offenders.

Cardiff, Lewes, one of the Isle of Wight jobs were all older and pretty unpleasant, but the inmates there are generally going to get out at some point.

Me too, before I had the sense to go into education. Durham, Preston,Wormwood Scrubs, Canvey Island. All on non criminal matters. I was told by an inmate of Preston that he hated it because it was not a proper lock up prison and therefore harder to “do the bird” because time moved more slowly, which always struck me as strange.

[Jakubclaret]

I’m not trying to stir anything up, it’s an interesting topic which I’ve made a contribution to. I’m rubbishing the opinions of people who have suggested that prison is a cakewalk, despite having no personal experience of it. It’s interesting to hear from those who have, and none of them seem to agree with that.

Your opinion is already fixated with what you believe, if a hardened barlinnie criminal posted that prison was a doddle your response would be hostile because you want to believe prison is a punishment & nothing & nobody will alter that.

[Rileybobs]

Your opinion is already fixated with what you believe, if a hardened barlinnie criminal posted that prison was a doddle your response would be hostile because you want to believe prison is a punishment & nothing & nobody will alter that.

Well my opinion is that serving a prison sentence isn’t easy unless you live a worthless life. Obviously there will be lots of people who serve time that have worthless lives, repeat offenders for example.

What I struggle with is the oft-trotted out idea that prisons are like holiday camps. Even if prisoners have three terrible meals a day, access to a games room and the ability to smuggle a mobile phone up their arse hole, I would hardly describe that as luxury.

My opinion isn’t fixed though. If people with first hand experience of prisons had contributed to this thread to back up this holiday camp notion, I would gladly change my opinion. But they haven’t have they, those with first hand experience all seem to suggest the opposite. So in this instance which one of us has the fixed opinion?

[Jakubclaret]

Well my opinion is that serving a prison sentence isn’t easy unless you live a worthless life. Obviously there will be lots of people who serve time that have worthless lives, repeat offenders for example.

What I struggle with is the oft-trotted out idea that prisons are like holiday camps. Even if prisoners have three terrible meals a day, access to a games room and the ability to smuggle a mobile phone up their arse hole, I would hardly describe that as luxury.

My opinion isn’t fixed though. If people with first hand experience of prisons had contributed to this thread to back up this holiday camp notion, I would gladly change my opinion. But they haven’t have they, those with first hand experience all seem to suggest the opposite. So in this instance which one of us has the fixed opinion?

You’ve summarised things up for yourself with - “people who serve time have worthless lives” that’s true & prisons an improvement to that an escape from poverty & worrying about the next grocery bill or the utility bills, you are falsely comparing your own life to them & not placing yourself in a position where you are addicted to drugs, in debt with nothing & nobody, you need to imagine yourself in that position however difficult that might be & then you’ll get it & understand & until you do you’ll never understand.

[duncandisorderly]

You’ve summarised things up for yourself with - “people who serve time have worthless lives” that’s true & prisons an improvement to that an escape from poverty & worrying about the next grocery bill or the utility bills, you are falsely comparing your own life to them & not placing yourself in a position where you are addicted to drugs, in debt with nothing & nobody, you need to imagine yourself in that position however difficult that might be & then you’ll get it & understand & until you do you’ll never understand.

That is in no way at all what riley said.

[Jakubclaret]

That is in no way at all what riley said.

Wasn’t word for word but that was the general gist, he needs to place himself in a unfortunate position & until he does I’m p*ssing into the wind trying to educate him, he doesn’t realise prison is paradise to some of them serving.

[duncandisorderly]

Wasn’t word for word but that was the general gist, he needs to place himself in a unfortunate position & until he does I’m p*ssing into the wind trying to educate him, he doesn’t realise prison is paradise to some of them serving.

Mate, that is almost literally what rileybobs was saying in the post you quoted....

[duncandisorderly]

Look, i've no dog in this fight - but at least read and understand what the other posters are saying. Riley does that, or tries to do that, with yours, at least have the decency to do the same.
If you still disagree then fair enough, but at least make the effort to digest it first.

[yTib]

jakub no offense but the notion of you trying to educate anybody is somewhat comical.

[Jakubclaret]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/o ... 616888.amp

Yes it’s just a figment of my imagination.

[Billy Balfour]

jakub no offense but the notion of you trying to educate anybody is somewhat comical.

He says he's undertaken counselling sessions with offenders.

[Jakubclaret]

He says he's been undertook counselling sessions with offenders.

Not strictly true, ex offenders rehabilitating the whole idea is to prevent them reoffending or at the very least minimise it.