Julian Broadhead dismisses tabloid rants about the cushiness of life behind bars
In the bad old days prisoners broke rocks, sewed mailbags and tried to escape at the slightest opportunity. Not any more. Since two high profile breakouts in the 1990s, millions of pounds have been spent on keeping them in, but it seems the money might have been wasted. Now, we are reliably informed, life in Her Majesty's prisons is so comfortable that no one wants to leave. Even more astounding, prisoners do not break out any more—their criminal brethren break in.
Two months ago, when the assistant general secretary of the Prison Officers' Association, Glyn Travis, brought this sorry state of affairs to the media, the story sounded a little far-fetched. Prisoners, he said, were “treated with kid gloves” by prison staff—his members—who took them breakfast in bed. At HMP Everthorpe in East Yorkshire, he said, drug dealers used ladders to climb the wall and passed their wares through cell windows to eager customers. But the pudding did seem as if it might be a little over-egged by his claim
