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Original poster

What's life like in prison?

115 replies

JackofGentlemen · 03/10/2021 15:07

Following on from the WC case, I've been wondering what life will look like for him? Do whole life prisoners get treated any differently to those with lesser sentences? What will his day to day life involve for the next 40 years?

I did some Googling on the subject but nothing really came up.

OP posts:
SuperCaliFragalistic · 04/10/2021 19:28

Some people find prison very very tough due to poor mental health and limited coping skills. There is very limited help for the huge numbers of people who have fallen through the cracks in the mental health system. For many people it is not an easy life at all. Some people are able to let it wash over them a bit. I expect WC will fall into this category and will get into a routine or a life of sorts, make few friends, get on OK with staff, get a job in jail (servery, recycling, cleaner or workshop). Some people thrive in the environment due to being institutionalised in care, remand schools etc. These people also need help to manage in the real world or they end up straight back inside again.

itsgettingwierd · 04/10/2021 19:29

@KittenKong

I can’t quite get my head around how he thought he would get away with it (unless he thought that that the police were so hopeless they couldn’t catch a cold, or so corrupt that they’d cover for him), and if he was caught and sentenced, he must have known what his life would be like in prison.

Yes, I know that criminals often don’t think about consequences, and believe that they are smarter than the police... but this is a supposedly ‘sane’ man.

That's actually a very interesting thought. I hasn't thought about the fact he must have known about procedure for investigation and prison sentences.
Gwrach · 04/10/2021 19:49

I work with offenders male and female. I've also visited prisons all over the UK.

In a nutshell....they are all different. Really is up to the governor and how the governor manages the prison.

Some prisons are like the A* standard such as HMP Grendon which is a therapeutic prison and then you go all the way down to the failing prisons like HMP Parc. Some prisons have PIPE units like HMP Dovegate.

But the bare bones are the same. Daily routine. Lights on , breakfast, work/therapy, lock up. Lunch, rec time, lock up light out. Rinse and repeat. Same routine day in day out.

Many adapt to it, some thrive from the routine, some find the routine insufferable. Healthcare is good in some prisons failing in others. Therapy and drug rehabilitation is exceptional in some and poor in others. Violence, some prisons are very violent and then you have HMP Grendon which has no reported violence in something like 4 years and no issues with drugs or contraband.

WC I'm imagining will end up Cat A, and his life inside will be severely restricted. Lots and lots of in cell time compared to a cat c prisoner. Probably a maximum of 90minutes outside his cell, and rec/social time non existent because he was a police officer.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Crime
Somethingsnappy · 04/10/2021 22:18

@KittenKong

I can’t quite get my head around how he thought he would get away with it (unless he thought that that the police were so hopeless they couldn’t catch a cold, or so corrupt that they’d cover for him), and if he was caught and sentenced, he must have known what his life would be like in prison.

Yes, I know that criminals often don’t think about consequences, and believe that they are smarter than the police... but this is a supposedly ‘sane’ man.

It makes me wonder if he's offended before and got away with it, and therefore become complacent....
Bitchbadgerplease · 04/10/2021 22:40

Somethingsnappy I was wondering that too :(

waterrat · 04/10/2021 22:44

God some of the comments on here are appalling.

Uk prisoners are many times more likely to have left school unable to read or write well than the general population. They are far far more likely to be care leavers and therefore they were once children who suffered very severe abuse.

Prisons are like victorian workhouses. They brutally hold and punish the poor and traumatised.

Can you imagine why a young female shop lifter should not be in a cell with a murderer if you want her to actually rehabilitate

Are prisons there to ensure people come out and don't go back in or are they just holding pens where we put damaged people 23 hours a day then chuck them out again with little hope for their lives?

Why on earth would anyone celebrate prison being brutal violent or full of rape and misery? Moat people in prison will come out one day and will need to integrate into society

We actually have an opportunity while they are in prison if we wanted as a society to fix the damage done on these individuals by their troubled and damaged childhooda.

Some of them may be vile but many are just very fucked up sad and have mental health problems

I know people who work in orisons and they are depressing awful places.

WC will probably top himself. Most prisoners are not like him and this whole thread is a sad indictment of our humanity as a society

waterrat · 04/10/2021 22:48

Remember Baby P ? If he had survived he probably would have ended up in prison. He was loved and mourned as a baby but the adult he would have become...People would have laughed and cheered at him being brutalised and abused in prison...lovely.

2Two · 05/10/2021 00:16

@burritofan

I did some Googling on the subject but nothing really came up. Did you try reading one of the many many threads on this topic and this despicable man… Honestly couldn’t give a shit what life looks for him now.
I haven't seen any thread on what life might be like in prison for people like this.
Kanaloa · 05/10/2021 00:46

@waterrat

Remember Baby P ? If he had survived he probably would have ended up in prison. He was loved and mourned as a baby but the adult he would have become...People would have laughed and cheered at him being brutalised and abused in prison...lovely.
That’s a wild and very odd assumption to make Confused Lots of adults who have suffered childhood abuse don’t end up in prison. And I’m not really sure what point you’re making.

I don’t agree with anyone being brutalised or suffering violence, but this is an odd way to illustrate it.

Stitchybitch79 · 05/10/2021 13:35

It is a wild assumption BUT with the care leavers so heavily represented in prisons and correlation with poor childhoods and abuse etc, I know what the poster was getting at :(

We feel for the abused and neglected children, but not for the adults they often become.

apalledandshocked · 05/10/2021 15:16

As a side note, me and my then boyfriend were watching a documentary which mentioned that 1/4 men in US prison's will experience some form of sexual assault. I thought that number sounded low personally especially for sexual assault rather than rape alone. My boyfriend on the other hand was HORRIFIED. "can you imagine knowing there is a 1/4 chance you could be raped". I said yes actually I could (literally all women can imagine that).
While I am sure there is some violence and even sexual assault inside women's prisons, I think for a lot of women there they are at much much less of physical or sexual assault inside than outside. Whereas for men its the opposite. So you can't really compare the two.

apalledandshocked · 05/10/2021 15:20

(That's not to say I think prison is easy for women. Just that the downsides are more likely to be isolation from family/friends; separation from children; not being free etc etc; mental health issues rather than the threat of violence.)

Kezzie200 · 05/10/2021 16:46

Watch the lost soldier on tiktok. He explains it all.

He says he will be on a VP wing and the problem he will have is they are lifers with less reason to behave as they aren't looking to be released any time soon and many of them also hate the police.

Other problems he will have will be by suggestion, such as "watch what's in that mate" to his food. It may, or may not, have been tampered with but the suggestion of it will play with his head.

Whatever, he is in for a grim time.

Frostine · 05/10/2021 18:52

@Kessie200

MAY CONTAIN UPSETTING DETAIL.

As someone who works in a prison , I disagree . Lifers are housed in normal wings ( unless they are likely to be harmed ) For example ( and apologies as it is very sensitive ) we have a lifer on a wing , he is accepted quite freely , has a life sentence for stabbing his wife repeatedly . His nickname is Tetley ( due to many perforations )
Also on the whole lifers are the best behaved as they want to make their time as peaceful as possible . If you are well behaved , you tend to get the best jobs in jail , will be allowed to choose education classes that are move involved than just a basic level of education . I am in education , and not a uniformed member of staff , my orderlies who work for me ( prisoners who might help within the education block , mentoring , working one to one etc ) are both lifers .

maddy68 · 05/10/2021 18:57

One of my close relatives is in prison. He's very elderly and it's not too bad for him personally IF you can stand being apart from friends and family. He's getting better medical care inside than he was outside so that side is good. One phone call a day which you have to earn to pay for Nd you have nothing to say. Not like you have done anything to have a conversation about .. Zero privacy. His roommate helps him get dressed and go to the toilet🙄

TV in the TV room. The boredom is the worst along with the shame and the expectation in of never seeing your family again when you're elderly

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