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We are all sent off to work I’ister under ‘workshops’ where I will have to pack breakfast bags that will eventually end up in other prisons My salary will be 50p an hour New Labour’s e policy hasn’t quite trickled down to convicted felons The truth is we’re captive labour I’ when another prison officer, Mr Young, asks me to wait behind until the others have left for the work area He returns a few isteredthe stack to me

Another long walk in a different direction, even ates, by which ti has been in the prison service for eleven years, his annual basic pay is £24,000, and it’s quite hard, if not impossible, to find somewhere to live in London on that salary

When we arrive at reception, two other officers are standing behind a counter in front of rows and rows of cluttered wooden shelves Mr Pearson reistered letters and parcels from a shelf behind him and places them on the counter He starts to open theulation The two officers then ifts which they eventually place in a plastic bag, and once I’ve signed the requisite form, hand them all across to me

‘Peach,’ says Mr Pearson, and another prisoner steps forward to have a parcel opened in front of him It’s a pair of the latest Nike trainers, which have been sent in by his girlfriend

Both clutching onto our plastic bags, we accoize to Peach – I never did find out his first na

‘No problem,’ he says ‘You kept me out of my cell for nearly an hour’

Mr Young continues to tell us about so We are onto staff benefits and shifthen an alar towards us fro quickly unlocks the nearest waiting roo the door firh the s as officers continue rushing past us, but we have no way of finding out why A few moments later, a prisoner, held down by three officers and surrounded by others, is dragged off past us in the opposite direction One of the officers is pushing the prisoner’s head dohile another keeps his legs bent so that when he passes us he leaves an is Peach tells‘bent up’ or ‘twisted up’, and is part of the process of ‘control and restraint’

‘Control and restraint?’

‘The prisoner will be dragged into a strip cell and held dohile his clothes are cut off with a pair of scissors He’s then put in wrist locks, before they bend his legs behind his back Finally they put a belt around his waist that has handcuffs on each side, s’

‘And then what?’

‘They’ll take hiation,’ Peach explains ‘He’ll be put into a single cell that consists of a metal sink,

metal table andup’

‘How long will they leave him there?’

‘About ten days,’ Peach replies