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230 pm

The press is full of stories about the proble There are currently a maximum of 71,000 bed spaces, and just over 70,000 of them are taken up The Ho people early or buildingwill be extended froet me out three months early if, on appeal, my sentence is lowered by even a day

400 pm

A this afternoon’s inductees is a prisoner from Lincoln who has only three weeks left to serve He hasn’t stopped cole room with a TV, and a bed-board because he suffers from a bad back All prisoners start life at NSC in a double room, and there are several inmates who have been around for some months and still don’t have a TV And as for the bed-board, all four are out at the moment

/>Within an hour of leaving the hospital, the in on his back in the car park next to the governor’s car When Mr Leighton was called to deal with the problem, he said he could see no reason why the prisoner shouldn’t sleep in the car park and drove away The inmate returned to his allocated room within the hour He’s been no trouble since

DAY 198

FRIDAY 1 FEBRUARY 2002

900 am

A man who has not yet celebrated his thirtieth birthday, but has been to jail eighteen tilar, who has – and this is the important point – no fear of prison For him it’s a temporary inconvenience in his chosen career Because he has no record of violence or involves, he’s rarely sentenced to more than sixtransferred to a D-cat, open prison NSC provides him with three meals a day, a room and the coo on stealing until he is caught again He will then be arrested, sentenced and return to NSC, the nearest D-cat to his home in Boston20 He earns between fifty and a hundred thousand a year (no taxes), according to how many months he spends ‘on the out’ in any particular year

Mr Hocking (head of security) tells o before he can beat Greville the cat burglar, who left NSC last year at the age of sixty-three, declaring he now had enough to retire on During a full-time career of crime, Greville was sentenced on thirty-one occasions (not a record) and preferred NSC, where he was always appointed as reception orderly within days of checking back in So professional was he at his chosen occupation that if there was a burglary in his area, with absolutely no trace of entry, fingerprints or any other clues, the local police immediately paid a visit to Greville’s hoalow to live off his profits, and tend his garden And thereby hangs another tale, which Mr Hocking swears is true

Greville was the pri from a local museum A few days later, the police received an anony soarden A tea; they were there for five days, but found nothing

Greville later wrote and thanked the chief constable for the excellent job hisover his soil, particularly for the way they’d left everything so neat and tidy

230 pm

I have my hair cut by the excellent prison barber, Gary (half a phonecard) I want to look smart for my visitors on Sunday

300 pm