Who's ever been to prison? I have and I'm going again.

[PaulB]

I've been to Walton Jail in Liverpool several times and Strangeways in Manchester twice - all in a professional capacity - and I received a visitation order yesterday to go and see a friend of mine currently 'out of circulation' and it reminded me of how grim these places are. This VO is for a prison/YOI I've never been to before so I'll be going with mixed feelings.

Anyone else on here ever been 'banged up' or socialising with those 'banged up'?

 

[EltonFrog]

I’m a part time tour guide at Oxford Castle and Prison.

 

[Saluki]

Visited a friend’s husband with her once. She had no car so she put me on the VO so that I could take her. I took her a few times but stayed in the car, with a book, after the first time. Way too depressing for me.

 

[Mo1959]

Never an inmate thankfully, but 26 years as an officer............and agree, they are grim places, more so now with the drug culture than when I first joined.

 

[Drago]

I've been a few times in a professional capacity.

They are grim places, which makes me wonder why people try so hard to go stay there, but that's they're call.

 

[PeteXXX]

I've never been incarcerated, but have visited a friend in Holloway prison (and then Southend open prison once she was sentenced).
The sound of the doors slamming and clanging shut behind me was bad enough even knowing I was only there for an hour!
This was over 30 years ago. I don't know if it's still the same, but it was grim!

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Did a theatre tour once that included a prison. That awkward moment when the lights went down, the audience went quiet, the music started up and the opening line -

"Don't sit there alone in your room every day, life is a cabaret"

 

[gavgav]

I’ve visited 2 local prisons, in a professional capacity, on a number of occasions. Also one of them has now closed, but opened its doors as a tourist attraction and I went on one of the tours, which was very eye opening!

 

[wheresthetorch]

I was a probation officer for 19 years, so spent many an afternoon in a prison. Got locked in a few times when there was an alert, but the staff were always very helpful.

Some were very grim places - Stafford, the Dana, Winston Green. Others more pleasant in terms of the environment (Bullingdon, Blakenhurst) but still not somewhere I'd choose to stay too long.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

I think prison would be great. Three square meals a day, Sky TV in my cell, endless leisure time, what's not to like??

Ooops sorry, thought I was on the Daily Mail site.

 

[13 rider]

Worked once in Leicester Prison a very strange experience had to be escorted and tools were checked in and out . Leicester Prison is an old Victorian building reminded me of the opening sequence of porridge . Very grim indeed

 

[Drago]

I think prison would be great. Three square meals a day, Sky TV in my cell, endless leisure time, what's not to like??

There was a fly on the wall prison documentary the other night, and your description isn't far from the mark.

On the other hand, 3 square meals and something to keep them occupied isn't unreasonable. They shouldn't be holiday camps, but squalor and cruelty are too far off the scale for even a Republican like me.

 

[PaulB]

I’m a part time tour guide at Oxford Castle and Prison.

I forgot that one but we've stayed in the Malmaison in Oxford which of course is the prison building so you get to see the old-style cells and each hotel room features that cell's most 'celebrated' former inmate. I've stayed there twice, one inmate I can't remember but one was a Nazi spy held there before he was hanged. The hotel restaurant is on the site of what used to be the execution chamber.

 

[Beebo]

I’ve been on the boat to Alcatraz.

 

[Paulus]

I visited Wakefield prison back in 1975 when I was 17, it was part of a scheme us apprentices were sent on for some some reason, as it had nothing at all to do with railways or management training. I remember the smell more than anything else. A cross between sewage and cleaning fluid. It was a grim place, very gloomy and claustrophobic.