AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m going over today’s script when an inmate staggers into the hospital. He’s sweating profusely, and badly out of breath. I take his blood pressure, 176/109, and immediately brief the unit officer, but not until I’ve taken my own (130/76) to check the machine is not faulty.
Mr Downs (who replaced Mr New as PO) is on duty and I tell him that Gail has been keeping an eye on this patient for the past four days, and told me that if the monitor went over 105 again, he was to be taken straight to Pilgrim Hospital for a full check-up.
‘It’s not quite that easy,’ explains Mr Downs. ‘I’ve only got five officers on duty tonight, and this inmate hasn’t been risk assessed, so one of us would have to accompany him.’
Mr Downs sighs, phones for a taxi, and instructs an officer to travel with the inmate to Pilgrim Hospital (cost £20).
That means tonight we have 191 prisoners being guarded by four officers – one of them a young woman who’s recently joined the service.
Good night.
DAY 182
WEDNESDAY 16 JANUARY 2002
10.00 am
Martin, the inmate who lost two months for attempting to steal some prison clothes on the morning he was due to be released, has had another twenty-five days added to his sentence, this time for being caught with marijuana in his room. He was originally due to leave NSC on 14 December, and now he won’t be released until 14 March. At this rate I might even get out before him.
It’s not uncommon for inmates to end up serving a longer period than their original sentence. However it will take Martin a number of ‘knock backs’ before he can beat a prisoner in Wayland (A Prison Diary, Volume II) who started with a three-year sentence for possession of heroin and is still a resident of that establishment eight years later.
3.00 pm
Among the new inductees are a policeman and a man who was sentenced to five years for attempting to kill his mother-in-law. The rest are in for the usual tariff – burglary, driving offences, drugs, drugs and drugs. Still, I sense one or two stories among this lot.
7.00 pm
I have a visit from Keith (class B drugs), which is a bit of a surprise as he was on the paper chase last Monday, and should have been discharged yesterday. I can’t believe he’s committed another crime in the last twenty-four hours. No. It turns out that the parole board, having informed the prison that he could be released on Monday, have now told him he must wait until one or two more pieces of paper are signed. Why couldn’t they tell him that last Monday rather than unnecessarily raise his hopes?
I tell Keith about a prisoner who was transferred from Leicester yesterday and is being returned to that prison today. The authorities forgot to send all his parole details. The man travelled to NSC in a sweat box, spent the night here, and now has to go back to Leicester Prison. By the way, we expect him to return to NSC next week. This bureaucratic incompetence will be paid for out of taxpayers’ money.
DAY 183
THURSDAY 17 JANUARY 2002
After a month of being hospital orderly, I have my work schedule mastered.
5.00-7.00 am Write first draft of previous day’s events.
7.00-7.30 am Draw curtains, make bed, put on kettle, shave, bathe and dress.
Prepare lists and make coffee for Linda – dash of milk, one sweetener.
7.30-8.00 am Surgery, usually twenty to thirty inmates who collect prescriptions or need to make an appointment to see the doctor at nine.
8.00-8.30 am Deliver slips for absentees from work to the farm, the works, stores, mess, education department, north and south blocks and the gate.
8.30-8.45 am Breakfast in the dining room.
9.00-10.30 am Doctor’s surgery.
11.00 am Acupuncture, usually three or four inmates.
11.10-11.40 am Read this morning’s draft of this diary.
11.50 am Wake up patients having acupuncture; Linda
removes needles.
