Inside Parkhurst: Stories of a Prison Officer

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Biography: David Berridge joined the prison service in 1992, three weeks short of his 32nd birthday. this book was split into sections making it easy to read and has parts that were worthwhile and genuinely interesting.

I would have been interested to hear some more about his conversations with prisoners also, but that's not the focus of the book.I used to be a Prisoner Custody Officer back in the day so I have dealt with the people he talks about, except I did it with very little back up in insecure environments. Divided into three parts – the first from David’s early years on the wings, the second the middle of his career, and the third his disillusioned later years – David will take readers into the heart of life inside and shine a light on the escalating violence and the impact the government cuts are having on the wings.

This isn’t a dig at prison officers, they work in a dangerous job, but that’s exactly why that isn’t policy. Reggie Kray, Gary Glitter, Robert Maudsley, Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Brady and several senior IRA leaders were among David's most high-profile charges. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. He is keen to use this book to raise awareness about the many problems our prison services are facing. I am studying a criminology module at uni this year so I found this book especially interesting but it has eliminated one career from the list.Thrown in at the deep end, David quickly had to work out how to deal with the most cunning and volatile of prisoners, and how to avoid their scams - and he's been doing this for nearly three decades. No mention of the brutal IPP sentences that have left multiple people behind bars for years, serving an indeterminate sentence with no release date, more often than not having come to prison for a 3-6month sentence, yet end up in HIS kind of prison. I don’t agree with all the points being made but there’s enough to say that the pendulum has swung too far, there is too much latitude BUT some do deserve our sympathy. Long hours, short staffed, poorly paid, low morale and the handing over by the authorities of the facility to the inmates, a recipe for disaster. There is no doubt in the fact that prison doesn’t work but this book makes it clear this comes from the powers that be, not the prison officers who work tirelessly to keep the places afloat.

I have a new phrase, 'turning religous", as in when the author can't work out the who, what and where of a situation that might end badly for him, he says he 'turned religious' and prays! From dealing with inmate violence and clearing out defiled prison cells to the unsavoury nature of prison language and life, this is an even more detailed look inside Britain's most infamous prison. It's a pity, because I would have liked to have learned something new about these more notorious inmates, but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book. I think most of us have an idea of some of the things that happen in prison but this book is yet another eye opener. Surely everyone has to start somewhere in their career, especially in a service where there are already such staff shortages?Through it all, David retains his wry humour and offers a much-needed assessment of the state of UK prisons today, the job crisis and poor recruitment, the corruption and gangs running rife, and the mental health epidemic hitting prisoners, causing many to take their own lives. Years of catastrophic anal intrusion had caused major damage, damage that couldn’t fixed in the prison hospital. This is a true story of Berridge's time as a prison officer at Parkhurst, from his rookie days to a fully fledged officer. Divided into three parts - the first from David's early years on the wings, the second the middle of his career and the third his disillusioned later years - David will take listeners into the heart of life inside and shine a light on the escalating violence and the impact the government cuts are having on the wings.