Prison novel brings true grit
LIFE behind bars for prisoners and their keepers in new novel ‘Unlock These Hands’ takes readers into a secret society packed with the good, the bad and the ugly.
Costa Blanca writer Ray Wilcox returns with his second thriller and a gritty sequel to his 2014 debut LockDown Blues; it is another rollercoaster ride at Her Majesty’s pleasure behind the walls of HM Prison Raymar.
The prison is fictional but events are based on true incidents - Ray enjoyed a 30-year career in Her Majesty’s Prison Service as both a uniformed officer and prison governor; the rules and regulations are authentic up to his 2005 retirement.
The author now lives in La Xara with his wife Margaret, the name Raymar is a union of their names, and the fictional prison is set in the wild and windy North West of England near Carlisle but far from the equally imaginary HM Prison Slade in Cumbria, home of comedy Porridge, with Ronnie Barker’s ‘Fletch’ and chums.
The back cover of Unlock These Hands flags up the basic story; there’s a new regime at the prison where the staff are trying to move on from the catastrophic events of 2004 – graphically told in Lock-Down Blues.
Joining the community is a notorious serial killer, joining the new secure unit; while the London underworld is trying to fill a gap in the market, there’s a shortage of drugs, and fun and games on the wings.
And the tale is summarised on the cover: “Violence costs nothing for those with nothing; the price of a life can be as cheap as a promise and as easy as a misunderstanding. Will the governor succeed or will corruption plunge Raymar into darkness?”
Ray said, “Once again it is what the Spanish call a ‘dark novel’ because of the undercurrent of violence.
“The actual events are based on things I witnessed during 30 years in the Prison Service and there might be a third novel that will continue with some of the events that take place at the end of Unlock These Hands.
“I left the service in 2005 as a prison governor. The writing is based around 2004 and 2005; and all the technical stuff – the rules and regulations and terminology – was accurate at the period I retired.”
The two books are novels but Britain’s real-life prison regime continues to make headlines; the size of the prison population, staffing levels, attacks on warders, and the scale of the drug problem inside all taking up column inches – the government is also investigating ending prison sentences of less than six months.
Dangerous
Ray believes it is a ‘dangerous situation’ and blames the contracting out of running prisons to the private sector.
“Working on prison landings is not about physical violence; it is a lot safer than the Big Market in Newcastle on a Saturday night – most of the time, if your staff are working as they were trained to do, you actually have a good working relationship between prisoners and staff,” he said.
“For example, that’s why there’s so little trouble at Christmas – you don’t have to spoil them; but as long as you are working by the rules and they know the rules, everything works fine. Give them what they are entitled to and they respond well. If there’s trouble they don’t want to be part of it.”
However, he believes the officers supplied by private companies are not trained well enough and it creates a void. “It means the stronger members of the prison population step in and fill the void...that’s why I am now told there are certain parts of prisons that are ‘no go’ areas.”
Ray believes the government must act to recruit Prison Service officers, ensure staff members are trained correctly and end the privatisation.
“It is about how you deal with prisoners. You have to be fair and consistent. By and large, prisoners react positively. If they ask a question, give an answer,” he said. “If you don’t know, say you will give an answer that afternoon.
“It might not be what they want to hear but not having an answer is how people get frustrated and that can lead to violence.”
And he said just one prison officer had been murdered in England, Scotland and Wales in 150 years. In the early seventies, an officer was hit over the head with a shovel.
“My fear is there’s going to be another one, another fatality; that’s because the number of assaults on officers is going through the roof at the moment,” added Ray.
Unlock These Hands is available from Austin Macauley Publishers, www.austin macauley.com.