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Inside Parkhurst
Inside Parkhurst: Stories of a Prison Officer | David Berridge
1 post | 2 read
THE FASCINATING SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER Assaults. Riots. Cell fires. Medical emergencies. Understaffed wings. Suicides. Hooch. Weapons. It's all in a week's work at HMP Parkhurst. After 28 years working as a prison officer, with 22 years at HMP Parkhurst, once one of Britain's most high security prisons, David Berridge has had to deal with it all: serial killers and gangsters, terrorists and sex offenders, psychopaths and addicts. Inside Parkhurst is his raw, uncompromising look at what really goes on behind the massive walls and menacing gates. Thrown in at the deep end, David quickly had to work out how to deal with the most cunning and volatile of prisoners, and learn how to avoid their many scams. He has been assaulted and abused; he has tackled cell fires and attempted suicides, riots and dirty protests; he has helped to foil escaped plans, talked inmates down from rooftop protests, witnessed prisoners setting fire to themselves, and prevented prisoners from attempting to murder other prisoners. And now he takes us inside this secret world for the first time. With this searingly honest account he guides us around the wings, the segregation unit, the hospital and the exercise yard, and gives vivid portraits of the drug taking, the hooch making, the constant and irrepressible violence, and the extraordinary lengths our prison officers go to everyday. 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. Both horrifying and hilarious, David's diaries are guaranteed to shock and entertain in equal measure.
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David Berridge worked as a prison officer at Parkhurst and its sister site Albany for 28 years between 1992 and 2019. This book, based on notes that he took as part of his job, paints a bleak picture of a tough job dealing with violent and manipulative men but also men who are suicidal. While strong on the job, I wanted to know more about Berridge, who he is, what drives him, and how the service can be improved to give it a human aspect.