14 min.
BANGED UP
A lifetime ago, aged 19, I joined the police with, if I’m totally honest, a principal yearning to be looked after. As an employer, this respected profession gave me everything – job security, a decent wage, prospects, status, companionship, a roof over my head, and identity. My self-worth, for an insecure guy lacking in worldly wisdom, was immediate and all that was required of me was to do the bidding of the State. This, roughly speaking, was arresting villains, and imprisoning the more serious offenders. The latter, colloquially referred to as “banging them up,” appeared to me as a fairly robust mechanism complementing both justice and deterrent. After all, who the hell would ever want to return to one of the many dilapidated UK prisons? Not me!
I had visited several…
