Jeffrey Archer was jailed for Perjury in 2001. He wrote his prison diaries (There are three novels comprising the entire set of diaries. The three novels are written with relation to the Prison he was in at the moment- depending on the category of the prison) For his three weeks in prison, he was in a High Security prison, before being transferred to lower security prisons, the last of which being an open prison, which has no walls, and each prisoner holds the key to their room. (It also has far less guards as the deterrent against escape is the possibility of being caught, which would prevent them from ever being sent to an open prison again.)
The Prison Diaries were really an insight into the life of a prisoner. Jeffrey Archer also talks about the bureaucracy faced in the prisons. He also talks about the several erroneous reports about him by the tabloids which state that he was living in luxury in the prison and that he had several privileges accorded to him (These allegations are obviously outlandish and unrealistic) such as being able to drive down to a pub nightly for beer.
Jeffrey Archer also focuses on the drug problems in prisons. He stated that many prisoners are willing to go to great risks to smuggle drugs into the prison. The Prison guards also know where the drugs are being hidden but are limited in how they can search each prisoner. Furthermore, some prison guards and some lawyers on Legal Visits also smuggle in drugs for their clients. The added incentive is that Drug Dealers usually earn much more from selling drugs in prison. This is as the drugs sold in prison are generally more diluted and also sell at a higher price due to the higher demand. However, this sometimes leads to the death of the prisoners - upon being released, many of them continue to inject themselves with drugs which are less diluted, but their body is unable to adjust to the higher dosage, resulting in them dying from overdosage. He also mentions that since heroin can be flushed out of the body faster than cannabis (Heroin can be flushed out by drinking more water than usual, whereas Cannabis can stay in the bloodstream for up to a month.). This has led to many prisoners coming up with innovative methods to escape their Mandatory Drugs Test (Which may be a random test or one based on Reasonable Risk). One prisoner even added that they could suck on a bar of soap or swallow a mouthful of “Smoker’s Toothpaste” to cloud the urine sample, thus granting them more time to clear their system of whatever drug they had consumed.
Jeffrey Archer also talked about how many first-time offenders for minor crimes ended up being imprisoned with hardened criminals. This is due to the fact that criminals awaiting trial or having just started their sentence are first placed in a “Category A” or High Security prison before they are classified into the other 3 Classifications (The whole system is from A-D). For example, he stated the case of several petty crime offenders who became hooked on drugs and soon became repeat offenders. He also stated the plight of long term prisoners who are unable to rehabilitate into society, as they have become institutionalized. Once such prisoner, upon being released, stole a purse from an elderly lady, and waited for her to call the police before handing the purse back. (A short story based on this appears in Cat O’ Nine Tales)
I would say that this book is definitely a worthy read.
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