Founded 1980
Chair:
Secretary:
Treasurer:
Graham Smith
Jan Thompson
Graham Mumby-Croft
Home
Autobiography.
JOINING THE PRISON SERVICE: BOB DUNCAN
I joined the Prison Service on the 28thn September 1964 at The Imperial Training College, Love Lane Wakefield, West Yorkshire, along with 20 other trainees either on the ‘direct entry scheme’ as in my case, and some via the ‘country house test’ for officers. All of us were training initially to be a junior Governor. There were 5 grades of Governor, with one being the most senior, usually in charge of a large local prison, or top security prison, and 5 being the lowest, and generally referred to as AG2. On the course were 6 ex-prison officers, one female, and 14 from various walks of life, several ex-colonial police, ex-teachers, and about 6 graduates from various occupations including one Methodist Minister. It was a requirement in those days that you had to have reached the age of 24 and had employment in a different capacity. I fell into the youngest age group of having reached the age of 24 that June. All having had work experience gave us something to talk about amongst ourselves.
Most had travelled by train, as only about 6 of the group owned a car. We were all allocated a study bedroom, and given time to unpack and get our bearing, as we had been told we were all to be in one of the lounges at 4 pm sharp. We all dutifully attended on time and were introduced to the 3 lead tutors who outlined what we would be doing. It was made clear that this was a disciplined service, and though we were committed to a 12-day attendance at the college (with one weekend off a fortnight.) it was stressed for the first 3 weeks we would be on attachments and there would be no weekends off. A hand shot from Paul (probably the brightest intellectually of us all, but personality-wise ‘a bit warped’) he stated he needed the weekend off in 2 weeks. The lead tutor boomed, ‘Mr. P, I have already explained this is a disciplined service, I expect your best attention at all times; I do not expect to have to repeat myself, but as it is the first night for all of you, I will re-cap, there is NO time off duty for the next 3 weeks. An arm shoots up; Mr. P says I need the weekend off in 2 weeks. Tutor, we are not getting off to a very good start here, this does not bode well for your future in the Service. A hand shoots up,’ I am getting married to Tundi in 2 weeks; she is jet black, the daughter of a rich African Chief and is 6 months pregnant. Mr. P see me after this session closes. He did get the weekend off!
We were advised that the next event was our evening meal at 6 pm. The college was in Love Lane directly opposite Wakefield Top Security Prison, from where specially selected long-term prisoners were used in positions of trust, most were nominated as ‘red bands’ but the really trusted were ‘blue bands’, so-called because of the colour of the armband they wore. We were advised, we would be asked to give our name and the course we were on, if we were on his list we had passed the first hurdle, the second was whether we were properly dressed to his satisfaction, if we were not we would be refused entry.
How this was enforced is unclear, but in light of the kerfuffle at the earlier briefing, no one dared challenge him. Within a week when we knew the drill and he was conversant with us, he just waved us in. The evening meal was 3 courses, and every table had a menu with up to 3 choices for the main meal, the waiters were ‘red bands’ from the prison. They took the orders and brought the food. We soon got to know them, and they knew we were the longest stay residents training at the college. We were soon on good terms. The meals were varied, appetizing and of reasonable portions. One of our course had a ‘very healthy appetite, and after a couple of weeks he said to the orderly, I really cannot choose between A or B, what do you suggest,’ he thought for a few seconds, and then said ‘Why not have them both sir.’ And so he did, but not just that night, but every night thereon. One or two of us joined in occasionally! Well if you were going out drinking in the evening, one needed a good lining to soak it all up!
The next morning, we were given an outline of the course which was mainly lectures and tutorials all morning and again in the afternoon. These were given by the Tutors and by the Professor of Criminology from Leeds University, Norman Jepson. The lectures from the established Tutors and Norman Jepson were excellent. The ‘new boy’ Ted’s was less so. We were also divided into 3 groups of seven for tutorials and we all wanted to be in the established tutor's group, but I ended up with 6 others in Ted’s group. Lectures concluded at 16.30, we had only one weekend off a fortnight; there was a fast train to London at 16.45, and we needed the lecture and questions to finish promptly or early if we were to catch it. There were 2 problems, firstly Joe was a persistent questioner and always wanted to know whatever had been said related to Liverpool. Group pressure eventually curbed Joe’s questioning on Friday. The established Tutors were aware of this train and brought their session on Friday to a prompt close. Ted did not and encouraged questions and seemed to be unaware we were all straining at the leash to make a quick exit. I suppose he was trying to exert his authority, but he eventually he did cotton on to the lack of questions on a Friday, and announced, you can sit in silence if you wish, but I am not going to finish early, so ask away. We sat in silence, after 2 months he gave in and finished sharp or even early sometimes.
We were also informed that we would all be allocated a ‘prisoner’ in Wakefield prison whom we would interview weekly in the evening, about his criminality and discuss what he was doing to reform from crime. This would have to be written up and submitted to your tutor. Then came the bombshell, ‘When I say written, it will be typed, so your next task when you return from your attachments will be to go out and purchase a typewriter, we can offer advice on where best to shop.’ so that was the first month’s salary disappearing!
We were split into small groups, and three of us went to’ Strangeways Prison’ in Manchester for our 3 weeks of observation. The first morning was a little daunting as we arrived and tentatively knocked on the huge main gate; a small grilled window in the gate opened and a loud gruff voice said ‘Yes’, we responded that we were the new recruits and had to report to the Governor. ‘Right’ was the only answer, and a smaller door built into the main gate opened and we were told to step through. More waiting only added to our anxiety whilst an escort was found to take us to the Governor’s office. We were eventually ushered into the office of the Governor, who in fact greeted us warmly and explained we would spend most of our time with the Deputy who had organized a programme . The Deputy was a fine man, he had been a tank commander during the war, and had suffered serious burns and other injuries when his tank came under fire. As a result, he has serious scarring to the face and only one ear. He was affectionately known as ‘one-eared Brown’. He was strict but fair. His first task on his programme was
for us to observe the reception process of those sentenced that day, and then to sit in on the reception talk and review he conducted the next morning.
Manchester Prison (Strangeways) was holding about 1600 prisoners, including remands and debtors so there was a steady trickle of releases each morning, replaced by a flow of new arrivals from the courts from late afternoon, most were just shell shocked or bewildered, but the odd ‘more sophisticated ’regular were amongst them, and there was always one who wanted to shout the odds and laud it over the others. When this behaviour was over the top, three of largest and well-proportioned officers would appear, and quiet and tranquility would return. Sentence dates were calculated that evening (there were only 2 dates then ‘earliest date of release’ which allowed one third off for good behaviour, and ‘ latest date of release’; no parole release existed then except for life-sentenced prisoners, no home detention curfew releases).
The next morning a reception board would be held, chaired by the deputy governor, this announced the relevant dates and allocated the prisoner to work (all sentenced prisoners were required to work under the Prison Rules). Two interviews stand out; the first was an older man who complained that his date of release was wrong, the Dep. Governor looked at the paperwork and said yours is a short sentence and I can see it is a correct calculation. No, no said the prisoner, you are releasing me on December 20th, where am I going to get my Christmas dinner! I will have to go straight out and commit another crime to be back in time for Christmas.
The other claimed he was an actor, a small-time role in’ Coronation Street’ He said he could not work as he had to preserve himself until he could return to his audience and fans. The Dep quietly replied,’ I am the only actor in here and the rules require you to work, you will be on centre scrubbing where I can keep an eye on you. Manchester being a ‘radial design prison’ had 4 wings which all met at the centre. The floor was highly decorative and was kept spotlessly clean and no prisoner was allowed to walk across it only around the edge.
On August 8th, 1963 what was to become known as the Great Train Robbery took place when a gang of 15, organized by Bruce Reynolds, stopped and robbed the Royal Mail train from Glasgow to London of sacks of paper money to the tune of £2.6 million. There was a massive manhunt for those involved. Even before arrests were made Buster Edwards and his wife had escaped to Mexico. Those convicted received sentences of 30 years, the longest ever except for a life sentence. They had influence, were revered by other prisoners and had money so they were regarded as a high risk of escape even before the escape of Charlie Wilson on the 12th August 1964 when several men broke into Winson Green Prison in Birmingham and freed him. He was only four months into his sentence. He remained ‘on-the-run’ for 4 years and was finally recaptured in Canada on January 24, 1968 and was returned to England where he served out the rest of his sentence. The other notorious escape was that of Ronnie Biggs from Wandsworth Prison in 1965.
Manchester was holding at least two of the train robbers on remand, including, Bruce Reynolds and Gordon Goody who despite their notoriety amongst their peers was perfectly polite and no trouble to the staff, I can recall talking to Gordon Goody and he was able quite affable and more concerned about his family than his prison conditions. The prison staff, However, was quite tense; this was because of another prisoner who had arrived at the prison. He was a Londoner and a constant petty burglar. His nickname was ‘rubber bones Willy’, due to the fact that he had escaped on two previous occasions from Dartmoor Prison, using sewerage channels etc. He was not known in Manchester and was in for stealing a car. The intelligence suggested he had got himself into Manchester Prison to survey it for means of escape. Nothing came of it, but it did create a huge nervousness amongst the staff during the time we were there.
My other memory of Manchester, though we learnt a great deal, was the Sunday Service, which all registered Christians of all denominations were required to attend their respective service as it was still compulsory in prison rules, (A hangover from Victorian days.) so the Deputy Governor and all other governor grades attended the C of E- service and sat in rank order at a reserved pew at the back of the large chapel. After which the Deputy (and us) retired to the prison Mess Bar and drank solidly for the next 2 hours. The deputy never seemed to suffer any ill effects from this. Though we tried to lighten the amount we consumed, I doubt we took in much else of the rest of the day’s activities.
On returning to Love Lane College we continued our studies including visiting our prisoner and typing up our report one-fingered (copious Tippex was involved). My allocated prisoner, although grudgingly cooperative at first, was not really interested. After a few weeks, he said ‘I do not really feel up to it tonight, so I have put something in an envelope for you take away with you. Being still naïve in the way of prisoners I took him at his word; when I was back at college I opened the envelope and found it only contained some of his hair from his last haircut. When next in the prison I spoke to the resident governor grade for that wing about it. He merely shrugged and indicated ‘that is prisoners for you.’ I also suspected he did not have much time for us’ young sprogs’ and had allocated me this prisoner on purpose.
TO BE CONTINUED: AT DOVER BORSTAL
