Founded 1980
Chair:
Secretary:
Treasurer:
Graham Smith
Jan Thompson
Graham Mumby-Croft
Michael Selby
Prisons I Have Known (An unexpected life Inside) by Harry Crew.
Published by Eebygumbooks
Distributed by Amazon
Long ago, when I was working at Huntercombe Borstal , in charge of sport, amongst other duties, I arranged a day out for the staff of Borstal Aftercare with a cricket match: our "lads" against their staff. That is how Harry and I first met, as he was a young .....
Keith Gibson – A Tribute –
by Michael Selby
Keith Gibson was born on 25th September 1927. He died on 23rd July 2012.
I first met Keith when I was on a month’s course at the Staff College in February 1957, sent from Huntercombe Borstal to learn how to be an assistant Governor. I joined in June 1956 and was without relevant experience and knowledge, so was sent for a day to Hull prison......
Veronica's Bird
by Veronica Bird & Richard Newman.
This book describes a colleague's remarkable life story of extraordinary resilience and real achievement. One of the strengths of the Prison governor grades was -and possibly still is the variety of background and qualifications of its members. But few of us, gathered together in Conference, would have overcome such overwhelming obstacles to achievement as Veronica Bird O.B.E. .......
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"There is nothing in this world constant but inconstancy" (Jonathan Swift 1667-1745)
The Prison Service is in a parlous state: heading for disaster. This is an attempt to make sense of why this is so. One has profound sympathy for our colleagues lost in this morass.
It was in a tortuous shopping arcade in Cardigan over the New Year that the idea for this article emerged. Snuggling, hidden away, was a second hand bookshop .......
TECHNOLOGY. 
By Mike Selby
By Mike SelbyThe request for submissions on this subject aroused my interest because, at my age, I am aware how matters have changed during my lifetime. This example occurred in 1948 when I was aged 17. My father was a Doctor practising as a medical officer in Nigeria-then a colony. It was arranged that I should join my parents for the summer holidays, journeying to what was then called British Cameroon's’-a colony, formerly German, ......
The PROP Revolt of 1972
This revolt throughout the Prison system was curious in that its origin was obscure, and the revolt was a series of expressions of indiscipline that was pervasive but disappeared, seemingly, without trace. But it did involve me painfully.
So, what was PROP? One translation was Prisoners Right of Participation. Rumour had it that it started out as an academic exercise .....
When I met Jimmy Saville
A recent programme on TV about Broadmoor Special Hospital recalled a curious incident in my working life over 30 years ago.
I had been Governor of Grendon Prison for about 5 years. Previously a Medical Superintendent had been in charge and this experimental psychiatric prison had utilised the “Therapeutic Community” as the treatment method, .....
OVER THE WALL AND SOME OBSERVATIONS ON PRISON DESIGN
The opening paragraph of Over the Wall brought back painful memories. Brixton had to accept the role of taking Category A prisoners for which it was not designed and the Mini wing from which the escape took place was designed and built as Escape Proof, was assured!
However, more interesting to me was "Good riddance or sad loss?" ....
