The Bedford Heist

by Frederick Linden-Wyatt

  An analysis of data by think tank Reform shows one in seven prisoners are becoming addicted to illicit substances whilst in prison, with the figure increasing from 6 per cent to 15 per cent between 2014 and 2019. This was when so called “Legal Highs” such as Spice was freely available and difficult for prison officers to detect. Three of facts cause me the greatest concern. They are. 1/. Two-thirds of women and almost 40 per cent of men in prison report committing offences in order to get money to buy drugs, 2/. Reconviction rates are more than double for prisoners who reported using drugs in the four weeks before custody compared with prisoners who had never used drugs and number 3/. Over half of prisoners reporting an alcohol problem also reported a drugs problem, with an extra 44 per cent saying they also had an emotional or mental health issue. I want to mention more on my main three concerns as the lack of action from consecutive governments in tackling these problems was one of the reasons I decided to leave the job I loved doing which resulted in the ‘Bedford Heist’ being set up. Many inmates would openly tell you that drugs are easier to obtain than soap whilst in prison. The ‘Reform’ report pointed to the example of HMP Nottingham, a category B prison with high levels of violence and drug use. The institution received a body scanner after being given the most serious warning from the prison’s inspectorate, while HMP Bedford, which received the same warning, did not.

  The research by Reform also found prisons in poor condition, overcrowded and struggling to retain experienced staff. The report argued that the use of short-term prison sentences was counterintuitive and contributed to an overcrowding in the prison population.

  Analysis of official figures showed the use of community sentences for minor offences had decreased 52% since 2010, despite evidence that they are more effective and make up around a ninth of the annual cost of prison. The thinktank recommended the Ministry of Justice consider banning or reducing the use of short custodial sentences.

  Treatment programmes and drug testing have not eradicated drugs in prison and probably never will. Prescription drugs and heroin, which clears the body quickly, are favoured to get around random mandatory drug tests. Drug addicts are given heroin substitutes such as methadone and Subutex, a brand of the opioid buprenorphine; and these can be traded. I remember an inmate telling me that the dosage supplied of methadone was too low and he had to buy other drugs to satisfy his habit. Drugs enter prisons in a variety of ways. Offenders released on temporary licences smuggle in contraband, as do some staff. Visitors conceal drugs wrapped in cling film in body orifices (known as “plugging” or “crutching”) or in babies’ nappies, then slip them to prisoners in cups of tea or crisp packets. Drugs are thrown over prison walls concealed in tennis balls or even in dead pigeons. Some arrive by post as not all letters are scanned.

  The prison drug market does not run on hard cash. Small sales are generally paid for with tobacco or other items from the canteen, bought with prisoners’ limited earnings or with money sent from outside. Drugs tend to sell in prison for about ten times the street price. Large transactions are usually co-ordinated externally. Technology makes that easier. Mobile banking apps mean convicted dealers can manage payments made outside the prison before doling out drugs. Satellite maps on smartphones facilitate the placement of a package flung over the walls. Prisoners are not supposed to have mobile phones, but these are also smuggled in. The flow of drugs and mobiles could certainly be reduced if visitors sat behind a Perspex screen as they do in American prisons.

  Intimate searches could be performed on all visitors. Prisoners could spend more time locked up in their cells and kept out of exercise yards. Windows could always be locked and barred. IMO it would be better to reform the laws on drugs and manage their distribution. That would at least eliminate the violence and debt associated with the trade and as stated earlier reduce the cost of sending people to prison.

  My third observation deals with the fact that over half of prisoners reporting an alcohol problem also reported a drugs problem, with an extra 44 per cent saying they also had an emotional or mental health issue. Alcoholism is a major problem both inside and outside of prison. Drugs have always been a problem and will continue to be as the police are underfunded and undermanned. All parties in Westminster have tried to tackle the problem but the problem just gets worse.

  The drug problem- both inside prisons and outside, needs an all-party group to take a serious look at this growing problem and consider following the system in Portugal where in 2001 the country decriminalised – and now hardly anyone dies from a drug overdose. The country has 3 overdose deaths per million citizens, compared to the EU average of 17.3. Weed, cocaine, heroin, you name it — Portugal decided to treat possession and use of small quantities of these drugs as a public health issue, not a criminal one. The drugs were still illegal, of course. But now getting caught with them meant a small fine and maybe a referral to a drug treatment program — not jail time and a criminal record. IMO if an addict can legally buy weed for £5 then the drug pushers would go out of business. The quality of the weed would be better than the illegal type and it can be grown in the UK. From my time as a prison counsellor I have seen the problem caused by drugs, drinking, gambling and other addictions getting worse.

  In my opinion any addiction should be treated as a health problem and addicts should be forced to attend and follow an addiction correction course. If they don’t then the police can request that the addict be sectioned, which is like that used on mental health sufferers. No section of the community should be forgotten and groups such as the homeless and ex-military should be treated with dignity under the new addiction laws. I also strongly believe that no prisoner should be given parole unless they have eradicated their addiction and be cleaned up for six months. If this could happen then we wouldn’t need to spend millions on building new prisons as half of our current stock would be vacant. Government should also introduce new sentencing laws where the convict can be given a sentence but this could be extended indefinitely if they fail to eradicate their addiction. Without such measures most addicts will continue to fill our prison cells and we may as well fit revolving doors instead of a prison gate.

  Chapter 9. Bullying

  Sean Williams is 25 years and single from Bletchley which is now part of the new city of Milton Keynes. Sean was a good-looking young man and could be a double of the pop singer Ed Sheeran. He was just under 6 foot and like his look-a-like Ed, he also had wavy ginger hair. Sean was currently serving 3 years for GBH and he had a lot of problems adjusting to prison life when he arrived. I had moved him three times since his arrival 18 months ago as being a ‘pretty boy’ he was always picked upon by older and heavier inmates. With more and more inmates ending up on my list I had only briefly spoken to Sean in his first year but I had a duty to try and understand what led him to my door and try and find an exit route for him so that he didn’t come back.

  As with all the inmates I asked Sean what had led to him being sent to prison for GBH. He said that it all started when he was a young child. He was the only son of a single mother and grew up on the Pond’s estate in Bletchley. I had heard of the estate before so knew that he would have had a tough time growing up. The estate was originally built to house some of the families who were being relocated from the overcrowded estates in east London before being swamped by the new city of Milton Keynes. IMO the Ponds estate was the place you were sent to if hell was full. Problem families from around the Bletchley area who had been evicted from other nicer estates ended up on the Ponds estate and it had become a dumping ground for problem families and had a high proportion of single parent families of which over 66 per cent were living off benefits.

  Sean said that he was bullied horrifically throughout 5th and 6th grade. I got bullied because I had bad anxiety attacks and I also had nervous tics. The boy who sat beside me in math class noticed and he asked me about it, but I just ignored him. A while later, one of my best friends and I walked out of our class and saw another one of our class who
was almost in tears. I asked him why he was sad, and it took a lot of asking before he told me that he was being bullied and couldn’t stand it any longer. I told him to tell a teacher about it, but he said he had but all the teacher said that I was to ignore it as every school had bullies and there was little anyone could do about it. In school we stuck together but it was the journey home that the bullying really got bad.

  They would wait with their friends and catch you in one of the narrow streets on the estate and as there were about 8 of them, I had to take it. The bullying continued and to console me my mum got me a kitten who became my best friend. I could talk to it every night in my bedroom and surprisingly it just sat on my bed and listened. One night in December I was walking home from school and again the bullies were waiting for me but this time they had hold of my kitten and was making it cry out in pain. I went berserk but as they outnumbered me 8 to 1, I didn’t stand a chance. They held me down after hitting and kicking me and the leader of their gang told me that I shouldn’t have tried to hit them as they saw it as a sign of no respect and I would have to pay the price. Before I could realise what was happening the leader, they called freddy had a knife in his right hand and he held my kitten dangling from its rear legs in his other hand. As I screamed at him to let my kitten go he just looked at me and laughed while he slit the throat of my best friend. He then just threw the kitten over a hedge which led down to the railway embankment. I knew that there was nothing I could do and after telling my mum what had happened, she said that we would move out and I ended up living with my mother’s relatives in Norfolk.

  I attended the Smithdon High School in Hunstanton, Norfolk and it was like living in a different country. I soon made friends and I had a totally new way of life. With a great beach that stretched for miles when the tide was out, I spent most summers swimming and having fun with all my new friends. I did well at my new school and was a star pupil with all my exam results being B+ or above. I then went to University and passed out with a degree in Mathematics. With good results I could apply for a wide range of jobs and decided in the end to join Barclays bank who offered me a position in Cromer where I ended up being deputy branch manager.

  When I was 22 years old my mother died from breast cancer and I was very lonely. When we moved to Norfolk, I had relatives who we stayed with for about four months before getting a private house to rent. A year after moving to my new home my uncle and his family moved back to Newport Pagnell which is a small town on the northern edge of the new Milton Keynes city and probably better known as a service station stop in the M1. I did visit them a few times and Newport Pagnell had retained much of its original charm and was far different from that of the pond’s estate in Bletchley. With my mother now gone I wanted to move to Newport Pagnell so that I had at least some relatives that I owed so much to. I asked the regional manager at Barclays if there were any post becoming available around the Newport Pagnell area – but not in Bletchley and he said that he would look and get back to me. As luck would have it they had a position of deputy manager available in the town of Olney - which is famous for its pancake race on Shrove Tuesday and I accepted straight away.

  My uncle said that I could stay with them until I found a flat as Olney was only 7 miles north of Newport Pagnell. He said that he knew the small market town of Olney well as he had a good friend who lived there when he was a teenager. He said that his friend Richard Soul was a great mate as his dad owned the local private coach company and he got his first car after passing his driving test when he was just turned 17. He said that after they had been to the pictures in Newport Pagnell, he was driving us home and we got stopped by a young police officer. Obviously, he could see that Richard was rather young and I bet he didn’t think he had passed his test. He stopped us and asked Richard if he had his driving license with him, but he said he had left it at home. You could see the half smile on the young coppers face thinking that he had heard that one before, so he asked him for his name and date of birth. He said R Soul and he wasn’t given time to state his date of birth as the copper pulled him out the car and pushed him to the ground and hand cuffed him. After he had done that the young coppers sergeant got out of the police car wondering what the hell was going on, and he looked at my mate in hand cuffs and said hello Richard, how’s your father keeping.

  He asked the young copper what the problem was, and he said that he had asked the young man for his name and date of birth and then he swore at him. The sergeant asked what swear word did he use and the young copper whispered arsehole. The Sergeant nearly fell over laughing and when he got control back, he said to the young copper to un-cuff Richard and let him go on his way. The younger cop did as he was told and as we were driving away, I looked back and could see the young coppers face turning to a bright shade of red. My aunty said that it must have been the hundredth time he had told that little story, but it always made her chuckle.

  Sean said that everything was going great until he was out with his girlfriend in the Dolphin pub in Newport Pagnell celebrating his 23rd birthday when who should he bump into but Freddy his all-time worse enemy. Freddy didn’t recognise me until I followed him into the gent’s toilet in the pub. I had obviously changed from a young child to a respectful young man but when I said hello Freddy, he still didn’t recognise me. He said who the fuck are you and I said I’m your worst nightmare. For years you had been my worst nightmare but things change over the years – well for some of us it does, as you still look like the ugly bully that killed my kitten and made every kids life hell on the pond’s estate. He tried to push past me, but I was now a lot bigger and stronger than before and I just pushed him back. As I did, he slipped up on the wet toilet floor and banged the back of his head on one of the urinals. Blood was everywhere and some blood must have splashed on to my boot after I kicked him when he was out cold on the toilet floor. I said that kick was from my little kitten you bastard. He didn’t move and I went out and grabbed my girlfriend and walked her home.

  She knew something was wrong and I couldn’t lie to her, so I told her everything. She said that we must at least call for an ambulance or he could lay there for a long time and he could die. I tried to tell her not to, but she has always been brighter than me and she did the right thing. Old Freddy thankfully survived and when he regained consciousness told them that he had been beaten up by me and he gave them my name. The rest is history really. Old Freddy tried to get compensation, but the case had got so much publicity in the Milton Keynes Citizen that over 50 locals came forward and said that they had also been bullied by Freddy and his gang. He decided to drop the case. I’m sorry for what I did but it was an accident, but my biggest crime was not calling an ambulance the minute it had happened. The judge said that if I had done so the charge of GBH would never have reached the court. He said that he was sympathetic to my story but as I had pleaded guilty to the charge, he could only pass the minimum sentence laid down for GBH and that was 3 years.

  Sean said that he was glad that the case had been picked up by the national press and several magazines as it might just send a message out to all bullies that roles do change and they could easily end up being bullied themselves. Sean also said that the bank would be keeping my job open as they had read about the cause of the accident and had noted that a lot of good people spoke up for him in court and my work record was outstanding. I’m glad I had a chance to listen to Sean’s story and it was rare to have an inmate that wasn’t an addict and as his job would be waiting for him when he was released, there was no training needed.

  He did, however, offer to speak to any inmate who needed educating on anything mathematical and to explain what banks did and how they do help others with loans and mortgages. I took Sean up on his offer and he helped a lot of fellow inmates who never grasped simple maths whilst at school. I couldn’t help thinking why society allows estates like the Ponds get so bad. Surely it would be better to restrict entry to such estates to one road only. This would be controlled like a gated esta
te and have its own security system with more CCTV’s that covered every angle. If someone wanted to enter the estate, then they would need to seek permission and state where they were going. If they didn’t have an answer then they wouldn’t be allowed entry. If they lied just to get access, then security would track them via the CCTV’s and if they were seen to be dealing then they would be arrested when trying to leave.

  I asked Sean what he thinks should have been done when he was being bullied in and after school? He said that he had heard about a friend who had faced the same problems at her school and that her mother who was also a school governor had come up with this plan. Her daughter name was Julie-Anne and was in the second grade and she had many friends. The plan was to get names and signatures on a petition from all the pupils in each age group (but not asking the bullies to sign) who wanted to see bullying stopped in their school. The petition read:

  We the undersigned request that the head teacher tackle the bullying problem which is occurring in our school.

  Each year group would select one pupil who would be known as the bullying prefect and any pupil that is being bullied could report their case to the prefect who would then take it to the headteacher once a week and the bullies dealt with.

  The headteacher should make it clear to all pupils that the new scheme would be introduced forthwith and that the bullying prefect would have special protection and if he or she was bullied then the pupil or pupils would be severely dealt with.

  As Julie-Anne’s mother was also a governor at the school she went along with her daughter to present the petition to the headteacher. The headteacher had no other option but to accept the petition and I’m glad to say that the bullying stopped at the school.