<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was in Walton prison I was briefly located on the landing above \u2018Basic\u2019 regime. In a nutshell, if a prisoner misbehaves by committing a serious offence (failed drug test, phone, fight) or a string of lesser offences (fail to go to work, follow a lawful order) they are placed on Basic regime for 28 days. This involves a loss of personal clothing, loss of gym, loss of canteen \/ earnings and a loss of in cell TV. Basic involves a lot of boring bang-up with incremental easing of sanctions dependant on improved behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were times when I (and others) would turn off our TV\u2019s and just listen to the conversations that the lads on Basic had through their windows \u2013 often they were more entertaining. A particularly riveting exchange occurred shortly after one of the Basics returned from a domestic visit by a friend or family member, it went like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peter \u201cHow did you get on lad? Did you get sorted?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul \u201cYes lad. I\u2019ve got it here. Just give us a few minutes to cut it up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peter \u201cYes lad, I\u2019ll get a line ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were a few exchanges and muttered expletives as the lads did their best to attach a length of torn blanket between their windows by swinging it like a pendulum. Finally they made contact.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul \u201cLad, have you any Olive?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter \u201cWhat\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul \u201cHave you any OLIVE lad, OLIVE OIL \u2013 Foil?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter \u201cWhat? Oh yeah lad, got some here, I\u2019ll send it over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n More mutterings as the line is passed one way with the tin foil attached, then the other way as heroin is exchanged.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter \u201cThat\u2019s a decent little bit lad. Looks proper. I\u2019m on it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul \u201cYes lad. Me too!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There followed a period of quiet, which I assumed was due to the lads smoking heroin off the tin foil that they had exchanged. About 15 minutes later the conversation picked up again \u2013 albeit with the speech at a more \u2018chillaxed\u2019 level.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul \u201cWell lad. How\u2019s that for you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter \u201cSound lad. I\u2019m mashed. Well chilled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul \u201cWell you\u2019ll be happy now cos I\u2019ve got enough for the same tomorrow and the next day\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter \u201cIs right lad, we\u2019ll ride this basic like a piece of piss!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul \u201cIs right lad. Speak to you tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that was it for the night. The pair turned in and I went back to my evening. But the following morning I woke to a kerfuffle. It didn\u2019t take long to realise that the lads below were being spun by the security team. When we were unlocked the worst had already taken place, I saw one of the kangas with an evidence bag contained blackened tin foil. The pair were frog marched off to be drugs tested and no doubt brought for an adjudication that would extend their stay on Basic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That evening I overheard the pair talking again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter \u201cHow did they get on us so quickly lad?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul \u201cThey must have been tipped off lad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter \u201cWho do you think did it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul \u201cIt\u2019s them upstairs lad, they\u2019re all snitches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t doubt for a second that the security team were tipped off. I am certain that the tip came from somebody who had overheard their conversation. The geography of the wing really should have been a clue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter was located in cell 2. Paul was located in cell 1. A mere two feet away from their cells was another window \u2013 the window to an office that is occupied by prison staff, specifically the night watch kanga that fills in observation reports on the hour every hour. Peter and Paul are typical of the criminal masterminds that I have met throughout my sentence \u2013 the lads who will tip you off to a fool-proof scams and ways to beat security systems or surveillance, while they are in prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I was in Walton prison I was briefly located<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,68,100,138,199,312,427,439,471],"class_list":["post-1123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prison","tag-basic-regime","tag-blackened-tin-foil","tag-chillaxed","tag-domestic-visit","tag-heroin","tag-olive-oil","tag-snitches","tag-spun-by-security-team","tag-tipped-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2195,"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123\/revisions\/2195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jailhousemoose.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}