Free Heaven: A Prison Diary by Jeffrey Archer Page B

the way, they all adore her. She not only knows their life histories to the
minutest detail, but also treats them as human beings.
4.00 pm
    Only one other incident of note today – the appearance at SMU of a
man who killed a woman in a road accident and was sentenced to three years for
dangerous driving. He’s a mild-mannered chap who asked me for help with
his book on Kurdistan. Mr New tells me that he is going to be transferred to
another jail. The husband of his victim lives in Boston and, as the inmate is
coming up for his first town visit, the victim’s husband has objected on the
grounds that he might come across him in his daily life.
    The inmate
joins me after his meeting with Mr New. He’s philosophical about the decision.
He accepts that the victim’s family have every right
to ask for him to be moved.
    He’s so clearly
racked with guilt, and seems destined to relive this terrible incident for the
rest of his life, that I find myself trying to comfort him. In truth, he’s a
different kind of lifer.
10.00 pm
    It must be Guy
Fawkes Day, because from my little window I can see fireworks exploding over
Boston.

DAY 111 - TUESDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2001
5.49 am
    The big news in
the camp today is that from 1
    November, NSC
is to become a resettlement prison. (No doubt you will have noticed that it’s 6
November.) The change of status could spell survival for NSC, which has been
under threat of closure for several years.
    Resettlement
means quite simply that once a prisoner has reached his FLED (facility licence
eligibility date) – in my case July next year – he can take a job outside the
prison working for fifty-five hours a week, not including travelling time. The
whole atmosphere of the prison will change when inmates are translated into
outmates. They will leave the prison every morning between seven and eight, and
not return until seven in the evening.
    Prisoners will
be able to earn £150 to £200 a week, just as Clive does as a line manager for
Exotic Foods. It will be interesting to see how quickly NSC implements the new
Home Office directive.
8.30 am
    Seven new
arrivals at NSC today, who complete their induction
talk and labour board by 11.21 am. My job as SMU orderly is now running
smoothly, although Matthew tells me that an officer said that for the first
week I made the worst cup of tea of any orderly in history. But now that I’ve
worked out how to avoid tea leaves ending up in the mug, I need a fresh
challenge.
2.30 pm
    Mr New warns me
that the prison is reaching full capacity, and they might have to put a second
bed in my room. Not that they want anyone to share with me, after the News of the World covered three pages
with the life history of my last unfortunate cell-mate. It’s simply a gesture
to prove to other inmates that my spacious abode is not a single dwelling.
5.00 pm
    I write, or to
be more accurate, work on the sixth draft of my latest novel Sons of Fortune.
7.00 pm
    Doug and I
watch Channel 4 news. Fighting breaks out in Stormont during David Trimble’s
press conference following his reappointment as First Minister. If what I am
witnessing on television were to take place at NSC, they would all lose their
privileges and be sent back to closed conditions.
    Doug has a
natural gift of timing, and waits until the end of the news before he drops his
bombshell. The monthly prison committee meeting – made up in equal numbers of
staff and prisoners – is to have its next get-together on Friday. The governor
is chairman, and among the five prison representatives are Doug and Clive; two
men who understand power, however limited.
    Doug tells me
that the main item on the agenda will be resettlement, and he intends to apply
to work at his haulage company in Cambridgeshire. His application fulfils the
recommended criteria, as March is within the fifty-five-mile radius. It is also
the job he will return to once he’s released, relieving his wife of the
pressure of running the company while he’s been