Free Inseparable Bond by David Poulter Page A

on
arrival was far from the polite and welcoming approach given at a
hotel check-in.
    ‘This place
can be heaven or hell, Bell, it just depends on you,’ the receiving
officer said. ‘If you behave yourself it’s heaven, if you
misbehave, we will make it hell for you,’ he said, as he flicked
through his file.
    It was a
lovely sunny day when Bell arrived, and he thought this was a good
omen. The building was modern and clean, well-lit and comfortably
furnished. Trees and gardens surrounded the prison. The cells were
now known as ‘blocks’ and looked out on to a courtyard. He was
taken to an administration ward and met by a doctor and a social
worker. He was weighed and his height measured and told to undress
and get into a bath. The doctor, social worker and screws stood
watching him all the time.
    The atmosphere
was heavy with the staff presence, deliberately designed to have a
psychological effect of intimidation and control.
    He was issued
to block ‘C’, a total contrast to what he had experienced in
Strangeways but it still had its own rules, ward policies and
regulations, but it was known as one of the more friendlier prisons
and he soon settled into it. Bell’s new life had begun and he soon
adapted to it.
    Bell was
delighted to have landed a job in the prison gardens at last. He
worked alongside Paul Adams, a small, thin, bald strange looking
man with deep set flickering eyes. He was a psychiatric patient who
would never be released due to his sadistic and horrifying string
of murders of prostitutes in Brighton and Hove.
    He had been a
caretaker in a Sussex hospital, where he would take a prostitute to
the basement; subject them to violent sex while suffocating them.
He would then incinerate them in the hospital’s boiler. The
untreated remains made the smoke belch from the chimney where
neighbours found the pollution intolerable and instead of informing
the police, they informed the fire department. When the firemen
arrived, they found dismembered corpses littering the floor. Limbs,
heads and feet were scattered in grisly disarray, and they called
the police. Forensic experts later pieced the remains together,
which made a total of six human bodies.
    Most of the
inmates were mentally ill and considered a danger to the public
with little chance of ever being released.
    Although all
of the inmates work on the outside of the prison, the security is
far less to that of a closed prison, but it is not an easy place to
escape from. During the day inmates are counted and again when they
are locked in their cells and at every mealtime.
    All the staff
have walkie-talkies in case of a fight or an inmate becoming
violently disturbed. Once the bell goes off, staff from other
blocks come to their assistance if necessary. The staff are all big
guys, they are usually armed with clubs, but they are trained in
the techniques of restraint, unlike in Srangeways where their
approach to violence was a good kicking to control the
situation.
    Bell spent his
days outside planting trees and flower seeds when he wasn’t potting
plants in the greenhouse, He kept himself to himself and his only
contact with other inmates was at meal times or recreational
periods.
    He regularly
visited the prison doctor to be assessed, with emphasis placed on
his mental condition, which had been the authority’s main concern
at his parole hearing.
    Bell did have
his own medical advisor, two cells down in the same block, Danny
Frost.
    Danny was
known throughout the block as Doctor Frost. He wasn’t really a
qualified doctor, but he had an amazing knowledge of medical
matters. A lot of inmates would visit him with various problems,
mainly sexual where much activity was known to have gone on. The
screws turned a blind eye to it, except a couple that also visited
him to satisfy their sexual fetish.
    Many other
inmates were also articulate and intelligent, despite what people
on the outside might think. They were not savages; they were
personalities in