Your Life

Prison

My experience of being in prison by Ashley Watts, at Her Majesty’s Young Offenders Institute, Warren Hill

I was just 15 years old when I received a 20 month detention order. I was sent to Warren Hill Young Offenders Unit where I had to serve my sentence.

I was very nervous about going to prison as I’d heard a lot of bad rumours. When I arrived at Warren Hill prison I was strip searched and had a photo taken of me for identity. It all seemed unreal at the time, I couldn’t believe I was in prison.

I made a phone call to my family on my first night. They were really upset at me being in prison, 115 miles from my home town. Due to lack of transport and because my home town is so far away I didn’t get any visits from my family. This hurt me as I couldn’t see them for over a year.

The education at Warren Hill was of really good use to me because it enabled me to get qualifications in English, Mathematics and CLAIT.

I’m making the most of my time here at Warren Hill by using my sentence as a time to reflect on the past, look to the future, think what I want to do in life, and getting some certificates in education.

There was a time when I was being bullied by other trainees to hand over my canteen and not to go to education but I learnt to stick up for myself and haven't had any problems since. Now I look out for other trainees. Bullying can happen anywhere in life, at school, work and in prison, I still don’t understand what a bully gets out of making some ones life hard and miserable though.

I found it very hard to settle in as I wasn't used to being locked up. It took me about 6 months to get used to the prison system. Waking up at 7:30am every morning, making a bed pack on a Sunday morning, going to education and being locked behind a door.

Time in prison goes very slow because as a prisoner all I can think about is going home and being with my family.

During the daytime it can be very boring. I try to keep myself busy by reading books, writing letters, or watching television but there’s not a great deal of things to do when you’re locked behind a door.

I feel that I've been treated fairly during my time in Warren Hill and have had a lot of support from all members of staff. However, prison isn’t the best of places to spend your time. There are plenty of better things to be doing than waiting in a prison cell for the TV’s to switch on!

Prison has not been a good experience for me at all. If I could turn the clocks back I would. As a prisoner my advice to anyone that commits crime would be to think about why you are doing it, is it necessary? Do you really need to commit crime? And to think about what it is like to be in prison.

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More about life at Warren Hill

Coming into prison as a convict can be very upsetting, lonely and stressful and can make you feel really unwanted.

Warren Hill Prison gives lots of support to all young offenders within the prison. Receiving a prison sentence makes a lot of young offenders feel like giving up on life, but there’s lots of support such as counselling, seeing a member of the psychology unit, NYAS, Samaritans, a member of the chaplain, YOT or YOS worker, and Connexions who can give really good advice about future plans.

Clothing at Warren Hill Prison

After moving to a unit a prison officer will take measurements of your size for clothing. The prison officer would then order enough clothes for you for seven days. After seven days your clothes are renewed. Your clothing would normally be issued to you on a Saturday morning.

You would be issued with:

  • 6 boxer shorts
  • 6 pairs of socks
  • 5 T-shirts
  • 2 work shirts
  • 1 jumper
  • 2 pairs of jeans
  • 1 pair of track suit bottoms
  • 2 bed sheets
  • 2 pillow cases

When leaving your unit you have to wear jeans and a works shirt. When staying on the unit you can wear track suit bottoms and a T-shirt. The prison colours aren’t great colours. The T-shirts and jumper are usually bright orange, the work shirts are blue with white stripes, the track suit bottoms and socks are usually grey, the jeans and boxer shorts are blue, and the bed sheets are light green.

Prison clothes take a while to get used to because you are used to wearing your own clothes. Prison clothes are clean but have been worn by others several times. The clothes you wear when you first came in go into your own property box which is kept in the unit until your release date.

The cells

The prison cells at Warren Hill are mostly the same, the cells have 1 shelf, 1 wardrobe, 1 desk, 1 chair, 1 toilet, 1 sink, 1 single sized bed, a portable tv and a stereo. The cells are split into 2 areas, one part for the toilet and sink and the other for furniture. The cells also have an emergency medical bell. Every week day a prison officer comes into your cell to give it a rating of 1-5 based on how clean and tidy your cell is. They also check to see whether any furniture is broken and check the windows have not been tampered with.

The food

You get a menu to order your lunch and dinner from. You get a choice of 5 different meals for lunch and 4 different meals for dinner. Breakfast (at 8.00am) is always cereal, orange juice and a yoghurt. At meal times you go and collect your meal and take it back to your cell to eat.

Jobs in prison

There are various types of jobs for trainees in prison, the kinds of jobs you could get are cleaning orderlies, library orderlies, garden work and gym orderlies.

Daily Routine

Routine for a prisoner at Warren Hill on a weekday:

  • Get woken up 7:30am – 8:00am
  • Breakfast 8:00am – 8:45am
  • Education 8:45am – 11:45am
  • Back to unit 11:45am – 12:00pm
  • Lunchtime 12:00pm – 1:45pm
  • Education 12:45pm – 4:45pm
  • Back to unit 4:45pm – 5:00pm
  • Dinnertime 5:00pm – 6:15pm
  • Association/gym 6:15pm – 8:30pm
  • Bang up 8:30pm – 7:30am
  • Lights out 11:00pm – 7:30am

Routine for a prisoner at Warren Hill on a weekend:

  • Get woken up 7:30am – 8:00am
  • Breakfast 8:00am – 9:30am
  • Gym or Chapel 9:30am – 11:00am
  • Lunchtime 11:30am – 1:30pm
  • Association 1:30pm – 4:15pm
  • Bang up 4:15pm – 4:30pm
  • Dinnertime 4:30pm – 6:00pm
  • Association 6:00pm – 7:30pm
  • Bang up 7:30pm – 7:30am
  • Lights out 12:00am – 7:30am

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