The Laundry Man

When at Pentonville, Barry was soon known as the Laundry Man. He'd been offered the job of doing inmates' laundry. When he took it on, his predecessor managed some 15 or so loads per week. When Barry left, his 'personal best' was 62 loads per week. He established a system that didn't rely on favours being traded, but that tried to be fair: first come, first served. Along the way, he looked into why some inmates never handed laundry in and in one case, worked out that this person had problems with the unstructured setting of this aspect of his life inside. Being somewhere on the autistic spectrum, he needed to be given simple instructions: Hand in your laundry on Wednesday. Have a shower on the same day. It may not seem all that important, but it is. Barry made a real difference to that man, as well as providing an example for many others (some very young still) that shouting and violence isn't the only way to get things done. Barry excels at creating such nurturing bubbles in the most unlikely of climates, replacing antagonism with collaboration. They were lucky to have him at P-ville. Now Littlehey has that privilege.

Hair cuts and visiting orders

Barry has finally had a haircut! Hurray! For those of you who know Barry, you'd know this is a big deal, as hot weather and long hair is not a combination Barry enjoys, at all. When he was at Pentonville, a mate of his made sure he'd be the first one done, (meaning with freshly sterilised clippers) to avoid Barry picking up anything his depleted immune system would not let him fight off. Here at Littlehey, they didn't seem to see the sense of that and Barry has had to wait until such time as he had his Hep. B jabs.

Meanwhile, I have had to rearrange a visit to him that I had organised for myself and two of his ex-colleagues for August. I had committed the cardinal sin of using a yellow bit of paper instead of a white one to book a visit on a Sunday. For those of you new to this, visiting orders at Littlehey come in two versions: White and Yellow. If you are good, you get an extra visit, that can be booked with a yellow visiting order, marked 'privilege visiting order'. The privilege, you understand, is extended to a prisoner, who can take time off during his working week (in prison) to receive visitors. But I ask you: How many visitors can take time off their working week on a regular basis to honour such 'privileges'. My boss is brilliant and has been very accommodating, but I wager there are those among us for whom it is simply not an option.

And how are we meant to organise this? Barry has to send these out (three per month at the moment) with the visitors' details already filled in! Even at Pentonville the visiting orders were sent out blank, and we could sort ourselves out on the outside and tell him on the inside. And how is he to know whether someone will be able to take time off work or when? At this stage, the dates still have to be booked. Admittedly, so far I have been given the dates I asked for, but I'm told that this could be very different around busy times, such as Christmas. I'm told from all sides that this is our problem, meaning basically that Barry and I are having to waste valuable phone time discussing admin, instead of really talking. And if you thought your phone company was ripping you off, try HMPS! Privilege my ...

My tip for the day: Should you find yourself being interviewed by the police, and your brief advises you to make a 'no comment' statement, tell him he's an incompetent idiot. It may harm you defense ... annihilate more like!

My first outing

My thanks to C., for recommending this site. It is as easy as he said it would be, and I already feel a huge sense of relief to know that I shall be able to express all that the last two years, and the last five months in particular have been like. It needs to come out. To wake up of a morning knowing you live in a country where the likes of my husband Barry get put in jail is really scary. Anyone who knows Barry knows this too. Barry? In jail? They'll be digging up Mother Theresa next and bang her up as well! Hopefully cataloguing the mistakes we made will help prevent others suffering the same fate as him. And please stay with it. This is not a story of pure doom and gloom, far from it. How could this be, with Barry involved. Lands in the shit, comes up smelling of roses. This describe Barry to a tee/T/tea (?).

A wise man said, every journey begins with a first step. Here it is, at last.

My tip for the day: There isn't anything in the world that lawyers can't make worse for putting their oar in.