by Ronald Kray
What happens now to the story of Broadmoor? There must be enormous change in the British penal system in prisons and special hospitals before there is anarchy and destruction. The Conservative government realized this in 1991 - finally - and in February of that year Lord Justice Wolf set the prison reform agenda for the rest of this century, and the beginning of next, when he published proposals to restore decency and justice into jails where conditions had become intolerable.
His recommendations also reflected conditions at many of Britain’s specialist penal establishments, such as Broadmoor. Indeed, just a few months later, the government revealed that it planned to spend ‘millions’ on Broadmoor. It also said it now accepted that as many as 50 per cent of patients inside the hospital should not have been there at all, and should never have been committed to such a harsh regime. Finally, plans are afoot eventually to move many of these patients to as yet unbuilt special secure hospitals. How long all of this will take is anybody’s guess but, at least, and at long last, there is hope.
At the centre of Lord Wolf’s 600-page report on the riot at Strangeways jail in Manchester, is a plan to convert most of the prison system into a network of community prisons, closer to the big towns and cities. Each jail would hold no more than four hundred inmates and the larger establishments would be split up into two or more prisons, each operating within the same perimeter fence. This is common sense - so why did it take the riot at Strangeways to make it obvious to those who run the country? And why did it take a costly investigation by Lord Justice Wolf officially to state the obvious?
Prisoners will welcome Lord Wolf’s recommendation that ‘A new prison rule should establish that no establishment should exceed its certified capacity by more than 3 per cent for more than seven days in any three months.’ One of the main causes of trouble in Britain’s jails in recent years has been overcrowding. It makes life hell for both the prisoners and the men who have to supervise them. This is not helped by the fact that Britain has fewer prison officers than any other major European country. Fewer officers - but far more prisoners. It’s all been dangerously out of balance.
Other aspects of the Wolf Report are to be welcomed, such as the suggestion that prisoners should receive a formal contract stating what the prison was expected to provide and what was expected from the prisoner in return. And, if the prisoner felt his expectations of the prison were not fulfilled, he could invoke grievance procedures and, as a last resort, seek judicial review.
Lord Wolf also wisely recommended that offenders be put in jails close to home, so that their relations can visit them more easily and some sort of family life can be maintained.
Home Secretary Kenneth Baker has promised to abolish ‘slopping out’ in all prisons and special hospitals by the end of
1994.This degrading practice should have been ended many years ago. Mr Baker also promised measures to improve inmates’ family ties, including extra visits and home leaves, the abolition of routine censorship of mail (at Broadmoor every letter sent or received by a patient is opened and read by the hospital), and the provision of cardphones for use at prisoners’ own expense.
A lot of promises but perhaps the words of Lord Justice Wolf and Judge Stephen Tumim, the Chief Inspector of Prisons and joint author of the report, that ‘it should be regarded as a complete package’, and that ministers should not choose ‘only some ingredients’, will be heeded.
Kenneth Baker said, ‘Prison is not supposed to be a holiday camp, but nor should it degrade mid humiliate. Jails should be austere but decent, providing a busy but positive regime.’
Bibliography
I have read a lot of books about crime, Broadmoor, etc., and I have borrowed a small amount of information from some of them, plus some quotations. I acknowledge my debt to the following books:
Reg Kray, Born Fighter, Century Books, 1991 Tony Lambrianou, Inside the Firm, Smith Gryphon, 1991 Brian McConnell, Turn Tullett and Edward Vale, The Evil Firm, Mayflower, 1969 Ralph Partridge, Broadmoor-A History of Criminal Lunacy and Its Problems, Chatto & Windus Leonard Read with James Morton, Nipper, Macdonald, 1992 Scene Out, Archway Publishing, (magazine)
Reg and Ron Kray with Fred Dinenage Our Story £5.99
The Kray twins were Britain’s most notorious gangsters. For a decade they were the gang lords of the London underworld.
Their reign of terror ended on March 8 1969 when Ronnie and Reg were sentenced to life with the recommendation that they serve at least thirty years.
Today Ronnie languishes in Broadmoor - his raging insanity only controlled by massive doses of drugs. Reg has served two decades in some of Britain’s toughest jails.
But the men whose name was a byword for fear have never revealed the truth about their violent life and times - until now. In Our Story, they set the record straight. In their own words they tell the full story of their brutal careers in crime and their years behind bars.
Compiled from a series of interviews behind prison walls, Our Story is the book that finally explodes the myths that have surrounded the Kray twins.
‘Reminds the reader that a penal system that does not attempt to rehabilitate the sick in mind is always going to fail the society it aims to protect. The Krays, it would be fair to say, have been left to rot’
THE OBSERVER
‘A fascinating social document… Reg is fiercely, bitterly sane and his stocial endurance of 20 years’ incarceration with another ten to go has a gloomy dignity which commands respect and makes his and his brother’s account of their lives worth reading’
THE SPECTATOR
‘An astonishing book … you will be astounded by the frankness of the Krays’ own chilling story of crime’
THE SUN