Strangeways: A Prison Officer's Story

While this book didn't have a structured narrative and lacked focus, it provides a rather interesting and transparent viewpoint of the UK's current prison service. It raises some really relevant issues surrounding the faults within our current prison system. This book also contacts some harrowing incidents and I applaud Samworth for his openness and honesty in expressing his psychological demise while working as a prison officer which lead him to leave the profession due to being diagnosed with PTSD. This book however lacked a wider point of focus and I found the end chapter a rather idealised and oversimplified proposal of an improvement for the prison service issues. This book is clearly not written by an author but it provides a reader with an invaluable and authentic fly on the wall expose of the current prison system and allows the British public to be privy to the way in which the prison service is being let down by the lack of training, poor recruitment drives and not providing P.O's with the mental support they need while on the job. A valuable and informative read but without the academic and thought out craftsmanship of a journalist/ academic/ non-fiction author.