The Good Prison Guide - I've done more Porridge than Goldilocks - and now I'm going to tell you all about it. Charles Bronson
me. I actually went into Newcastle’s East End and put my gloves on because I was just so wound up. It was a slagging letter and that was just part of it. I went to this boxing club, and you are talking about a lot of big lads there, you are talking about big bouncers. At my age, I shouldn’t even have been in the ring.
I ended up with a face like a piece of raw liver, but I could not feel any pain, I was just blinded from the pain and I just wanted to battle on and on. I went round after round, one after the other.
And what brought me round was hearing this voice, it was Carlo’s, one of my sons, and he was at the ringside crying. I was in a right state, and so were a few others, but the aggression kept me going, but I didn’t know I was doing it.
That is how much respect I have for Charlie for what he’s gone through and endured, but this one letter … all my past just came flooding back in one big gush. For Charlie to say that I was laughing at his life sentence was something that had been misunderstood by him caused by the paranoia that being in isolation brings with it. I wouldn’t laugh at somebody doing a week behind bars.
Since then, it has all been straightened out and Charlie gave me real big apology because he realised what had happened in this crazy mix up. And I did crack that day – I know for a fact I had, I had just flipped my lid. It was then that I realised that your past never leaves you, because I just became the animal I always was. It was as if I had gone back to being in the block. Maybe that shows you what isolation all about. Even as a professional isolationist, after many years of freedom, such a place can still come back to taunt and haunt you.
Charlie, stay sane.
Harry Marsden
Let me start out by telling you that, contrary to public opinion, I have never killed anyone … hard to believe, ain’t it! The film director Michael Winner called me a murderer when he wrote about me in his News of the World column. The following week, after he was put straight on the matter, he apologised in the same column and withdrew his remarks … apology accepted.
Why did Michael believe me to be a killer? Simple – public opinion. Another feature in a national newspaper by Chris House had me down as ‘the man, killer and robber …’ It’s an easy mistake to make, and a mistake that has caused me to lose public support for the hell I’ve been put through.
Why is it that a man like me who has served so long behind bars and has been branded the most dangerous con in the UK penal system is considered automatically to be a killer? Why am I mistakenly branded in such a way? I’ve never killed anyone in my life!
Propaganda perpetrated by HM Prison Service has caused me no end of trouble. Sneaky little stories leaked to the press by prison officers only sets out to cut you all off from me; it makes you turn your backs on the ‘no good Bronson’. Well, this book, after you’ve read it, will cause you to have grave concerns about the way HM Prison Service can get away with gross acts of violence against me with the full backing of HM Government’s Home Office.
I do not stand without admitting my own failure as a convict and human being; I do not stand without admitting my own failure as a caring man; and I do not stand without admitting my own failure as an example for young people to look up to. But neither does HM Prison Service stand without being able to admit defeat when it comes to why they haven’t been able to help me and why the prison population is steadily growing.
For those of you who have never cast eyes on the inside of a prison or even a police cell, this book should act as a deterrent. For those of you unfortunate enough to find yourselves lost and forlorn and pushed up against the wall of a prison cell, this book could be your saviour. For those of you already incarcerated in prison, then this book should help pass the time … unless, of course, they’ve banned it! And then you’re not to know what is within, but my thoughts are with all of those in such a situation.
Just about everyone on earth has or will be affected by some sort of crime at least once in his or her lifetime. You’ve all been hurt by crime, even if it’s been indirectly. A member of your family, a close friend or a workmate can cause you to share their pain by virtue of the crime they have had perpetrated against them.
Whole communities can be affected by a sudden monstrous crime carried out against one of their own. Look at how Mary Bell, as a child, caused so much pain and suffering in her community when she murdered her peers. Look at how Brady and Hindley caused so much suffering. Look at how Sutcliffe caused so much blind panic amongst women. Look at how Fred and Rose West preyed on those too weak to defend themselves. Look at how the murder of Sarah Payne caused so much emotional turmoil. Look at how paedophilia causes us to want to kill or, at the very least, punish the perpetrators of evil. Crime affects all of us – you included – without you even necessarily being a victim of a crime?
Doesn’t that tell you something? Doesn’t that explain why we have prisons and why people like me should be locked up for ever and have the key to their cell thrown away? ‘Bollocks’ is what I say to that!
How can I make such a statement? How can I qualify what I mean without causing every good citizen to break out in a sweat? First, read this book and then let it soak in. I intend to show you that prisons are obsolete and that they do not act as a deterrent to crime, neither do they rehabilitate those within their walls … mind you, it’s a good way to keep hundreds of thousands of people employed, isn’t it?
Think about how the economy of any Western country would falter if prisons ceased to exist, but also think about how many others would be employed in other ways. OK, we can’t have paedophiles and child-killers walking the streets, we can’t have evil killers walking the streets and we can’t have any sort of criminal walking the streets. But what about when the day comes and they are legally free to walk the streets of your community amongst you and your children?
Well, that is happening right now; you might be living next-door to a paedophile or, as you walk along your local streets, you’re bound to see someone with a shady past. What if these characters – anyone who has ever had a criminal record, say – were all rounded up and just slung behind bars! Do you know how many millions in this country would be imprisoned? Fucking loads! Bring back the prison ‘hulks’ is what they’d be screaming for!
Where would we imprison them all? I once read that if everyone on earth stood next to each other, then they would all fit on the Isle of Man. Maybe we could do the same with these criminals – stand them all on an island next to each other. We could drop food from a helicopter and keep sharks and piranha fish in a giant moat to seal the island off from all those other nice people in the world.
But, in reality, you know all of that just isn’t possible and if you do believe what I say, then you need to get real. The public is out for revenge against anyone who has committed a crime against them … and you can’t blame them.
I mean, look at Tony Martin of the Bleak House murder. He suffered a sting by two burglars and he reacted in the way any person defending their property should be allowed to. Joe Public is out for blood – he wants revenge. And when he has exacted his revenge, he wants a further gallon of blood by wanting prisoners to suffer. What if it was your little Johnny who’d been shot at Bleak House?
Now look at it another way. What if it was your little Johnny who was doing time in the Grey Bar Hotel? Would you be pleased to see little Johnny beaten or even raped by another con? Would you give the prison officers a pat on the back for knocking some sense into your loved one? Would you congratulate the prison officers who allowed your little Johnny to tear some sheets up, make a noose out of them and hang himself?
You see, prisoners are just as much victims of crime as those they have wronged. When you’re in prison you are a helpless victim, nothing you do or complain about will prevent some sort of malady creeping into your life. You cannot walk away from a situation because there is no place to walk to. You are in an enforced position of having