Product Description

DAY 5 MONDAY 23 JULY 2001 5.53AM 'The sun is shining through the bars of my window on what must be a glorious summer day. I've been incarcerated in a cell five paces by three for twelve and a half hours, and will not be let out again until midday; eighteen and a half hours of solitary confinement. There is a child of seventeen in the cell below me who has been charged with shoplifting - his first offence, not even convicted - and he is being locked up for eighteen and a half hours, unable to speak to anyone. This is Great Britain in the twenty-first century, not Turkey, not Nigeria, not Kosovo, but Britain.' On Thursday 19 July 2001, after a perjury trial lasting seven weeks, Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years in jail. He was to spend the first twenty-two days and fourteen hours in HMP Belmarsh, a double A-Category high-security prison in South London, which houses some of Britain's most violent criminals. This is the author's daily record of the time he spent there.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6169 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 259 pages

About the Author
FF 8282 is a serving prisoner and during his incarceration has written three diaries: Volume One - Belmarsh: Hell Volume Two - Wayland: Purgatory Volume Three - North Sea Camp: Heaven

Customer Reviews

Hell on Earth
While people probably felt that Archer deserved to go down, and others felt not, this narrative of prison life in a cat A prison pulls no punches. Archer has taken the time (excuse the pun) to find out as much as he can about the life people lead in prison.

It speaks of the trials (again, excuse the unintentional pun) and tribulations of life behind bars, and the stark culture shock that first time offenders face when they pass through the iron gates. Interesting though, is the fact that the sanest, friendliest people in there, those that befriend him, and look after him, not because of his outside status (many of them spend too long behind bars to know) but because they want to, because, in their own morals he did not deserve to be there, and they wanted to help and ensure that Archer survives, those people are in there for some of the worst crimes.

A fantastic work, which really brings home the state of Britains prisons in the 21st century.

Some interesting insights, but marred by excessive ego
In 2001, Jeffrey Archer was convicted of perjury, arising out of his libel suit against a tabloid newspaper some years earlier, from which he had profited enormously. His conviction occurred as a result of new evidence indicating that there had been a conspiracy, instigated by Archer himself, to 'prove' that he could not possibly have been with a prostitute on the night in question.
Convicted of perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, Archer was initially sent to Belmarsh, a high-security jail in London, pending recategorisation to a lower-security prison based on being assessed as low-risk. He spent a period of just over a month in Belmarsh, and this diary - written while in prison - is the result.

In reading it, one has to learn to ignore the continual hard-done-by attitude of Archer. He consistently pleads his innocence, despite his guilt being indisputable, and complains about the 'bias' of the trial judge. We are treated to a stream of commentary about the judge's summing-up, and as if that's not enough, Archer tells us all about the letters he receives sympathising with him and agreeing that he has been treated unfairly (he doesn't mention any correspondence which says that he got what he deserved!). He also name-drops constantly in relation to 'famous' people who are apparently on his side.

He also has to name-drop in relation to fellow prisoners, so we hear about Ronnie Biggs, the Great Train Robber, who is also in Belmarsh, and also Barry George, on remand at the time awaiting trial for the murder of Jill Dando. In this respect, it is hard to understand how the book got published; it is apparently against Home Office rules to identify serving prisoners in this way.

All that aside, there are some telling insights into prison life which deserve wider reading. For instance, Archer puts forward a vigorous argument against sending those convicted of minor offences and serving short terms to a high-security prison such as Belmarsh. The young man serving six weeks for breaking a red light is a telling example: he is being put under severe pressure to murder the witness in another prisoner's trial, once he is released. Another short-term prisoner was persuaded to try heroin for the first time while in Belmarsh, and within a couple of days is addicted: so when he is released once his six weeks are up, how will he fund his addiction?

There are certainly lessons to be learned about the prison culture and the criminal justice system from Archer's book, and given the author's reputation as a novelist, this book is sure to get a wide circulation. However, it is far from being the best critical account of prison life in recent years; I would recommend that anyone wishing to read a less egotistical and melodramatic account might look for Erwin James' A Life Inside, also available.

A compelling read
How does a Peer of the Realm and former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, sentenced to four years for perjury and perverting the course of justice, cope with the initial 21 days in Belmarsh (Hellmarsh) High Security (Category A) Prison, where many of the inmates are murderers serving life sentences? What is most striking is that, apart from the one volley of threatening abuse which he reports, the other prisoners are quite friendly to him, and they seem to welcome the interest he takes in them and their stories (which they know will figure in his Prison Diary, the keeping of which kept him sane). Archer shows great compassion for most of them, and he receives a touching letter from one of the inmates, telling him that this has not gone unnoticed It is astonishing how some of them looked after him, and how much they trusted him. They told him not only their stories, but also all the tricks of how to cope, and even of how and why drugs are introduced into prisons. That long section alone should be an eye-opener for the innocent reader. One would think responsible ministers and prison authorities know all about this - but one does wonder. (See also my review on Vols. II and III)