Banged Up by Ronnie Thompson

10 things you didn’t know about being a screw

Ronnie Thompson is a former prison officer. His first book, Screwed, was a gruelling real-life account of life behind bars that hit the headlines when published earlier this year. For the first time he exposed the underworld of bent screws, the drugs they traffic, the firms they work for and what they get paid for their sins.

Ronnie’s second book, Banged Up, is a brutal account of life from the other side of the bars, written from the point-of-view of a career-criminal who has been sent down for life. The book features several real incidents from Ronnie’s ten-year career as a prison officer, including a prison riot, an escape and the devastating suicide of one inmate.

Ronnie told us ten things we didn't know about what being a prison screw...

1 You’re more outnumbered than you could ever imagine. You can be one of ten officers looking after anything up to four-hundred prisoners.

2 Not all screw’s are ex-military tough-nuts… Not all!  In fact, during my time in the service, recruitment seemed to stay away from ex-forces, trying to portray a more diverse range of members of staff.

3 Threats of violence are always there. Usually they are hot air. Sometimes they need to be reported. Other times you have to do what needs to be done in order to walk away in one piece.

4 Dirty protests. Dulux of the arse… This is when an inmate decides to cover himself and his cell in his own excrement. As an officer you have deal with them, only getting an extra tenner a shift to roll around on the floor with someone covered in their own shit.

5 Self harmers & suicides. Unfortunately there is still an awful amount of prisoners who take to self harming. However, some manipulate the system by crying wolf to get ‘extras’ – leaving the real vulnerable unattended. Suicides can and do happen. This isn’t just because the staff haven’t done their job. Many prisoners that kill themselves have shown no indication whatsoever.

6 The prison service have covert & overt specialist units. Many of the specials jobs that the prison service do on a daily basis is either not known, or miss-credited to local police. There are tactical support units, riot response teams, hostage negotiators along with many more. Some of these units do work outside of the prison service with other government agencies.

7 Bent screws are rife. Unfortunately, there are too many who wear the uniform and have a price. Heroin, crack, ketamine – you name it, it’s in prison. The majority of it comes in by bent staff.

8 Security isn’t tight enough. And this isn’t because of incompetence. Many screws would oppose being searched every morning, which would cut down on corruption. Why they refuse, I don’t know. If you’ve got nothing to hide… So it doesn’t happen. Plus there are rules protecting inmates. I’ve seen drugs and contraband hanging out the back passage of many prisoners. But there is nothing you can do. Unless you want a criminal charge of sexual assault for trying to retrieve it.

9 Punishment is LESS inside. If you were to smash someone’s house up, or maybe violently attack someone – there is a very high chance of being sent down. You do either of those inside, you’ll most likely lose some privileges, like tobacco and sweets.

10 Mental heath is a huge problem. Prisons are not equipped to deal with the severely mentally ill. Yet the prison service is rife with these people who aren’t getting the correct help, and are literally causing havoc (violence) due to the lack of resources.