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 DATA ANALYSIS

The Control Group

This section deals with interviews with four men, including myself, who spent long periods of time in prison whilst serving a life sentence. All were guilty as charged. They serve as a control group for comparison against later interviews with 'miscarriage of justice' victims. In the cases of 'John', 'Peter' and 'Jack' I have summarised what I feel are the salient points in unstructured interviews lasting several hours. I have used the summarising process as a preliminary form of selection and analysis

Norman

In 1970, at 26 years of age, I was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. At the time I was actively engaged in criminal activity and the victim was a fellow criminal. Prior to the offence I had been treated for depression and regularly experienced feelings of rage. I had previously served a six year sentence for manslaughter.

  As much as the transition into prison for such a long time was painful to me, I remember thinking that it all had a certain inevitability about it. I, and many other people, had seen it coming. It was some consolation, but not much.

  With my previous experience of prison and my extensive criminal friends and acquaintances, I had no trouble fitting in. On my arrival at a new prison other Londoners would rally round, befriend me and help me settle in. Quite often I had never previously met them, although we usually had mutual friends. This network of support gave me much comfort over the years.

  I soon became a dedicated escaper, making several serious attempts, although never actually getting away. Apart from the obvious goal, it also helped psychologically. I was no longer doing a life sentence, I was going home next week, next month, or whenever I could organise the next escape attempt.

  I still suffered from depression and took some medication for it. I also had a well

-thought out survival strategy. The mental regimen centred around studying for a degree on the Open University: the physical regimen around gruelling work-outs several times a day.

  The first eight years I spent in Category A, maximum security prisons, with oppressive security restrictions and little freedom of movement. I then spent two years in a category B prison, with appreciably more freedom. The next ten years I spent between two Category C, semi-open prisons. Here the regime was much more relaxed and I could wander round the extensive grounds of the prisons with very little supervision.

  Shortly before I was moved to open prison the Governor escorted me on a two-hour 'town walk' around a local market town. It was my first experience of freedom in twenty years and was specifically intended to help me gradually acclimatise myself.

  In the open prison, all doors were unlocked and I had complete freedom of movement about the grounds in the hours of daylight. After two months I went out on a half-day 'town walk' in a nearby seaside town with my case officer. A month later I went out on a similar 'town walk' on my own.