Sunday 2 October 2022

SIMON KING - PRISON DAYS BOOK 1 (2018)

 


Synopsis/blurb …

Stabbings. Rapes. Murders. Welcome to Maximum-Security.

Simon King works in one of the country’s worst maximum-security prisons. These are the true diary entries that describe the nightmare world beyond the walls. It’s a raw and brutal look into the day-to-day running of a place where the prisoners decide your fate.

Get ready for an uncensored trip behind the razor wire, as you experience life inside a place holding the worst offenders imaginable. Experience the horrific assaults, murders, prison gangs and day-to-day chaos that makes this one of the worst jobs on earth. Can you handle a trip into maximum-security?

Prison Days Book 1 is the first in the series. If you enjoy reading about real-life crime, with all its raw and honest details, then you will love the Prison Days series.

Unlock Prison Days Book 1 today and begin your journey behind the walls of one of the most challenging places on the planet.

An interesting account of an Australian prison guard’s daily routine looking after some not particularly nice people. The short book of 60 odd pages is presented matter-of-factly in date order. I can’t remember whether the journal entries ran longer than a week or not, but it’s a moot point, as it’s certainly long enough to get a feel for the author’s working life and how a maximum-security facility in Australia runs. King has shifts on different units within the prison, with varying categories of prisoners and duties depending on where he is and who he's interacting with.

We meet inmates and staff members. We encounter strip searches, cell searches, head-counts, meal times, the issuing of medications, lockdown, smuggling, contraband, a falling out among cellmates, violence, self-harm, camaraderie, trust, friendship, the aftermath of violent rape in the company of the victims, the perpetrator, the medical support team, the investigation and the horror at the apathy and lack of care by the previous shift officers who didn’t want to deal with the allegations and complaint as it was close to their shift end. There's other medical emergencies, in the form of two heart attacks - one an inmate, one a colleague. There's CPR up close and uncomfortable. One man survived, one didn't.

We learn the importance of vigilance, concentration and common sense and respect. As King says, it's the prisoners who get to decide whether he goes home at the end of his shift or not. He's not there to judge the inmates, as that's already happened. He has to remain unemotional and detached, while still remaining human.

The author says it takes a special kind of person to do his job. I'd have to agree. Not a career option I'll be considering a switch to. 

4 from 5

This opener is the first in a series of about 15 books on Simon King's experiences as a prison guard. I'll probably read a few more and see how I go. I don't know that they will all have something new to offer, but I'm pre-judging.

Read – September, 2022
Published – 2018
Page count – 61
Source – Kindle Unlimited
Format – Kindle

2 comments:

  1. Yeah, I wouldn't want that job, either, Col. It's interesting, though, to get a look at what life is like in those places. It's a very different sort of world with its own rules, I'd say.

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    1. I've known a couple of people who have worked in detention centres/prisons over here Margot and they didn't last too long. Scarred by what they saw.

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