Inseparable Bond (8 page)

Bell was
issued with a new set of clothes, although the issue of a striped
shirt and dark trousers, emphatically not what he would like to
wear, as it was rough and cheap material but even if it were to the
best of material the uniform still spelt out, you are a prisoner
and not an ordinary citizen and it is designed to remind you that
the uniform is associated with the low status of being a prisoner,
a captive who is held behind bars and walls against his own wishes
as he is a criminal.

The conditions
on the new wing were far different from the old, where you were not
watched day and night and your sleep was not disturbed by the
screws that would decide to wake an inmate up in the middle of the
night, just for the hell of it, whenever they could. It passed the
time for the screws, but Bell had never been subject to such
treatment. In the worse cases, the screws would pick on a child
molester where they would torment, harass and wind him up until he
could take no more and retaliated. That gave the screws the chance
to give the con a good hiding. The punches, kicks and beatings from
their clubs were always aimed at the body, never at the face, that
way the beating didn’t show.

He was now
able to socialise more, with less restrictions to confinement, in
this way he could gradually learn to appreciate honesty and
communication with other inmates.

This growing
mutual acceptance would hopefully lead to a better sense of
self-acceptance and he could become more and more interactive at
longer periods.

His new-found
friend was Sam Bentley; a tall heavily-built back man, who had
served three years of his eight-year sentence. He was a physically
strong man but with an unexpected gentleness and kindness which
attracted Bell.

He had been
convicted for a string of rapes on elderly women in high-rise
blocks of flats in Birmingham. He would follow them into the
elevators and rape them on the top floor after carrying them two
flights further to the roof of the building. He told Bell it was
the best place for a rape as a tall residential building is
normally surrounded and separated by a busy road system and stood
out like an isolated island where their screams went undetected by
the noise of the traffic below.

Bentley was
living in such a block within the cluster of high-rise buildings
where he could freely watch the old ladies enter the building and
knew how to move from one building to the other. With so many
inhabitants, the flats were visited by many people, most of them
unknown or unfamiliar, and attracting little attention.

With him being
familiar with the elevators, passageways and service doors typical
of these buildings, he found easy pickings on the streets in the
sky.

Although he
did not murder or inflict injury to his victims, he left
fingerprints at the scene and was soon identified due to a previous
conviction when he tried to rape a 60-year-old woman as she left
the local library in Birmingham.

Another mate
of Bell’s was Donald Sanderson, he was a tall, thin guy, quiet and
unassuming and apart from contact with Bell, kept himself to
himself. He was a 52-year-old loner who attempted to rape flight
stewardesses on stopovers while he was an airline pilot for British
Airways. His two year sentence resulted in a divorce which he had
trouble coming to terms with, and was on constant suicide watch by
the screws.

Mickey Nelson,
the guy in the cell opposite from Bell, refused to have any contact
with anyone. At meal times he would take his tray to his cell and
never gathered on the open landings with the other inmates. Bell
would listen to him crying himself to sleep every night, probably
recalling his crimes he had committed or the isolation he found
hard to endure.

He had
kidnapped a hitchhiker on the Yorkshire moors, drove her to his
remote house on the outskirts of Hull where he beat, raped and
strangled her. He then stripped her of her clothes and wore them
while his victim hung from a hook on the back of the kitchen door,
where he sliced off her left breast. The same night he disposed of
her naked body in the River Humber.

His other
victim endured a similar fate. A salesman came to his door where he
knocked him unconscious with a baseball bat, stripped him and tied
him to a hook on the garage ceiling. When he regained
consciousness, Nelson buggered and sexually assaulted him and cut
off his penis with a Stanley knife before strangling him and
dumping his body in the River Humber at the same spot as his
previous victim. He kept his penis in his refrigerator alongside
the woman’s amputated breast as trophies.

His crime
spree went undetected for two years when it came to an abrupt end
after his nephew called to his house unexpectedly and found the
severed feet and hands from a victim along with a skeleton he had
hung on the shower hose. The skeleton had been his third victim. He
admitted on his arrest to have eaten some of the victims flesh
after seasoning it with salt and pepper and tomato sauce. His
nephew called the police who were waiting to arrest Nelson on his
return home. That was the end of his career of slaughter and he was
given a life sentence.

The new wing
housed an array of offenders, not all were categorised as
psychopathic murderers, some were known to have severe personality
disorders, but to Bell there was little difference as he freely
mingled among all categories on a daily basis.

The move to
the new wing was not only to offer Bell a cleaner and quieter
environment; it was also for the conditioning of a possible early
release to the outside world after an assessment of his
behaviour.

The recent
move to this more relaxed environment was a formal conditioning
through the official punishments and rewards.

Bell was not
considered to be as aggressive or manipulative as he had been in
the outside world. His freedom on the new wing was constantly under
supervision by specially trained officers who would study his
response and general behaviour to the lavish rewards he was
offered.

The rewards
ranged from cigarettes and ice cream, to visits to the cinema,
trips to town and coach trips to the coast.

On constant
assessment of Bell’s attitude to the rewards given, the authorities
of the prison filed for a parole hearing, which would be attended
by a psychiatrist, the prison doctor, his social worker and the
governor. Should these official bodies be in agreement to his early
release, it had to be finalised by the Home Office due to the
severity of the crimes he had committed.

Bill was
informed of his possible early release on a visit from his social
worker that explained the role he must play at the tribunal, as
much of the board’s decision would be based on his current state of
mind and attitude throughout the hearing.

Bill was
pleased with the news but apprehensive at the thought of surviving
in the outside society to which he may shortly return, as for the
past twelve years he had only been in the company of hardened
criminals.

He was given
one week to prepare himself for the tribunal and the reality of the
situation that possibly faces him on the outside. Just getting out
of prison, out of close confinement excited him and was worth
looking forward too, but he inwardly feared the change, as the past
twelve years inside were far different to the pace of life on the
outside.

Bell did not
have a family to accommodate him, his mother had died which left
only his sister, but her husband would never have him enter their
home, so he would need to look for lodgings and have interviews for
jobs which began to worry him as he had become familiar with the
ordinary prison conditions and felt safe and secure with the
inmates.

Over the next
few days, he concentrated on the hope of a successful hearing and
dreamed of being a law-abiding citizen.

Being in debt
when he entered prison meant there were no funds on the outside.
Although he would receive a small amount of money on his release,
it would demand considerable strength of character to build up a
new existence from such a very slender foundation, which Bell
realised could be a real and serious problem unless his sister was
in a financial position to assist in the short term.

The following
Monday morning, Bell prepared himself for the tribunal and was
escorted by two officers and his social worker to the governor’s
office for the parole tribunal. On entering the room, he smiled at
the panel of officials as he sat at the one chair facing them.

They talked
among themselves as they deliberated their outcome and bombarded
Bell with an abundance of pressured questions as a test to his
pending release to the outside community.

He returned to
his cell flanked by the two officers and laid on his bed feeling
exhausted after his ordeal. He had come to terms with the thought
of spending his entire sentence in the care of the prison
authorities should the outcome of the hearing not be successful, as
the thought of an existence on the outside did not seem as
attractive as he had first thought.

The next day
his social worker entered his cell and issued Bell with a letter
containing details of the outcome of the previous days tribunal,
stating that his application for parole had been unsuccessful.

He smiled at
the social worker as he looked around the floral patterned cell
then reached out, emotionally holding on to his social worker.

It wasn’t all
bad news, his case would be reviewed in two years and in the
meantime, he would be transferred to an open prison in
Buckinghamshire the following day.

He spent his
last night in Strangeways visiting his fellow inmates. Bell was sad
to be leaving his long-term friends and the strange sense of
security he had found behind the high walls, yet inwardly he was
excited at the prospect of spending time in a less hostile and
suppressed atmosphere.

He travelled
the four hour journey with three other inmates who had also had
their parole refused, but they were unknown to Bell, being from
different wings. They were each locked in individual cabins in the
transfer vehicle with only one toilet stop throughout the
journey.

Bell was
looking forward to his next two years, and maybe longer, in a
favoured open prison after the years he had spent in overcrowded,
sub-human conditions which he had thought of as ‘legally controlled
suffering’.

As the vehicle
arrived at the open prison, the three disembarked flanked by the
two security guards who had accompanied them on the journey. Bell
looked around at the open aspect of the building, resembling more
of a hotel than an institution of correction, but the reception on
arrival was far from the polite and welcoming approach given at a
hotel check-in.

‘This place
can be heaven or hell, Bell, it just depends on you,’ the receiving
officer said. ‘If you behave yourself it’s heaven, if you
misbehave, we will make it hell for you,’ he said, as he flicked
through his file.

It was a
lovely sunny day when Bell arrived, and he thought this was a good
omen. The building was modern and clean, well-lit and comfortably
furnished. Trees and gardens surrounded the prison. The cells were
now known as ‘blocks’ and looked out on to a courtyard. He was
taken to an administration ward and met by a doctor and a social
worker. He was weighed and his height measured and told to undress
and get into a bath. The doctor, social worker and screws stood
watching him all the time.

The atmosphere
was heavy with the staff presence, deliberately designed to have a
psychological effect of intimidation and control.

He was issued
to block ‘C’, a total contrast to what he had experienced in
Strangeways but it still had its own rules, ward policies and
regulations, but it was known as one of the more friendlier prisons
and he soon settled into it. Bell’s new life had begun and he soon
adapted to it.

Bell was
delighted to have landed a job in the prison gardens at last. He
worked alongside Paul Adams, a small, thin, bald strange looking
man with deep set flickering eyes. He was a psychiatric patient who
would never be released due to his sadistic and horrifying string
of murders of prostitutes in Brighton and Hove.

He had been a
caretaker in a Sussex hospital, where he would take a prostitute to
the basement; subject them to violent sex while suffocating them.
He would then incinerate them in the hospital’s boiler. The
untreated remains made the smoke belch from the chimney where
neighbours found the pollution intolerable and instead of informing
the police, they informed the fire department. When the firemen
arrived, they found dismembered corpses littering the floor. Limbs,
heads and feet were scattered in grisly disarray, and they called
the police. Forensic experts later pieced the remains together,
which made a total of six human bodies.

Most of the
inmates were mentally ill and considered a danger to the public
with little chance of ever being released.

Although all
of the inmates work on the outside of the prison, the security is
far less to that of a closed prison, but it is not an easy place to
escape from. During the day inmates are counted and again when they
are locked in their cells and at every mealtime.

All the staff
have walkie-talkies in case of a fight or an inmate becoming
violently disturbed. Once the bell goes off, staff from other
blocks come to their assistance if necessary. The staff are all big
guys, they are usually armed with clubs, but they are trained in
the techniques of restraint, unlike in Srangeways where their
approach to violence was a good kicking to control the
situation.

Bell spent his
days outside planting trees and flower seeds when he wasn’t potting
plants in the greenhouse, He kept himself to himself and his only
contact with other inmates was at meal times or recreational
periods.