Time for a quick summary of my previous cells, before I describe my new cell and cellmate. Let’s start at the beginning…

I was placed in the remand wing for the first 2 1/2 weeks of my sentence, as a temporary measure until a space became available elsewhere in the prison. For most of this time I shared a cell with my first co-pilot – the friendly, chatty, loud-snoring, TV-loving one. Looking back now, I can see that I had it pretty good. My later experiences have made me realise just how important it is to feel respected by your cell-mate and to feel safe.

One night before being transferred out of the remand wing I was moved into a cell with “The Hulk”. He’s a lovely guy – very kind, thoughtful and sensitive. (I only witnessed his “metamorphosis” once). After only one night, though, a bed was found for me in the wing that would house me for the rest of my sentence.

My first cell in this wing didn’t work out. It’s obvious to me now that that cell mate needs to be allocated a cell to himself, as he finds it impossible to share his space with another person.

I am now in my fourth cell, which is where I will (hopefully) stay from now on, so moving here has given me a sense of stability and safety. My new cell mate is gentle, quiet and sleeps for 17 hours a day. This means that I can use the desk pretty much whenever I want, and the TV is off all day until 4 or 5pm. We have a good, peaceful relationship. For me he’s pretty much the perfect roomie. I feel so lucky.

A few people have asked me what my room is like, now that I’ve got it set up as a like it. Here’s a description of it….

It’s basically small box with a small window: scruffy, with a bunk bed and no carpet or soft furnishings, but functional.

The metal door has a viewing slot at head height – like a vertically orientated letterbox. Most people cover this up from the inside using paper or milk bottle labels, but I’ve not bothered. There’s a part of me that’s happy to allow our room to be monitored by the wardens. Given that my cell mate punched his last co-pilot in the face, and broke the arm of the one before that, it does help me to feel more at ease when we are locked in together.

As you walk into the room, the tiny toilet cubicle is on the left. There’s no toilet seat or loo-roll holder, so I’ve placed a small cardboard box (which I got from one of the prisoners who works in the kitchens) in the corner of the cubicle and use this to sit the loo roll on. When I moved in the loo stank, so I tried three air-freshening techniques, recommended by other inmates:

1. I shredded a whole bar of soap and put the shavings in a (plastic) tomato tub by the loo
2. I got an almost finished air freshener from one of the guys
3. I sprayed all the toilet cubicle walls with diluted Lenor
4. In a previous cell I discovered that leaving orange peel around makes no difference.

The Lenor is the only one that makes any difference, and gave a nice smell for about a week.

During the day I tie the maroon curtains back with blue disposable “jiffy” cloths. The side panes of glass can be tilted open so we use the window ledge as our fridge to keep our daily rations of milk (25ml) cool.

Just outside the toilet cubicle a tiny sink juts out from the wall, with a button-operated tap like on a train. Above the sink is an A5-size mirror, which is badly scratched all over. I tried shaving the back of my neck line by holding up a DVD so that it reflected into the mirror…but I gave up pretty quickly.

A plastic desk-top with built-in shelves runs around the left-hand wall and under the window, and there’s a small shelf unit on the left-hand wall. We’ve divided up all the shelves equally so I have plenty of space for all my possessions: emails and letters, books, fruit, snacks, orange squash and clothes. On the desk sits a tiny kettle, teabags and “cappuccino” sachets, as well as my plastic plate, bowl, mug and cutlery. There is also an 18” TV/ DVD player. The “Observer” newspaper (which my dad orders for me) is folded up under the window, with the TV schedule visible. There’s a little pile of DVDs which we’ve borrowed from our hall DVD library. (When I say library I mean a cardboard box full of DVDs, which lives under one of the inmates’ bed. Once a week they all come out and anyone can borrow or return DVDs). This week we’ve chosen Kingsman 2, Karate Kid, Pirates of the Caribbean, Bridesmaids and Transformers.

Under the desk runs our heating pipes, on top of which is perched today’s batch of yoghurt! I prepared it last night:- a Pot Noodle pot full of milk, heated in the microwave in the kitchen area, with a spoonful of biolive yoghurt added. By breakfast time tomorrow it will be ready to add to my bowl of cereal and fruit.

My bed is the same as it was in the remand hall, and is my least favourite part of the room. The thinness of the mattress gives me lower back and shoulder pains, and I’m worried that these will persist and affect my work when I am eventually released from prison.  

My favourite thing in the room, on the other hand, is the window! I was really happy to see that we have a view of something other than the prison’s concrete perimeter wall and razor wire (which is all I could see from my last room). I can see the top of a nearby hill. The side facing me is wooded so I’m very glad to have this as a visual indicator of the changing seasons. No signs of buds opening yet but it’s only a matter of time.