When I was 18 I was remanded in custody for 21 days for reports following a moment of weakness while working in a betting shop. I was sent to a remand centre called Longriggend where the population was made up almost solely of young offenders awaiting trial. As a technically untried prisoner, I was allowed to have money sent in to make purchases of sweets, cigarettes etc. but, they only updated the 'books' once a week and, since I arrived the day they did this, it was 8 days before I was able to make any purchases. I've always had a very limited choice when it comes to diet as most food makes me boke, so for 8 days I had nothing to eat apart from a slice of dry bread a day. Towards the end of that period I was so hungry I was dreaming about food (the nicotine withdrawel symptoms having abated by then). Thereafter I was able to get by on the odd packet of crisps and mars bar. God love people who are really starving, and how those hunger strikers ever managed to last out is beyond me.
Apart from meal times, half an hour exercise and a couple of hours in the tv room in the evening (visits took place during this) everyone was locked in their cells, so for something like 16 hours a day I was locked up alone. For the first week I had nothing to read and if they caught you lying on your bed they gave you a doing (this was only enforced if they hadn't had to squeeze another prisoner and bed in due to overcrowding). Thus, for a full week I sat on a chair, absolutely freezing, staring at a wall, the incredible boredom broken only by the odd scream as the wardens went about their business. In the end up, I could tell the time by where the shadow of the sun was shining on my desk.
After that initial week, when I was allowed reading and writing materials as well as purchases, it was pretty easy going for me apart from worrying that the general opinion that I'd get 2 years borstal when finally sentenced would be correct. There again, I'm an academic sort of person who you could probably lock in a cupboard for 10 years, with a few chosen items, and I'd emerge perfectly sane. Not everyone is like that though. In fact most of them couldn't wait to be found guilty so they could be moved to mainstream prisons where there'd at least be a daily schedule. There was a glut of suicides in the place around that time and, thankfully, the sh1t hole was closed down a few years later. Much as I probably deserved everything I got for what I put my parents through, it really was sick the way supposedly untried prisoners were treated.
Thankfully, I got a suspended sentence and was told to repay the money (which I did following a winning e/w accum
). When I got out I ate 12 rolls and sausage (yes I was a murdering b@stard then) within 3 hours. I wouldn't wish that first week on anyone though so, much as Paris Hilton's got to learn she can't flaunt the law, forgive me if I don't join in with the hilarity. If she was my spoiled brat I'd be sick to the stomach.