Prisons I Have Known (An Unexpected Life Inside) - Softcover

The Governor said: “Sit down Crew. When I say “Jump!” every f*ck*r jumps, and that includes you.” Somewhat shaken I wondered just what I had let myself in for; it was certainly a colourful introduction to my first posting in the Prison Service where I was to spend the next three years. This book although in part family history primarily tells of my experiences from fairly humble beginnings to a career which eventually led me to govern a small Yorkshire prison for women. It is based on notes written for my children to give a flavour of what I was up to whilst they were growing up, but it has been at the encouragement of Brian Lewis, author and artist, who suggested that I write more fully an account which might be of some interest. I would stress that it has not been my intent to produce an academic tome on penal matters and it is written some sixteen years after my retirement and as such comes from memories which, as we tend to do, favour the happy ones and forget much of the bad. I hope the reader finds some instances which might bring to mind the TV series “Porridge”. I have taken the liberty to copy the title of my book from one written some seventy years ago by Mary Size, the first Governor of H M Prison Askham Grange for it was from her account I gained much insight into the running of an open prison for women. Harry Crew

Harry Crew was Governor of HMP Askham Grange Prison between 1991 and 2000. He gives an account here of his early life and family history. An unexceptional scholar he left school at 17 and took up an offer to be the office boy at The Borstal After-Care Association where he became interested in how the treatment of young offenders had been developed during the early 20th Century. So interested that after a spell working with homeless families and voluntary part time youth-work in South London he joined the Prison Service in 1969 as an Assistant Governor.