CASH & CREDIT 16

The weather was turning warmer now, not clement as such, but the storms of the winter months were largely over. As the bus turned off from the desolate road into Ford open prison, he wearily assessed his new home. As expected, the reception area, the public face of the prison system was the best part to be seen, a reasonably modern brick building with impeccably clean and tidy rooms, neat tables, and comfortable chairs, the public face.

Inside the perimeter however, it was a different story. The bleak huts and drab buildings even in themselves belied the ghastly interior where cracked and weary walls housed the dust-filled beds which had seen so many, so very many occupants, couched so many woes in their dusty faded green garments.