The existence of the Lifer is one that is controlled by the whims of others, with endless conversations and meetings taking place behind the scenes.
In one prison the probation officer was wielding an unusual, malign, influence in these meetings. Something had to be done and so it was decided to smuggle in a Bug and spy on these meetings.
Whilst A.N.Other obtained the Bug and smuggled it in to the prison, it was left to me to plant it. Luckily the Bug was small and the meeting was to take place in the wing TV room.
Each morning, this room was dotted with cons who wanted to catch the news before work (this was pre in-cell TV). Sidling up to the TV, perched on a large wooden stand, I turned my back to the room and taped the Bug out of sight, just beneth the TV set.
Sitting at the back of the room, feeling smug, I was baffled when one con started pointing at the TV and shouting "Bomb, there's a bomb". The Bug had worked itself free and was swinging by its flexible aerial underneath the telly.
White as a sheet I shot forwards, replaced it firmly and turned to face the room. "None of you saw anything, right? Right??".
Ben
Lecturing
About Me
- prisonerben
- United Kingdom
- Previously known as "one of Britain's best known prisoners...he constantly questions authority and exposes the futility of the system" The Times, Ben was finally released from prison after 32 years in August 2012. Pleading guilty to the murder of a friend when he was 14 years old, he renounced violence and fought for the recognition of the inherent dignity of all human beings. As a result of speaking truth to power, he served far longer than the recommended 10 years, leading Education Secretary Michael Gove to argue that he had "been punished excessively for a crime committed as a child". One of the more intellectual of prisoner-campaigners, Ben chose to educate himself from schoolboy level to having both undergraduate and post graduate degrees. He is currently one of very few prisoners in Britain ever to attempt a Doctorate. Ben's speciality is non-violent action and the Human Needs Theory. Now on Life Licence, He is forging a career as a CJ policy consultant, writer and - as ever - campaigner.
Most bugs I have come across have been ones that employers use to spy on their workers. Some spend huge amounts of money to listen in to workers conversations and they listen in all day, day in day out.
ReplyDeleteI worked as a cashier in a tool shop once, when I was shown around the shop my boss told me that he had a device by the till so that he could hear the goings on, he had also put them elsewhere around the shop, but after a while of working long and boring hours at the till of course I forgot about his listening in ...
He never did give an exact reason why he no longer required my services, but I had been trying to organise a union, which I don't think he liked much!