Shit or bust...

Shit or bust...

I remember the day Phil Wheatley, the then Deputy Governor of H.M.Prison Gartree, walking into the Tailors Shop and as Tip Guilfoyle distracted the Chief Officer, Jimmy Stevens went and put a bucket of shit and piss that the IRA had supplied over Phil Wheatley's head and patted it down for good measure. The alarm bell rang and the Heavy Mob ran into the shop and for a split second I could see that they did not know whether to laugh or cry as the Deputy Governor tried to pull turds out of his ginger beard.

Phil Wheatley's beard has gone grey now and he is the Director General of H.M.Prison Service. That he rose through the ranks did not surprise me. When I asked him at Hull Prison, where he was the Governor, why he had joined the service, he replied "power". He's a minature meglomaniac. He is also a good friend of mine. Once he told me that I was too truthful for my own good. I disagree with him, but I know what he meant. Some people do not like the truth. I found he would not try to defend the indefensible. He said he preferred to apologise and move on and try and see that the same mistake was not made again.

The Prison Service is very inward looking, it does not take kindly to criticism, and gets very embarrassed very easily. It is a shame that Phil Wheatley is getting a hard ride at the moment from the media. The National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO), is pissed off that John Reid intends to get rid of some public sector probation officers and replace them with some from the private sector. Therefore it has decided to embarrass the Prison Service. First it attacked the amount of lifers and rapists who go to open prisons, now it is attacking the amount who abscond from open prisons. How many recalls do the probation officers instigate where the Parole Board has to release them again because the probation service has cocked it up?

It does appear as though Phil Wheatley is in the shit again. Instead of from the head down, this time it is from the feet up. What is interesting from my point of view, is that NAPO is using the same tactics employed by the IRA.