A former prisons boss has been found dead in the Cayman Islands.
Dr Bill Rattray, originally from Aberdeenshire, was found in the communal swimming pool of the home he shared with his wife Margaret.
The 57-year-old had enjoyed a 30-year career in the Scottish Prison Service, managing Aberdeen and Peterhead jails.
He moved to the Caymans in 2006 to become the Commissioner of Corrections and Rehabilitations. He is thought to have died from natural causes.
Well, it's not all doom and gloom and bad news...
"Not all bad news"? Shame on you. Bill was a hard-working governor who did his best to make prison conditions more tolerable for those in his charge. Prisoners were always treated with respect, fairness and decency.
ReplyDeleteHe will be missed by his friends and colleagues.
(An ex-colleague)
When I worked as a teacher in prisons I used to ask myself if I was making a difference in my own small way, or whether I was merely complicit in perpetuating an inhumane system that manifestly doesn't work. I concluded that, given the odds stacked against me, I was complicit.
ReplyDeleteTinkering well meaningly with a bad thing doesn't make it good. I wonder what Dr Garrett's thoughts were on the fruits of his career. This is a low blow you have been landed, John. A dash of dark humour is, I'd have thought, entirely permissible. Well, I chuckled. Still am...
Ballache: I'm sorry you feel offended it's a shame you do not share Charles Cowling's sense of humour.
ReplyDeleteCharles: I am reminded of the screws saying "The only good con is a dead one".
I once knew a good screw, but he's dead now.
It was meant in dark humour.
jailhouselawyer: I have as good a sense of humour as the next man but, to make a joke at a good man's demise, is in thoroughly bad taste. Only my opinion of course and no doubt I am biased but would you feel the same if someone cracked a joke about the death of one of your friends?
ReplyDeleteCharles: A "low blow" and you are "still chuckling"? Glad you were not in one of my prisons.