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ClareR (6129 KP) rated A Bit Of A Stretch in Books

Feb 21, 2020  
A Bit Of A Stretch
A Bit Of A Stretch
Chris Atkins | 2020 | Biography, Crime, Humor & Comedy
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
A UK prison diary
All hail The Pigeonhole! The app that makes me read - and enjoy - books that I would never normally even pick up. I loved this book!

Chris Atkins was sent to prison for 5 years after being involved in a dodgy tax scheme that was used to finance his films. Wandsworth was to be his home for a large part of his sentence, and this is where the book is set. Chris wrote a diary whilst he was there, and he certainly had enough to write about: drug dealers, self-harmer’s, prison officers, of the helpful, clueless and vindictive varieties, and senior officials trying to instigate some sort of reform (which ends badly, if I’m honest).

It’s a funny, and at times frustrating read. It illustrates everything that’s wrong with our prison system, which seems to be stuck in the Victorian era. We need to decide what we want our prison system to do: to simply incarcerate, or to rehabilitate. The number of people who reoffend is phenomenal - isn’t this a total waste of money? Is this really a reflection of time well served?

Anyway, I suggest everyone reads this and makes up their own minds.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this book, and to the author, Chris Atkins, for reading along.