A laser branding was our ticket into a large room, where the prisoners sat waiting in silence, opposite empty chairs. On the far side of the room was Julian, wearing a yellow arm band over his prison clothes.
As a remand prisoner he is entitled to wear his own clothes, but when the thugs dragged him out of the Ecuadorean embassy last April, they prevented him bringing a small bag of belongings. His clothes would follow, they said, but like his reading glasses, they were mysteriously lost.
For 22 hours a day, Julian is confined in ‘healthcare’. It’s not really a prison hospital, but a place where he can be isolated, medicated and spied on. They spy on him every 30 minutes: eyes through the door. They would call this ‘suicide watch’.
In the adjoining cells are convicted murderers, and further along is a mentally ill man who screams through the night. ‘This is my One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest,’ he said. ‘Therapy’ is an occasional game of Monopoly. His one assured social gathering is the weekly service in the chapel. The priest, a kind man, has become a friend. The other day, a prisoner was attacked in the chapel; a fist smashed his head from behind while hymns were being sung.
When we greet each other, I can feel his ribs. His arm has no muscle. He has lost perhaps 10 to 15 kilos since April. When I first saw him here in May, what was most shocking was how much older he looked.
‘I think I’m going out of my mind,’ he said then.
I said to him, ‘No you’re not. Look how you frighten them, how powerful you are.’ Julian’s intellect, resilience and wicked sense of humour – all unknown to the low life who defame him – are, I believe, protecting him. He is wounded badly, but he is not going out of his mind.
We chat with his hand over his mouth so as not to be overheard. There are cameras above us. In the Ecuadorean embassy, we used to chat by writing notes to each other and shielding them from the cameras above us. Wherever Big Brother is, he is clearly frightened.
On the walls are happy-clappy slogans exhorting the prisoners to ‘keep on keeping on’ and ‘be happy, be hopeful and laugh often’.
The only exercise he has is on a small bitumen patch, overlooked by high walls with more happy-clappy advice to enjoy ‘the blades of grass beneath your feet’. There is no grass.
He is still denied a laptop and software with which to prepare his case against extradition. He still cannot call his American lawyer, or his family in Australia.
The incessant pettiness of Belmarsh sticks to you like sweat. If you lean too close to the prisoner, a guard tells you to sit back. If you take the lid off your coffee cup, a guard orders you to replace it. You are allowed to bring in £10 to spend at a small café run by volunteers. ‘I’d like something healthy,’ said Julian, who devoured a sandwich.
Across the room, a prisoner and a woman visiting him were having a row: what might be called a ‘domestic’. A guard intervened and the prisoner told him to ‘fuck off’.
This was the signal for a posse of guards, mostly large, overweight men and women eager to pounce on him and hold him to the floor, then frog march him out. A sense of violent satisfaction hung in the stale air.
Now the guards shouted at the rest of us that it was time to go. With the women and children and grandmothers, I began the long journey through the maze of sealed areas and yellow lines and biometric stops to the main gate. As I left the visitors’ room, I looked back, as I always do. Julian sat alone, his fist clenched and held high. John Pilger, website article 5 December 2019, ‘Visiting Britain’s Political Prisoner’
The most infamous prison on Earth. Surrounded by the freezing waters of the San Francisco Bay. Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman s1e1: Alcatraz, History 2022
1962: A gang of four small-time crooks … [Allen] West starts looking for collaborators: Frank Morris … John & Clarence Anglin … With the drop-cloths in place and the rest of the inmates keeping their mouths shut the escapees have time to work on removing the bolts from the ceiling vent … On the night of July 11th 1962 it’s time to go. ibid.
2015: Inside an impenetrable fortress two men’s impossible dreams. Meet two unlikely partners in crime. Together, they attempt the unthinkable. Escape Dannemora. Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman s1e2: North Country Breakout
Richard Hacksaw Matt had been trapped behind the walls of Dannemora for the last seven years and he desperately wants out … David Sweat … had been in and out of prison for most of his adult life. ibid.
Joyce Mitchell has cold feet. In fact she has checked herself into the hospital for a panic attack. ibid.
When Joyce Mitchell failed to pick them up on the night of June 6th 2015 their fate was sealed. ibid.
The most secure prison in Mexico. And a daring attempt to break in. Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman s1e3: El Chapo
Drug lords have their own private armies. So the walls of Puento Grande need to be able to withstand a full scale assault from outside. ibid.
This cell is home to one of the most notorious and bloodthirsty narco criminals of all time: Joaquin Guzman, known to the world as El Chapo. ibid.
‘He escaped on July 11th 2015 and then he is recaptured again on January 8th 2016.’ ibid. Gina Parlevecchio, US lead trial counsel
Western Penetentiary 1996: It was overcrowded and in disrepair … One man sees a puzzle to be solved: Nuno Pontes, the Mastermind. Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman s1e4: Conquering the Wall
Nuno Pontes is trying to drill his way into an underground crawl space. From there, he will be able to tunnel under the prison’s impenetrable wall. ibid.
Dawn finally comes. It’s time … The Pittsburgh six may have just executed the perfect prison escape. They have a two-hour headstart on the authorities. ibid.
The six travel undetected to Pasadena, Texas. There, they hide in a hotel while waiting for falsified documents so they can leave the country. ibid.
They have found the remaining escapees … The Pittsburgh six executed one of the most brazen, brilliant and cunning escapes in history. The mastermind, Nuno Pontes, got just twelve days of freedom, and then fourteen years in Solitary, spending twenty-three hours in a cell utterly alone. You have to ask yourself, Was it all worth it? ibid.
A Nazi POW camp in the heart of the Third Reich [Stalag 3] crawling with spies. One brave British officer organises an audacious escape. Can he and his men break Hitler’s iron grip and tunnel to freedom? Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman s1e5: Escaping Hitler
Three bloody deep, bloody long tunnels will be dug: Tom, Dick and Harry. One will succeed. ibid.
‘76 men had dispersed out and were on their way to escape as far as they could.’ ibid. Historian
‘He [Hitler] was eventually talked down to executing only 50.’ ibid.
The most secure prison in all of Europe. A tight-knit group of hardened inmates embroiled in a bloody conflict planing an escape of epic proportions. Hoping to pull of one of the largest and most elaborate prison escapes in all of history. Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman s1e6: Belfast Breakout
This is 1980s Northern Ireland: it’s a prison built next to a British military base. Its name: The Maze. ibid.
The full plan is now in place: take over the control room using guns to subdue the guards. Prevent any alarms from being sounded. Hijack the truck and its driver at H-Block 7’s loading dock. Put up to 40 prisoners in the back of the truck. Get through the main gate with the truck driver at gunpoint. Overwhelm security at the military gate and drive out of the prison grounds. Then meet up with their IRA contacts on the nearby roads. What can go wrong? ibid.
But many do make it all the way to freedom. But the long reach of the British government … It was a violent, traumatic escape. ibid.
Locked away in the deadly prison, a manipulative convict, and this his friend and cellmate, to tunnel out of their cell and break out of this hellhole … His name is Timothy Vale. Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman s1e7: Fleeing Hellmira
He’s broken out of his cell and explored the attic above him and identified an escape route. His next step is to figure out how to climb down from the roof of the three-storey building without being caught. ibid.
Halfway down the wall disaster strikes. ibid.
Petros, Tennessee: A prison for the worst of the worst. A place where hope goes to die … They call it the End of the Line … One of the most infamous assassins in American history: James Earl Ray. Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman s1e8: Assassin’s Flight
He opens the manhole cover. Ray gets a faceful of steam. The pain is almost unbearable. He has mere seconds to decide what to do before the patrol guards see him in the yard. Does he go back to his cell and give up his escape, or does he risk being burned and climb down into that tunnel. After all, the tunnel leads to his freedom … He becomes more determined than ever to escape. ibid.
Six years after his previous attempt … he think he sees another way out. A small gap under the electric fence on top of the prison wall … He puts the ladder right on the electric wire … A total of six escapees are fighting their way through the rugged mountains … ‘Under the pile of leaves is James Earl Ray.’ ibid.