Overview
We all did time, staff and prisoners. Each of us had a number; each of us wanted the finality of getting out that gate.When John Cuffe entered Mountjoy as a young prison officer in May 1978, he stepped back into Victorian times. He knew nothing about jails, apart from what he had seen in black-and-white films on RTE: 'good' sheriffs and 'bad' hombres. He quickly learned that behind bars there is no black and white: the 'bad' guy often comes in the guise of officialdom. Here, he reveals the raw truth of thirty tough years on the inside. Starting out in Portlaoise, then Europe's top-security prison, he also served in the drug-infested prisoners' Training Unit and witnessed the Spike Island riot. He counted among his charges the IRA kidnappers of Dutchman Tiede Herrema, the gangsters implicated in Veronica Guerin's murder and Dean Lyons, wrongly accused of the 1997 Grangegorman killings.Join him on a vivid, eye-opening journey through the belly of an archaic and chaotic beast. He exposes the secrets behind the prison walls where, forgotten and neglected, the accused and their keepers wrestle for air.
Full Product Details
Author: John Cuffe
Publisher: Gill
Imprint: The Collins Press
Dimensions:
Width: 12.80cm
, Height: 2.30cm
, Length: 19.80cm
Weight: 0.334kg
ISBN: 9781848892996
ISBN 10: 1848892993
Pages: 316
Publication Date: 18 April 2017
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
Well written [...] interesting reminiscences [...] persuasive. -- Review by Ian O'Donnell * The Sunday Times * This angry, revealing book deserves all the attention it gets. * Irish Catholic * Read this before you talk about prisons. A very worthwhile read. -- David Burke * Tuam Herald * Authoritative insight into Ireland's prison system. * Irish Examiner * Honest and revealing. * Books Ireland *
Well written [...] interesting reminiscences [...] persuasive. -- Review by Ian O'Donnell * The Sunday Times * This angry, revealing book deserves all the attention it gets. * Irish Catholic * Read this before you talk about prisons. A very worthwhile read. -- David Burke * Tuam Herald * Authoritative insight into Ireland's prison system. * Irish Examiner * Honest and revealing. * Books Ireland * A shocking, poignant expose of life behind prison walls. * Irish Examiner *
Author Information
John Cuffe, originally from Blacksod Bay in the Mayo Gaeltacht, lives in County Meath. Now retired, he holds postgraduate degrees in crime-related and social issues, and has lectured in Dublin City University. A regular guest in the media as an expert on the criminal psyche and penal system, he has written for The Irish Times and appeared on Morning Ireland, The Ray D'Arcy Show and The Right Hook, among others.
