The largest prison in the UK, Berwyn Prison in North Wales, has frequently exposed the "catching horses" scandal:
From 2020 to March 2023, 31 female prison employees were laid off for having inappropriate relationships with male offenders.
This is a staggering number, which is staggering.
Netizens commented on this: It turns out that European and American movies are real, and sure enough, art comes from life.
However, this is not the first time that this prison has exploded.
As early as last year, the media reported that 18 female prison guards had been dismissed for having sex with criminals, and three of them had been sentenced for this.
What is it that makes a prison that should be tight a "harem" for male criminals?
Prison guards who have become prisoners
Berwyn Prison is a private prison in Wrexham, Wales and the largest prison in the United Kingdom, housing 2100 male prisoners.
The first feature of this prison is that the recruitment conditions for administrators are very lenient. There is basically no limit to academic qualifications, age, or experience.
You must know that prisons, a state apparatus, are "iron rice bowls", and such relaxed conditions naturally attract a large number of young people.
● Berwyn Prison, UK
Jennifer Gavin, 27, is one of them.
Before becoming a prison guard, she was the deputy manager of a store, doing sorting and cashier work every day, and earning a meager income.
The boring life exhausted the young girl, and when she saw the job postings at Berwyn Prison, she did not hesitate to sign up.
When she arrived, she found that there was no complicated interview process at all for the position, and she was quickly accepted.
● Jennifer Gavin
When Gavin entered the prison, he realized that the criminals were the "rulers" here.
They are all cowardly, flirting with female prison guards every once in a while. Although female prison guards have the right to discipline, they cannot do anything to them because of their weak power.
At first, Gavin was a little resistant to this environment, but given her steady income, she decided to put up with it.
According to the original plan, she planned to use this job as a springboard to change to a better job after she gained some experience.
But everything changes when she meets the inmate, Alex Coxon.
Coxon is a criminal who is held in a solitary cell for drug and robbery, and whenever Gavin rounds the room, Coxon will take the initiative to express his love for her.
The prison environment is already closed, and people will inevitably be lonely, especially for Gavin in his prime age.
Coxon is a master of conversation, his confession is both warm and a little overbearing, and day after day, every day Gavin comes to her, she is greeted with "I miss you so much", "I like you", "I can't live without you".
Due to the long contact, Gavin finally couldn't withstand Coxon's fierce attack, and she lost her mind.
began to create opportunities to be alone with Coxon, and even at Coxen's instigation, he brought a cell phone to the prison for him to use.
The two also committed unspeakable acts in a small single room and took explicit photos.
It wasn't until prison officials found out and searched Coxon's cell that everything happened.
In the end, Gavin was sentenced to one year in prison for breaking the law.
● Gavin on the left and Coxon on the right
In court, Gavin bitterly repented of his actions, claiming that he should not be "emotionally manipulated" by Coxon.
But it's too late, this girl who should have a great future stepped into the abyss because of her innocence.
At Berwyn, there is more than one prison guard like Gavin.
Prison guard Gunn is also caught in the "love net" of criminals.
The 27-year-old Gunn, who had graduated from criminology and psychology, wanted to work hard at the Bern prison, but unexpectedly became obsessed with the robber Kuram Razak during his tenure.
The two have been dating for 5 months, sharing the same bed many times, and also taking large-scale photos.
● Gunn and Razak intimate photo
Gunn also relied on the information he knew, and repeatedly passed on the information of the cell search to Lazak, which can really be described as a "model good girlfriend".
After the East Window incident, Gunn was also sentenced to one year in prison.
Looking at these girls who have let themselves fall, people "hate iron but not steel", and at the same time, they are also curious about what kind of magic these criminals have that make them willingly dedicated.
Is it just a mouth that can speak?
It's not that simple, behind these bad events, there are hidden deceptions orchestrated by criminals.
The "White Rabbit" prison guard meets the "gray wolf" criminal
In fact, in the beginning, there were no female staff in British prisons.
Under the terms of the British Prisons Act 1823, women's prisons were originally run entirely by female staff, while men's prisons were run by male staff.
In the 1980s, with the rise of feminism, open recruitment for opposite-sex positions began to be implemented in order to reflect the fairness of men and women.
This change has led to a dramatic increase in the number of female prison staff, with about 40 per cent of public sector prison staff now being women.
● British prison policewoman
In addition to gender liberalization, age restrictions are also being lowered when recruiting prison staff.
Due to the shortage of prison guards, the age of female prison guards has been lowered to 18 years old in order to attract more applicants.
No academic qualifications or relevant work experience are required, and candidates can go directly to the post after a short period of training.
Some fledgling young girls, with ignorance and curiosity, enter the most dangerous place in the world - prison.
What is being held here is a group of vicious, insidious and cunning people, who are still "blank slates" in the face of a group of girls who are still "blank sheets".
It's just that for this "prey", they will not eat it in one bite, but slowly trap it, so that they can actively enter the trap.
● Gunn is sent to prison in handcuffs
Some prisoners have also summed up their experiences -
In the beginning, they would eavesdrop on the chats of female prison guards to find their weaknesses. Then, when there is a chance to make contact, say something nice to make these female prison guards let their guard down.
These villains are all typical chameleons, and they can switch roles at will, becoming "big brother next door", becoming "respectable brother", and sending "life advice" and "spiritual massage" to these girls.
Sometimes, they also deliberately provoke female prison guards to initiate a seemingly innocuous game. Let's say you make a bet with a prison guard, and the winner gets a chocolate snack.
Those young and vigorous female prison guards want to "conquer" these criminals at the beginning, they will accept these "gambles", suppress the arrogance of the criminals, and when they give the pieces of chocolate to the criminals, they are already in the trap of the criminals.
● In 2019, Emily Watson, a female prison guard at Berwyn Prison in the United Kingdom, was sentenced to one year in prison for having sex with a male inmate
These criminals will threaten you with the excuse that "you have violated the law" and make these female prison guards do more for them.
Then put forward "conditions" with them: "As long as you are with me, I will not expose you." ”
These young girls who are ignorant of the world lack aura and courage in the face of these battle-hardened criminals.
Under such coercion, they are afraid of losing their jobs and the retribution of criminals, so they can only obediently fall into the palms of criminals and let them manipulate them.
From "the grasshopper on a rope at the beginning", ventilating and reporting messages, entrapping private belongings, and finally gradually germinating feelings and doing undesirable things.
Everything is in the plan of the criminals, and it is carried out perfectly.
Of course, in order to make a thing, in addition to "people", it is also necessary to "have a favorable location".
And Berwyn Prison itself, in addition to "the largest in the UK", has another title - "the most comfortable prison in the UK".
This is also an opportunity for the prison to become a "love paradise".
Is it a prison? Or "Resort"
When it comes to prison, many friends can think of something like this:
Such:
The dim environment and simple facilities make people feel endlessly depressed. Just like in "The Shawshank Redemption".
So what does Berwyn Jail look like?
That is true:
● Inside Berwyn Prison
Colourful lounge, well-equipped gym, bright and tidy library. Just looking at the pictures, I thought it was a university, and it had nothing to do with prison.
Not only that, but the convict's room can also be described as "five stars in prison": there are comfortable beds, en-suite bathrooms, and even more exaggeratedly, they are equipped with computers!
● The room of the convicts in Berwyn Prison
While the official narrative is that the laptops in the room are only for educational purposes and to help book family visits, this configuration is really a bit excessive for a prison cell.
And that's not all, inmates here can also order food online and receive parcels, enabling "home delivery" services.
Prisoners who behave well can also get a cell key that can be locked from the inside for privacy.
In addition to not being able to leave the prison gate, the life of the prisoners is no different from that of the outside world, and even compared with those at the bottom who live in poverty, their conditions are more superior.
Who will remember their identity as a criminal living in such a prison?
The excellent environment makes the prisoners' behavior more lazy and rampant, without the slightest sense of "serving their sentences".
They gradually became free to do whatever they wanted, putting the dominance of the prison on their side.
As a result, Berwyn has had problems since it was established.
In 2018, a prisoner died after heart failure due to an overdose of marijuana.
An investigation by the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) revealed that the prison was readily available for drugs.
Although the prison director said that he would strengthen management after the incident, the situation did not seem to have improved, and everything was only "on paper".
Recently, there have been even worse "sex scandals".
And behind this, in fact, there is a bigger topic involved, that is, the "privatization" of British prisons.
Privatization of prisons
In the 90s of the 20th century, with the increase in the number of criminals, public prisons in the United Kingdom became overcrowded.
In order to control the cost of the prison part, Britain began to outsource prisons, that is, to contract with some private companies to let them run prisons.
● Overcrowded prisons
For each prisoner, the government will give a certain subsidy, minus the operating costs, which is the profit of the enterprise.
So for enterprises, the strategy is very simple, since the income is given by the government, there is no room for change, then in order to earn more profits, you have to save spending.
The most direct and effective way to save money is to reduce the number of managers.
As a result, there are often "a huge prison with only a few administrators" in the UK.
The famous Birmingham Prison is a case in point.
The prison, which was established in 1894 and outsourced to a security company, G4S, in 2012, was the first prison to be "privatized" in the UK.
● Screenshot of the Guardian report: The building in the picture is the Birmingham prison
As soon as G4S took over Birmingham Jail, they immediately laid off 98 prison guards, resulting in a "ridiculous scene" of only two prison guards on the fourth floor of the prison.
At the same time, the salaries of the new employees recruited were also much lower than the salaries of the employees in the original prison office.
Since then, Birmingham Prison has been moving towards an "irretrievable" situation.
According to the UK Department of Justice, the number of brawls in Birmingham jails has been on the rise since 2012, reaching 1,147 in 2017.
In 2016, a large-scale riot broke out in the prison.
The prisoners stole the keys from one of the prison guards, freeing hundreds of prisoners from their cells.
The prisoners occupied four wards and began to set fire to the prison facilities and destroy the entire prison.
● Inside Birmingham Prison during the 2016 riots
The riots lasted 12 hours before being suppressed by the authorities.
● British law enforcement officers suppress riots
In 2018, HM Inspectorate of Prisons conducted an unannounced visit to Birmingham Prisons, and the results were shocking.
Not only is there a rampant drug epidemic, rampant violence, and a filthy environment, but more seriously, some of the prison's administrators have locked themselves in their offices for fear of being attacked by the inmates.
This is not a prison at all, it is a "paradise" for criminals!
Based on the results of this "explosion", the British government immediately decided to take back the management of Birmingham Prison.
But it is not enough to solve the problem of this family, and the "privatization" of prisons is not unique in the UK.
According to British media reports, there are a total of 123 prisons in the UK, 17 of which are run by private companies, and the Berwyn prison mentioned above is one of them.
Therefore, what happened in Berwyn Prison was by no means without reason.
When prisons are not meant to reform and punish prisoners, but to become a tool for making money, where are the rules for everything?
As British prisons continue to "explode", the public's doubts about the "privatization" of prisons are also getting louder.
The case of Berwyn Prison may be just the tip of the iceberg, exposing not only the problems of individual prisons, but the underlying flaws that may exist in the system as a whole.
The function of prisons is supposed to be to put criminals under the conditions of punishment and restrict their mental and material lives, so that they can cause psychological pain and achieve the effect of punishment.
Now, Britain has made this prison for punishment of crime a hotbed of frequent evil.
In fact, when the important state apparatus is handed over to the operation of enterprises and controlled by profit-seeking businessmen, everything may have been predestined long ago.