Prisoners Are Being Mistreated By Jail Staff. Odigie, A Previous Category A Prisoner, Tells Me His Story Of The Misconduct Present In Jail.
G4S Medway Centre for young offenders has been under extreme scrutiny since January this year, when BBC Panaroma revealed the harrowing crimes committed by custody officers against the young people in their care. It can be viewed here, by clicking on this link : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06ymzly
It has now been reported that The Ministry Of Justice will be take over the G4S prison, after further allegations were made about abuse since the documentary has been aired.
Only about a month ago, a prisoner got in touch with me via his contraband mobile phone, putting me in touch with a 'brother' who had been treated unfairly by the justice system and had a story to tell. The latter is a man named Jude Odigie, who otherwise goes by his Muslim name Hamzah, and is currently residing abroad in Nigeria with his family. Myself and Odigie have been communicating through whatsapp, by sending each other messages and occasionally discussing things on the phone.
Jude Odigie (Muslim name Hamzah) - a recent picture of him.
The Panraoma documentary into teenage prison abuse in G4S Medway Centre, is not a representation of all UK prisons, however it starts to paint the picture that corruption is indeed real and growing. Odigie himself, tells me his own story, with an air of humbleness, tinted by the injustice in a so called country that advocates the upper hand in regards to moral and ethical behaviour.
Like many criminals, Odigie has a few dark demons, but nonetheless he appears to me, to be a man of much strength and wisdom which has been sparked by the troubles he has faced and the trouble he has caused.
He was born in Nigeria, but came to the UK with his family when he was just six years old. Odigie attended St Joseph's Academy in South London, during the time in which he got into trouble frequently for being a nuisance. He recalls having problems with his peers, due to the fact that he was passing marked territories for someone from his postcode. "I used to get into fights over here, because I was from Peckham South London and obviously everyone knows Lewisham is the rival." He went on to explain to me that during his former schoolboy years, everyone wanted to be a gangster and so he thought he'd show them who's really boss. He boasted, "I made a vow that yeah I wanted to be a G (Gangster). Serious gangster. I wanted to have the ends on smash and lock."
Throughout his previous criminal career and era, Odigie was renowned for his level of courage and savage antics. Although he was talking about the past, Odigie's detailed account of his use of weaponry was both alarming and upsetting. "I always carried my Glock nine, had a PPK, 9ml, I had a beretta, I had a lot of guns. I used to love guns. I was one of the first people in my friends to commit a crime, in our age group. I had people coming up to me to come and borrow my straps (guns). People were scared of me, because I used to do a lot of madness. I remember one time, I had to go get someone, it was a mad shooting still, and that was just one of the incidents," he explained to me.
In 2007, a horrendous murder took place whereby an innocent refugee from Sierra Leone who had come to the UK for a better life, had been shot dead at a christening by a gang of youths. Read more on this story here : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1542736/Gunman-gets-30-years-for-christening-murder.html
Odigie has been identified as being one of the culprits in this awful tragedy that involved a woman being shot in the head whilst cradling a baby at a christening party. The baby was unharmed but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. I wanted to know how guilty, if so, and what opinions Odigie had about this heinous crime. "As for the christening, you know, what can I say? Basically they stitched me up ... they basically fabricated everything, they corruptly coerced an under-age witness .. they did a lot of corrupt stuff, as for me being involved, I knew about it. I knew it was going to happen, but what they're saying is a bit nuts," he said. He went on to explain how he does not really care as its not his problem and he admitted to being heartless during that time. "People die everyday, that was our mentality," he told me bluntly.
Causing havoc on the streets of London and enjoying the fame and street credibility and reputation that came with it, soon came to an end for Odigie. He has spent at least ten years in prison, the first time being incarcerated at just age sixteen for the manslaughter of Zainab Kalokoh, who was aged 33 at the time. Odigie was first remanded in Feltham prison, where he complained the prisoners were full of testosterone and so there always fights taking place. However he reported the perks of being well-respected and notorious among other inmates, for his level of involvement in crime ."When I said my name to certain people, they were like "Oh shizzle, you're tiny rider, okay." Odigie explained how the other prisoners were terrified of him due to word on the street about his dangerous and intimidating behaviour.
Apparently Feltham was running loose at the time with prisoners attempting to free themselves, by opening their cells with a spoon. Odigie must have been a part of this fiasco, as he told me, "They re-categorised me as an escapee, so I had to wear a banana suit, I had to wear that everywhere, an escape suit."Soon after, Odigie had to move prisons, he was relocated to another prison, to a number of units, Eagle unit being the latter. He reminisced about his time at Eagle unit, telling me, "I had it on smash. I was cool with the Brikky (Brixton) youts. They stabbed and kidnapped me, but in jail I was cool with them. Whenever you see someone, its not a joke, people will onsite you, they will move to you straight away. Because I've done so much madness in my time, I was main target, because I may have shot this guy in the head time, I might have kidnapped this guy."
Thereafter, he was taken to court and placed in a high security prison in Belmarsh, where some of the country's most mischievous terrorists are jailed. He described to me how Abu Hamzah, a prominent terrorist to the authorities and the wider world had been held there and that the prison conditions were crazy. "HSU is something mad, its not somewhere you want to be. Went there, the next day, we complained to the judge. We said the conditions in this place is crazy, no way are we staying here. If you let us stay here, you're gonna affect the trial," he disclosed. The HSU unit in Belmarsh has been described as an anomaly by Nick Hardwick, the
Although prison guards and prisoners share a love/hate relationship, there have been various cases of misconduct and breach, as portrayed in the BBC Panaroma documentary about teenage prison abuse. Odigie reports to me both about the rain and a little bit of sun he had experienced during his time in jail. Masooz was the sun he had experienced. "Out of all the prison officers, I liked Masooz the best," he told me, before going on to say that people inside the prison speculated that there was some intimacy to their relationship and that there was something going on. He dismissed this as being false and went on to say, "I was having a little period of time where I was scared .. demons and shit, I was very very worried and at that time I was on basics. I had no TV, no nothing, so I was like 'Yo Masooz, I can't sleep because I have to leave the lights on, I got problems.' So Masooz said 'okay, I'm going to take you off basics'. Even though I had a week left, she took me of basics. I was happy - she did a lot of stuff for us man. She was like our aunty, she was very helpful, very pretty as well. Pretty Masooz. She did a lot for us and I respect her for that, its deep," he narrated on his relationship with the female prison guard Masooz.
Odigie became very emotional when revealing to me the misconduct of the jail staff towards himself and other prisoners. He told me that straight after the Lee Rigby murder took place in 2013, the prisoner offices took a direct dab at the Muslim prisoners. "The officers were trying to get at the Muslims, they used to do stupid stuff like steal our clothes when we used to hang them up for a visit. Stuff like flippin messing with our gym, with our phones, restrict us from having property normal people would be allowed to have. The officers were trying to incite the kaffirs (disbelievers) to start a madness with us, like a likkle war with us, you understand, because there was a lot of dangerous battles happening, " he told me earnestly. Odigie then went on to convey a theatrical picture in my head of the extreme extent to which the prison guards and officers were responsible for the violent attacks and fights between the Muslim and non-Muslim prisoners. "I remember one time we called it Texas showdown, there was blood everywhere. Knives, shanks, all of these kinds of things in the yard, people stabbing each other," expressed Odigie. I almost pictured him in his Nigerian apartment, sitting down, nodding his head in disapproval and contempt.
Aside from the Islamophobia and hatred towards Muslims shown by prison guards, Odigie informed me that the prisoners and himself were deliberately being food poisoned by the jail staff. "I started noticing strange things were happening, like my heart would start beating irregularly, it only happened after I ate the food and then I would feel sleepy at times when I wouldn't normally sleep. Sometimes I would sleep all night and all day and then wake up and still feel tired. You know when you've just been sedated to go on a surgery, coz I've been surgery, so I started thinking, no,no, something is not right here," he said. Odigie explained further that he had come to this conclusion after noticing crushed tablets inside the cheese that was placed in burgers and other foods the prisoners were served. Odigie argued that he had warned the 'brothers' in jail about the food poising numerous times, but none of them took them seriously, and had excuses for the supposed crushed tablets found in their foods.
Odigie told me that soon after he had discussed with other prisoners about his suspicions regarding the food poisoning , one inmate had reported the irregular heartbeats as well after consuming the prison food. Apparently the inmate had woken Odigie up from a deep sleep, by booting down his cell door and calling out to Odigie 'Yo akhi, take my mum's number, my brothers number.. they're (the prison staff) are trying to kill me. My hearts beating irregularly. If I stop moving, my hearts going to stop.' I felt sad. So what then happened, is we all got on our bells , I told everyone get on your bells, everyone was pressing on their bells," narrated Odigie. He told me the officer on duty at that time was a Canadian man called Ian turned a blind eye to the ringing of the bells and accused Odigie of being up to something. Furthermore, although the prisoner, Odigie's friend was in severe pain and anguish, a nurse was not called which fuelled further animosity between the guards and the prisoners thereafter as a result.
Odigie's story has both alarmed and angered me - and his story is not the only one to affirm such transgression exercised by so called law abiding citizens that are supposed to look after those who aren't. For those of you who are wondering about the latest on Odigie, he is living a normal life in his motherland, Nigeria.
To my knowledge the duty of prison guards and officers involve taking care of prisoner's belongings and property, discouraging bullying and violent forms of attack and ensuring prisoners are safe. Odigie's story tells me that prisoner officers and guards are corrupt, evil and misleading. More through checks need to be done when recruiting for these roles, and further monitoring checks should be done when one has passed their probationary period. This will monopolize security for both prisoners and prison staff alike. The Ministry Of Justice needs to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk, we've come too far as a society to have racist, malicious and ethical prison staff looking after some of the most vulnerable and marginalized members of society.
It comes across to me that the prison systems here in the UK are failing to do their job in protecting and rehabilitating offenders. The mistreating and misconduct within UK jail systems are some of the contributing factors as to why increasing re-offending rates come as no surprise. Professionals and ordinary people alike need to remember, no matter what crime someone commits, big or small, it does not make them any less of a human.
It has now been reported that The Ministry Of Justice will be take over the G4S prison, after further allegations were made about abuse since the documentary has been aired.
Only about a month ago, a prisoner got in touch with me via his contraband mobile phone, putting me in touch with a 'brother' who had been treated unfairly by the justice system and had a story to tell. The latter is a man named Jude Odigie, who otherwise goes by his Muslim name Hamzah, and is currently residing abroad in Nigeria with his family. Myself and Odigie have been communicating through whatsapp, by sending each other messages and occasionally discussing things on the phone.
The Panraoma documentary into teenage prison abuse in G4S Medway Centre, is not a representation of all UK prisons, however it starts to paint the picture that corruption is indeed real and growing. Odigie himself, tells me his own story, with an air of humbleness, tinted by the injustice in a so called country that advocates the upper hand in regards to moral and ethical behaviour.
Like many criminals, Odigie has a few dark demons, but nonetheless he appears to me, to be a man of much strength and wisdom which has been sparked by the troubles he has faced and the trouble he has caused.
He was born in Nigeria, but came to the UK with his family when he was just six years old. Odigie attended St Joseph's Academy in South London, during the time in which he got into trouble frequently for being a nuisance. He recalls having problems with his peers, due to the fact that he was passing marked territories for someone from his postcode. "I used to get into fights over here, because I was from Peckham South London and obviously everyone knows Lewisham is the rival." He went on to explain to me that during his former schoolboy years, everyone wanted to be a gangster and so he thought he'd show them who's really boss. He boasted, "I made a vow that yeah I wanted to be a G (Gangster). Serious gangster. I wanted to have the ends on smash and lock."
Throughout his previous criminal career and era, Odigie was renowned for his level of courage and savage antics. Although he was talking about the past, Odigie's detailed account of his use of weaponry was both alarming and upsetting. "I always carried my Glock nine, had a PPK, 9ml, I had a beretta, I had a lot of guns. I used to love guns. I was one of the first people in my friends to commit a crime, in our age group. I had people coming up to me to come and borrow my straps (guns). People were scared of me, because I used to do a lot of madness. I remember one time, I had to go get someone, it was a mad shooting still, and that was just one of the incidents," he explained to me.
In 2007, a horrendous murder took place whereby an innocent refugee from Sierra Leone who had come to the UK for a better life, had been shot dead at a christening by a gang of youths. Read more on this story here : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1542736/Gunman-gets-30-years-for-christening-murder.html
Odigie has been identified as being one of the culprits in this awful tragedy that involved a woman being shot in the head whilst cradling a baby at a christening party. The baby was unharmed but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. I wanted to know how guilty, if so, and what opinions Odigie had about this heinous crime. "As for the christening, you know, what can I say? Basically they stitched me up ... they basically fabricated everything, they corruptly coerced an under-age witness .. they did a lot of corrupt stuff, as for me being involved, I knew about it. I knew it was going to happen, but what they're saying is a bit nuts," he said. He went on to explain how he does not really care as its not his problem and he admitted to being heartless during that time. "People die everyday, that was our mentality," he told me bluntly.
Causing havoc on the streets of London and enjoying the fame and street credibility and reputation that came with it, soon came to an end for Odigie. He has spent at least ten years in prison, the first time being incarcerated at just age sixteen for the manslaughter of Zainab Kalokoh, who was aged 33 at the time. Odigie was first remanded in Feltham prison, where he complained the prisoners were full of testosterone and so there always fights taking place. However he reported the perks of being well-respected and notorious among other inmates, for his level of involvement in crime ."When I said my name to certain people, they were like "Oh shizzle, you're tiny rider, okay." Odigie explained how the other prisoners were terrified of him due to word on the street about his dangerous and intimidating behaviour.
Apparently Feltham was running loose at the time with prisoners attempting to free themselves, by opening their cells with a spoon. Odigie must have been a part of this fiasco, as he told me, "They re-categorised me as an escapee, so I had to wear a banana suit, I had to wear that everywhere, an escape suit."Soon after, Odigie had to move prisons, he was relocated to another prison, to a number of units, Eagle unit being the latter. He reminisced about his time at Eagle unit, telling me, "I had it on smash. I was cool with the Brikky (Brixton) youts. They stabbed and kidnapped me, but in jail I was cool with them. Whenever you see someone, its not a joke, people will onsite you, they will move to you straight away. Because I've done so much madness in my time, I was main target, because I may have shot this guy in the head time, I might have kidnapped this guy."
Thereafter, he was taken to court and placed in a high security prison in Belmarsh, where some of the country's most mischievous terrorists are jailed. He described to me how Abu Hamzah, a prominent terrorist to the authorities and the wider world had been held there and that the prison conditions were crazy. "HSU is something mad, its not somewhere you want to be. Went there, the next day, we complained to the judge. We said the conditions in this place is crazy, no way are we staying here. If you let us stay here, you're gonna affect the trial," he disclosed. The HSU unit in Belmarsh has been described as an anomaly by Nick Hardwick, the
Although prison guards and prisoners share a love/hate relationship, there have been various cases of misconduct and breach, as portrayed in the BBC Panaroma documentary about teenage prison abuse. Odigie reports to me both about the rain and a little bit of sun he had experienced during his time in jail. Masooz was the sun he had experienced. "Out of all the prison officers, I liked Masooz the best," he told me, before going on to say that people inside the prison speculated that there was some intimacy to their relationship and that there was something going on. He dismissed this as being false and went on to say, "I was having a little period of time where I was scared .. demons and shit, I was very very worried and at that time I was on basics. I had no TV, no nothing, so I was like 'Yo Masooz, I can't sleep because I have to leave the lights on, I got problems.' So Masooz said 'okay, I'm going to take you off basics'. Even though I had a week left, she took me of basics. I was happy - she did a lot of stuff for us man. She was like our aunty, she was very helpful, very pretty as well. Pretty Masooz. She did a lot for us and I respect her for that, its deep," he narrated on his relationship with the female prison guard Masooz.
Odigie became very emotional when revealing to me the misconduct of the jail staff towards himself and other prisoners. He told me that straight after the Lee Rigby murder took place in 2013, the prisoner offices took a direct dab at the Muslim prisoners. "The officers were trying to get at the Muslims, they used to do stupid stuff like steal our clothes when we used to hang them up for a visit. Stuff like flippin messing with our gym, with our phones, restrict us from having property normal people would be allowed to have. The officers were trying to incite the kaffirs (disbelievers) to start a madness with us, like a likkle war with us, you understand, because there was a lot of dangerous battles happening, " he told me earnestly. Odigie then went on to convey a theatrical picture in my head of the extreme extent to which the prison guards and officers were responsible for the violent attacks and fights between the Muslim and non-Muslim prisoners. "I remember one time we called it Texas showdown, there was blood everywhere. Knives, shanks, all of these kinds of things in the yard, people stabbing each other," expressed Odigie. I almost pictured him in his Nigerian apartment, sitting down, nodding his head in disapproval and contempt.
Aside from the Islamophobia and hatred towards Muslims shown by prison guards, Odigie informed me that the prisoners and himself were deliberately being food poisoned by the jail staff. "I started noticing strange things were happening, like my heart would start beating irregularly, it only happened after I ate the food and then I would feel sleepy at times when I wouldn't normally sleep. Sometimes I would sleep all night and all day and then wake up and still feel tired. You know when you've just been sedated to go on a surgery, coz I've been surgery, so I started thinking, no,no, something is not right here," he said. Odigie explained further that he had come to this conclusion after noticing crushed tablets inside the cheese that was placed in burgers and other foods the prisoners were served. Odigie argued that he had warned the 'brothers' in jail about the food poising numerous times, but none of them took them seriously, and had excuses for the supposed crushed tablets found in their foods.
Odigie told me that soon after he had discussed with other prisoners about his suspicions regarding the food poisoning , one inmate had reported the irregular heartbeats as well after consuming the prison food. Apparently the inmate had woken Odigie up from a deep sleep, by booting down his cell door and calling out to Odigie 'Yo akhi, take my mum's number, my brothers number.. they're (the prison staff) are trying to kill me. My hearts beating irregularly. If I stop moving, my hearts going to stop.' I felt sad. So what then happened, is we all got on our bells , I told everyone get on your bells, everyone was pressing on their bells," narrated Odigie. He told me the officer on duty at that time was a Canadian man called Ian turned a blind eye to the ringing of the bells and accused Odigie of being up to something. Furthermore, although the prisoner, Odigie's friend was in severe pain and anguish, a nurse was not called which fuelled further animosity between the guards and the prisoners thereafter as a result.
Odigie's story has both alarmed and angered me - and his story is not the only one to affirm such transgression exercised by so called law abiding citizens that are supposed to look after those who aren't. For those of you who are wondering about the latest on Odigie, he is living a normal life in his motherland, Nigeria.
To my knowledge the duty of prison guards and officers involve taking care of prisoner's belongings and property, discouraging bullying and violent forms of attack and ensuring prisoners are safe. Odigie's story tells me that prisoner officers and guards are corrupt, evil and misleading. More through checks need to be done when recruiting for these roles, and further monitoring checks should be done when one has passed their probationary period. This will monopolize security for both prisoners and prison staff alike. The Ministry Of Justice needs to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk, we've come too far as a society to have racist, malicious and ethical prison staff looking after some of the most vulnerable and marginalized members of society.
It comes across to me that the prison systems here in the UK are failing to do their job in protecting and rehabilitating offenders. The mistreating and misconduct within UK jail systems are some of the contributing factors as to why increasing re-offending rates come as no surprise. Professionals and ordinary people alike need to remember, no matter what crime someone commits, big or small, it does not make them any less of a human.