An ex-prison officer has called on Chris Grayling to spend a month working in a prison after penning a book about his experiences.

Dominick Bryant, 53, who worked at High Down, in Banstead, from 2006 to 2008, has just published an account of his time at the prison, as well as at Downview and Brixton prisons and Feltham Young Offenders’ Institution - Irish Eyes: Behind HM Prison Walls, United Kingdom.

Mr Bryant, from Ireland, said the personal issues he faced on the inside compelled him to speak out about life behind the prison gate.

"I always wanted to be a prison officer.  It was a dream come true," he said.

"I treated prisoners the way I would like to be treated. 

"This probably came from my Irish upbringing and knowing right from wrong. 

"I had four sisters and knew respect and was encouraged to understand about what goes on in other people’s lives."

Although Mr Bryant worked at High Down before Epsom and Ewell’s MP, Mr Grayling, was appointed Justice Secretary and introduced substantial cuts to staff numbers and a tougher prison regime, he said the numbers of prison officers on a landing were already beginning to be drastically cut.

He said: "Someone like Chris Grayling should go into a prison and work there for a month to see what really goes on.  

"People in power don’t live in the real world.

"I believe a prison governor should run the establishment.  They come from the shop floor. 

"Now they have to do what head office tells them which is 'cut, cut, cut'.

"The prisons are heading towards privatisation and that’s dangerous as then a prison becomes all about profit and not about the duty of care you have to prisoners."

Until November 2012, a governor allocated a prison’s budget. 

Now, the allocation is largely determined based on a model for each type of prison, formulated by the Government - a practice known as 'bench-marking'.

Mr Bryant said he enjoyed interacting with prisoners and that they "crack-up" if locked in cells for 23 hours a day - a claim repeated by friends and family of inmates at High Down in the past six months, although the Ministry of Justice has denied this.

When asked about the number of prisoners kept on heroin-substitute Methadone in the country's prisons, Mr Bryant said he did not agree with drug addicts being made to go 'cold turkey' in their cells as it is "too inhuman" and would cause too much disruption as prisoners would "see the red mist".

Mr Bryant said life experience is important to becoming a prison officer and the age at which people can sign up, on a starting salary of £18,000, should be raised from the current age of 18 to 25.

He added: "They need life experience and the first thing in the recruitment process should be to interview them - to find out about their lives.

"Joining at 18 is too young - you just become a ‘yes’ man." 

Mr Bryant now works for an independent living organisation but said he would love to work for a body involved with prisoners again.

He added: "I’ve learnt that life is cheap. 

"From the cradle to the grave, everybody should be looking out for each other."

Mr Bryant’s book is available for Kindle on Amazon. To view it, click here.

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