by John Reed
“Guilty” said the Judge, “ I am sentencing you to ten years, and I very much hope that this sends a message to all the others who one day may contemplate trafficking people”. I froze, what can I do now ? My wife and children will be in despair, my business will collapse, and I will be in a world that I have no experience of, how will I cope ?
I was taken down to a holding cell and locked in, alone with my thoughts and fears. That summer, in 2018, was a very hot one, and the cell had no cool air to speak of. I gradually became hotter and hotter, whatever next ? In one short week my life had been turned upside down, it would never be the same again.
After about an hour of this horror, whilst my mind played tricks with me, the door opened and an Officer ordered me to go with him. I was handcuffed for the short walk to the waiting vehicle, the door opened, I was offered a seat, and the door was locked behind me.
Where we were going to, how long it would take, I had no idea, but hell, it was certainly hot. During the journey some of my fellow travellers shouted out to each other, they clearly knew who they were, some cried, some, like me, sat in silence, not knowing what would happen next.
After about three hours we arrived at the prison, the vehicle waited, and waited, and waited until eventually it was driven in. Afterwards the doors were opened and at least the outside air was fresh, but not cool. A typical English summer evening, warm, sultry, unforgiving. No sooner were we off the van, which I now know is called a “sweat box” by regular users, and all of us, nine men, were taken inside.
Then began the process of registering us all. HMPPS have this off to a fine art, but to me, never having done this before, it was all new, and totally unexpected. Forms to fill in, questions to be answered, body cavities to be searched, it was all very scary.
After what seemed like hours, three of us were shown to the “Induction Wing” for our first night in prison. We were allowed only one phone call home to tell our family where we were now. “HMP Ducksford” I told my wife. She responded immediately “ but that is 115 miles away from home, we will never be able to make a journey that far away”. My despair was total, ten years without even seeing my family !
That night, unable to sleep due to the heat and the way my mind was behaving, was so long, I thought morning would never come. Once it did, I wished that it never had ! My mind was so confused, I had suicidal thoughts, a headache of extreme proportions, the weather, all combined to make me wish I had never met the man who had offered me “ a certain way of increasing profits because the labour costs would reduce”.
The day passed, I was offered food but could not eat, offered water but could not drink, given information that I could not absorb, hell I was in a mess. I had sacrificed my career, my family, my home, everything I had cherished for so long, and for what ? One thing was certain, that man who promised me so much, was not convicted. He was gone, back to his own country of Albania.
© John Reed 2021-06-10