Jim Dawkins is an ex-prison officer with a difference: a screw with a heart. He became a firm friend of and staunch advocate for Charlie!

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The Loose Screw
by Jim Dawkins

Synopsis
Features the story of the happenings that have taken place when the author worked in various prisons, with Charles Bronson.

From the Publisher
Jim Dawkins left home at the age of sixteen to pursue his dream of joining the army, and subsequently served with the Royal Green Jackets, including tours of Canada and Northern Ireland. During that time he learnt many important lessons in the ‘University of Life’ that would serve him well in the future, such as discipline, respect, pride and honour, but which, at the same time, would lead to insufferable stress as he constantly battled with his conscience and struggled to swim against the tide.

Once back in Civvy Street, and with a new house and a baby to support, Jim decided to join the Prison Service. But what faced him in this new career, which centred on Wandsworth, Wormwood Scrubs and Belmarsh prisons, shocked him to the core. For this ex-squaddie, who believed in establishing good working relationships with inmates, including notorious long-termer, Charles Bronson, the cancerous environment of staff bully-boy tactics and prisoner victimization was sickening.

Jim tells his story, which, although peppered with humorous anecdotes of often lager-induced incidents from both his army and prison days, bears witness to the stark reality of what actually goes on behind prison doors, and exposes both the glaring flaws in the prison system and the atrocities perpetrated in the name of justice, which ultimately forced his decision to leave the Prison Service seven years later.

About the Author
Harlow-born Jim Dawkins left home in Eltham at the age of sixteen to pursue a career in the army and served with the Royal Green Jackets from 1985 to 1991, including tours of Canada and Northern Ireland. Upon leaving the army, he joined the Prison Service and spent the next seven years training and working in Wandsworth, Wormwood Scrubs and Belmarsh prisons. In 1999, Jim left the Prison Service, ill with stress and disillusioned by the abuse levelled out to inmates by many of the staff. Jim eventually settled down with his childhood sweetheart, Natasha, and has two daughters, Lauren and Morgan. One of Jim’s goals in life is to fight for the rights of long-term high-security inmate, Charlie Bronson, with whom he has struck up a remarkable friendship. He wants the prison service to pull itself out of the Victorian mentality and give Charlie the chance he deserves to work towards his release and lead the normal life he yearns for.

Reviews

The Daily Mail
The book makes for a most fascinating and engrossing read.

Loaded Magazine
Eye-opening, passionate and often terrifying, these memoirs of a renegade prison officer will shake the British Prison System.

Inside Time Magazine
A brilliant book and highly recommended.

Review from Insidetime, January 2006 issue
by Noel ‘Razor’ Smith

Noel ‘Razor’ Smith, never a man to pull his punches, reviews a book he describes in glowing terms as … ‘courageous’ and ‘highly recommended’

When I was first asked to review this book, I thought I might be hearing things, because the autobiography of a prison officer is a rare thing indeed in this country, in fact think unicorn-shit rarity. Then I got to thinking that it was probably going to be a watered down version of the official Prison Service party line, full of slightly amusing anecdotes about the staff mess and 'Porridge' style jolly japes involving dim-witted convicts and firm-but- fair screws. Boy, was I in for a surprise!

Before joining the Prison Service in 1992, Jim Dawkins served with the Royal Green Jackets and did tours of Northern Ireland and Canada, so had already seen a fair bit of life and the world before picking up his set of keys and entering the employ of HMP. Unfortunately, none of this really prepared him for life as a screw and Jim was soon to become more than disillusioned with his choice of profession.

With searing honesty, Jim tells how he drifted into the Prison Service because it was the only job that offered the financial security he needed and how no one can fail the entrance exams as they are supplied with the answers in advance. How, on his first day as a trainee at HMP Wandsworth, he witnessed a prisoner being brutally beaten and framed by prison staff who told him not to write anything about it in his trainee's notebook. And how even he him-self was gradually seduced into being one of the HMP gang. Though never involved in brutality against inmates, he admits to giving false evidence for those screws who were. Jim Dawkins pulls no punches in this expose of the prison system and confirms everything that prisoners have always known but the system has vehemently denied. That there are prison officers, a lot of them, who beat, torture and regularly plant evidence and lie on adjudications, and that some members of senior management encourage and collude in it all. He paints a picture that most prisoners will immediately recognize, of a service infested with petty-minded bullying braggarts and sick psychopaths who can get away with anything simply because they wear the uniform of HMP and have the full support of the Home Office.

Jim worked in the brutal London karzi's of HMPs Wandsworth, Wormwood Scrubs and Belmarsh, and anyone who has spent time in these unhallowed institutions will be pleased to hear that he tells it like it really is. It was while he was working at HMP Belmarsh that he first met the legendary Charlie Bronson. Jim was willing to look beyond the reputation of the man and the two became friends. So much so that Charlie has written the foreword to this book in his usual inimitable style. Jim gives a fascinating insight on Charlie, and how the prison system has dealt with him in his almost three decades behind bars. Charlie Bronson, despite what the prison system might want us to believe, is no stone killer, but just a prisoner of circumstance, much maligned and brutalised by the prison system over many years. He is an extraordinary man who has refused to let the system break his spirit, and Jim confirms this. Jim Dawkins has now left the Prison Service because he could no longer stomach 'the cancerous environment of staff bully-boy tactics and prisoner victimisation'. I sincerely hope that his book will inspire those prison officers who do not join in the bullying and brutality to have the courage to stand up to those who do. Silence will not change the system.

A brilliant book and highly recommended.

Review by Dave Harding

I served with Jim in the Royal Green Jackets so I read this book with great interest. What can I say? This is a brilliant book and Ii had tears rolling down my face reading some of the hilarious stories. One of the funniest things I have ever heard was the one about Dave Courtney looking out of the doctors window … you will have to read it to see what I mean. Also it was a great eye opener to the way prisoners are treated, especially Charles Bronson who, until Ii read “The Loose Screw”, I just assumed he was exactly the type of person that you read about in the papers. Jim’s book has convinced me that he is actually nothing like this and is actually a very proud and respectful man. This is probably one of if not the best book I have ever read and I would highly recommend it to anyone from all walks of life.

But don't just believe me or the few reviews above. You can read far more reviews of this gem of a work by this diamond geezer by going to the Apex Publishing website by clicking HERE ... and you can buy signed copies direct from them on the site.