The authors views and opinions of those he refers to as “ the deviants” reflects the majority of our society’s views on Sexual Predators. He goes to great lengths to create shock and horror by exposing their crimes in graphic detail.
Therefore, it is not a book for the faint hearted. No doubt some might want to criticise him for giving Grendon Prisons ethos such a bad press, and risking the possibility that many men who might gain from therapy will be persuaded not to go there. However, I don't think this will be the case at all. Although his focus remains largely on his personal feelings about sex-offenders, and the difficulty he had in understanding their crimes, he does offer up a debate about the therapeutic regime and it's obviously undemocratic management process. He does has periods of reflection on his own behaviour, and his crimes, accepting that he needed to change, and indeed wanted to change. He describes how “living amongst the beasts” caused him to adapt his behaviour towards sex offenders, and to find a way to survive the therapeutic process sufficiently for him to take what he wanted from it. Which ultimately started him on a journey towards the success he has made of his life.
Whatever people might feel about his motives, his assessment of what he felt was wrong with the regime is quite astute, and from my own personal experience of Grendon, quite accurate.
The book asks more questions than it answers, which is not a bad thing. It is written honestly, and I would recommend it to anybody who wants to understand how difficult it is for prisoners who are forced to live together in a totally unnatural environment, one which only exists, at this depth, in two prisons in the UK. The other being at HMP Dovegate.
He makes a valid point that prisoners have been prevented from wholly volunteering to come into therapy for the past couple of decades, and now Grendon has become something of a tick box exercise towards gaining a successful parole result.
Terry Ellis gives credit to Grendon for helping him to reflect on the things he had to change in his life. It is sad that his experience there could not have been better.
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Top reviews from other countries
Joe Chapman
THERAPEUTIC FEEDBACK
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 14, 2020
Joe Chapman
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 14, 2020
Therefore, it is not a book for the faint hearted. No doubt some might want to criticise him for giving Grendon Prisons ethos such a bad press, and risking the possibility that many men who might gain from therapy will be persuaded not to go there. However, I don't think this will be the case at all. Although his focus remains largely on his personal feelings about sex-offenders, and the difficulty he had in understanding their crimes, he does offer up a debate about the therapeutic regime and it's obviously undemocratic management process. He does has periods of reflection on his own behaviour, and his crimes, accepting that he needed to change, and indeed wanted to change. He describes how “living amongst the beasts” caused him to adapt his behaviour towards sex offenders, and to find a way to survive the therapeutic process sufficiently for him to take what he wanted from it. Which ultimately started him on a journey towards the success he has made of his life.
Whatever people might feel about his motives, his assessment of what he felt was wrong with the regime is quite astute, and from my own personal experience of Grendon, quite accurate.
The book asks more questions than it answers, which is not a bad thing. It is written honestly, and I would recommend it to anybody who wants to understand how difficult it is for prisoners who are forced to live together in a totally unnatural environment, one which only exists, at this depth, in two prisons in the UK. The other being at HMP Dovegate.
He makes a valid point that prisoners have been prevented from wholly volunteering to come into therapy for the past couple of decades, and now Grendon has become something of a tick box exercise towards gaining a successful parole result.
Terry Ellis gives credit to Grendon for helping him to reflect on the things he had to change in his life. It is sad that his experience there could not have been better.
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DAVID PEARSON
True Crime book with a difference
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2020