Socially skilled, and probably more intelligent than most of the prisoners on his wing, Melia is quite adept at climbing this hierarchy – in which the new currency is “vapes” – but, alas, they keep moving him to different wings or different prisons, so he has to start the process all over again. We also discover that almost everybody on the sex offender wing is Muslim but non-Muslims can, and do, sign up for special Eid feasts.
As a political prisoner, and one hoping for early release, Melia is subject to regular Maoist struggle sessions with a male social worker who is so deeply indoctrinated with Woke and so lacking in the ability to think that he and his type are concerned that Melia “thinks Black people aren’t White Britons.” The preceding, stresses Melia, is a genuine quote and he proves this by publishing the correspondence. Their aim is to “re-align Mr Melia’s mindset.” The chap from the anti-terrorist group “Prevent” concludes that Sam is no threat to anybody, but the torture of struggle sessions – in which Sam is logical and the man with power insanely tries to make Sam accept that black is white – must continue. At one point, the authorities are so cruel that they declare – though eventually change their minds – that his children cannot visit Melia in jail as his anti-Woke ideas might somehow lead a toddler and a baby into terrorism.
Melia’s story made me realise, more clearly than ever, how prison turns men into children. Having almost no agency, the slightest bit of power becomes extremely precious to your sense of self-worth and the smallest things matter hugely. Melia occupies his time making match-stick models and takes a massive amount of pride in them. Prisoners try to brag about their worldly success by displaying expensive tracksuits in their cells, just as children would show off their expensive and sought-after toys. You have to be careful, though, because some people in prison, like angry children, will destroy “anything nice.” The prison’s “mob” tends to control the canteen and uses this power to steal food for its members, such that ordinary prisoners are told that the hamburgers to which they are entitled have mysteriously already run out.