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The Loose Screw: The Shocking Truth About Our Prison System
 
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The Loose Screw: The Shocking Truth About Our Prison System (Paperback)

by Jim Dawkins (Author), Charles Bronson (Author), Dave Courtney (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
RRP: £10.00
Price: £7.36 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

The Loose Screw: The Shocking Truth About Our Prison System + Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer + A Life Inside: A Prisoner's Notebook
Price For All Three: £31.59

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Product details

  • Paperback: 1 pages
  • Publisher: Apex Publishing Ltd, Essex (25 Jan 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 190444461X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1904444619
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 14.4 x 1.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 72,678 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

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.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Loose Screw: The Shocking Truth About Our Prison System
43% buy the item featured on this page:
The Loose Screw: The Shocking Truth About Our Prison System 4.2 out of 5 stars (15)
£7.36
Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer
23% buy
Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer 3.8 out of 5 stars (17)
£5.49
A Life Inside: A Prisoner's Notebook
19% buy
A Life Inside: A Prisoner's Notebook 4.9 out of 5 stars (8)
£8.09
Solitary Fitness
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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews
5 star:
 (10)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
15 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Publishers must be strapped for books, 30 Mar 2006
By A Customer
I picked up this book expecting it to be an involving expose of the prison service. It's written by a man that was horrified by what he was witness to as a prison guard, you expect some harrowing stuff. Unfortunatley it turns out to be a poorly written - " the world has done me wrong " lament.

You would expect that someone horrified with the ongoing abuse within the prison service would perhaps hold him self to be a man of greater morality. However, with teenage bravado he tell's of the time he was on night duty and was so drunk that he could hardly see, or perhaps the time when he'd had enough of the goading from an inmate and decided to attack him with a snooker cue. Apparently this was an act of self defence. How charging at somebody with a snooker cue when they are threatening you with a bowl of water is self defence,I'm not sure.

In fact all his problems seem to have been solved with his fists- in the army, in the pub, in the prison service. All these anecdotes are told with an irritatingly smug tone. Infact at one point a story that he relates as funny, involves a man that he thought he was involved in killing. First instincts told him (and his friends) that they needed to get rid of the body - so they did - wrapped up the unconscious drunk man and disposed of him in the woods, they would have dropped him in a lake but couldn't get a boat... Oh my word, Are we meant to be impressed?

Sadly, if you are looking for some facts about the horrendous life of a prison warden or even a prisoner, you are not going to get it here .Terribly written, self obsessed anecdotes of a man we don't know - awful.

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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars The Loose Screw, 28 April 2008
An average book if you are ignorant to the Prison system, however the author appears to relie on anecdotes from other prison staff (as a serving officer with over 20 years service AT Wandsworth and Belmarsh and knowing of Dawkins). I am not denying that corruption and beatings have and do occur but Dawkins seems to have seen it all, perhaps if he had written his own experiences and not drawn on anecdotes of others the book would be a pamphlet. Some of the prisoners he claims to have befriended where at the time of his service loacated in prisons in which the author (Dawkins) would not have been serving in.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars bang on the money, 10 Aug 2008
By D. A. Wallis "damian" (uk) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
If you like real life books then buy this! pulls no punches and jim speaks the truth about the hmp system

What a read!!!..... enjoy
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting.
An interesting read made all the more poignant due to the fact I was on Prison Officer training course NR32 at Newbold Revel, the one after Jims, in 1992, and "Senior Officer Ian... Read more
Published 12 months ago by A. Harvey

5.0 out of 5 stars shocked and surely true
I have just read this book and find it was written by a brave man.I have met many people in my 80 years of life who have had dealings with prisons in some way. Read more
Published 14 months ago by muriel allsop

4.0 out of 5 stars a good read for non-prison officers
i am a serving prison officer and felt that if i were in the situation that jim described, you either do something and take the flack that comes with it or you are as bad as doing... Read more
Published 18 months ago by N. J. Smart

3.0 out of 5 stars loose screw
enjoyed the book but this book should be called the bent screw.
as a serving prison officer myself i can understand the mention of bully boy screws as i have come across... Read more
Published 21 months ago by A. Richardson

5.0 out of 5 stars True life and Real.
The fact that the author admits all his faults and failings through life adds to the realism of the contents of this book. Read more
Published 23 months ago by J.D.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thoroughly Enthralling Read Highly Recomended
I could not believe it when i heard that a prison officer had written a book exposing some serious flaws in the hierarchy of our prison system and rushed out to get a copy. Read more
Published on 3 Jul 2006 by Mark Edwards

5.0 out of 5 stars EYE OPENING UNIQUE AND A GREAT READ
I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD SEE THE DAY THAT A BOOK ON PRISON LIFE WOULD BE WRITTEN BY A PRISON OFFICER ESPECIALLY ONE WHO HAS SERVED IN SOME OF LONDONS TOP SECURITY JAILS AND DEALT... Read more
Published on 2 Jul 2006 by NATALIE SMITH

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally Amazing Book
I have now read the book twice and find it riviting. Having had a son in the army and another son who has been in prison I found it really informitive and eye opening. Read more
Published on 7 Jun 2006 by Zoe

5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic fantastic fantastic!!!
I cant remember the last time i read such a honest hard hitting true life gritty and yet very well written book. Read more
Published on 18 May 2006 by Richard Dane

5.0 out of 5 stars excelent read dont miss it
this is a unique one and only book which is extremely well written true to life and very honest and hard hitting. Read more
Published on 9 May 2006 by nick from england

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