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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Entertainment
Christopher Megrath

Channel 5's HMP Wakefield: Evil Behind Bars to share secrets of UK's toughest jail

Channel 5's new documentary HMP Wakefield: Evil Behind Bars will lift the lid on one of Britain's toughest prisons nicknamed 'the English version of Alcatraz'.

Through interviews with inmates, ex-prisoners, guards and relatives of notorious inmates, HMP Wakefield: Evil Behind Bars will spill the secrets of what goes on behind its bars. The show will highlight what it is like for sex offenders and child killers to try and survive as they are targeted, attacked and even killed by other inmates for their crimes on a regular basis.

Viewers will also be able to get an insight into some of the toughest conditions the prison has to offer, including Wakefield’s notorious punishment block, F-Wing, the segregation unit, solitary confinement for the worst of the worst. Dubbed the most dangerous prisoner in Britain, we will be getting an inside look at how serial killer Robert Maudsley is coping in his glass cage in the basement of the prison.

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The longest-serving prisoner Charles Bronson's phone calls will also be revealed as he details what life is really like as a prisoner. Notorious murderer Jeremy Bamber also makes the show as not only are his crimes outside of the prison harrowing, his fighting on the inside has been just as dangerous.

The fights, trauma and cliques the inmates carry out and form will be the shows driving force whilst documenting the acts that put them there. Speaking about the documentary, a spokesman for Channel 5 said: "Through interviews with ex-inmates, retired screws, and relatives of Britain’s most infamous inmates, we unlock the cell doors and uncover the secrets of life inside the UK’s toughest jail."

The spokesman mentioned the longest serving inmate Bronson, saying: "Bronson’s son George recounts how his life changed forever when he was summoned to the prison to meet the Dad he never knew he had. And we hear never before told stories from inside the walls of Wakefield about Jeremy Bamber, arguably as famous for his fight to get out of prison than for the crimes he committed to be sent there.

"Many of HMP Wakefield inmates are in for life, some will never be released and will die as pensioners behind bars. So, should we be treating the worst of the worst more humanely in jail? Or does society prefer to lock them up, throw away the key and forget about them?"

HMP Wakefield: Evil Behind Bars airs 28 March at 9pm.

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