Life Means Life - Original Writing :: Papers

Life Means Life - Original Writing The sly shoves and kicks from policemen didn't bother me. It was the look on their faces. They turned up their noses as if the smell of me was too foul to endure. Their eyes seemed to darken at the sight of me. The first time it really hit me that I was going to spend the rest of my life in prison was only when they took away my personal belongings. Everything that gave me a sense of identity, of individuality was carefully listed and placed into that blue plastic box - a Mars bar which I have loved since I was a little lad; my keys that never worked first time you twisted them in the lock; my worn and familiar clothes that I refused to throw out just because they were old, and my wallet with the picture of - my girlfriend who says she no longer loves me. These small insignificant things that made me an individual were stripped away literally and all that was left was me. Me. It made me break down right there in the room while they were removing the laces from my shoes. "We don't want any hangings tonight do we?" said the surly officer. A humiliating, brutal and invasive search of my naked body followed amid sniggers and crude comments from the men in blue before being marched to my cell. By this point I was beyond caring. A switch in my mind was flicked and I stared straight ahead, silently following the instructions of the uniformed guards neither flinching nor responding to anything anyone said or did. The door slammed shut and I surveyed my new home with its hard bed and a bucket in a corner. I was placed in solitary confinement `for my own security' which meant I didn't have to face the other inmates immediately although I realised at some point that I would have to. Solitary confinement - time to give me think about the weeks and months leading up to this point and the crime they say I committed.