Featured Release
Memoir
"I commenced work at Yatala Labour Prison not knowing that it would be my last day of work at the prison as a correctional officer, and the start of a new commitment in my life ?
The officers standing in the doorway froze with panic in their eyes and to my shock and utter disbelief, they shut the unit Barrier gate. I do not know how else to describe what was happening before me, as I looked into their eyes the recent echoing voice of a prisoner to ?Go down, Mr Werchon!' was now a reality, in truth there was now no chance of escape. The closing of the gate effectively sealing my fate ?"
John E. Werchon
The following book outlines, from lived experience, the true account of a riot situation in a prison facility. The opening pages describe ?business as usual' - the routines, procedures and protocols surrounding work in the prison arena - all from the perspective of a young Correctional Officer.
Fast track a significant period of time to a new and somewhat ?relaxed' correctional context, adopted in an effort to foster communication and openness. However, a sequence of events unfolds that has far-reaching implications for a once- ?rigid' system and an unsuspecting officer; when opportunistically, prisoners undertake a riot, and he and other officers are taken hostage, the real repercussions unfolding across a lifetime ?