Heaven

DAY 373 FRIDAY 26 JULY 2002

There has never been a suicide at NSC, despite the fact that there were seventy-three suicides in British jails last year.

Today an inmate made two attempts to take his life. First he tried to cut his wrist, and after being rushed to the Pilgrim Hospital and patched up, he attempted to hang himself. He failed.

He’s a young man who recently lost his mother, and last week his girlfriend sent him a ‘Dear John’ letter. I later learned that during his trial he took 106 paracetamol tablets and although they pumped his body out, he has irreversibly damaged his liver. His crime, by the way, was shoplifting, for which he received six months, and will serve three at most.

However, one good thing came out of it. The Listeners, who have been requesting a room for counselling for some time, were allocated one this morning.