He'd obviously just rolled over and lain on them. Fortunately all the mattresses are flame resistant. McLean says the prison has encountered two unforeseen problems. One has been the reluctance of many older prisoners to go anywhere near E wing. It's perceived as dead men's shoes.
People think the only way out is by dying.
In fact, he says, more prisoners have been released to lower-security establishments than have died. T he second problem is that many of the inmates are in a poorer condition than the unit had bargained for. Christ, we all get old, but you've got blokes pissing in the plant pots and blokes shitting themselves. He says he was grateful for a move back to the main part of the prison after he underwent a hip replacement operation. It could have been brilliant but you've got the wrong people in there.