Review: Breakfast at Bronzefield

Breakfast at Bronzefield by Sophie Campbell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not quite what I was expecting, but still a really interesting read.

Sophie Campbell (pseudonym) was charged with assault and sent to Bronzefield prison, pending trial. This account details her experiences inside, and of the rehabilitation process afterwards.

Firstly, I found the structure a little off. The events jumped around a bit, rather than being laid out chronologically, which could be confusing at times. I found it disrupted the flow a little and made it trickier to follow.

There's also a massive focus on the prison system, rather than any kind of personal focus. This rubbed me wrong for a few reasons. Firstly, we never find out what Sophie's story actually is beyond the barest of details (which seems to have been an intentional choice) so it makes it hard to empathise with her and her experiences, and to take her at her word. She easily admits to being a violent person, to lying and faking mental illness to receive less consequences. It was bravely honest, certainly, but it also meant that I didn't feel a lot of sympathy for the negative experiences she had as a prisoner, and I found myself often questioning how honest her account was.

Secondly, I'm a bit of a black-and-white person at times, and I do generally believe that criminals should be punished. For example, one of the first complaints Sophie shares about her experience is that she wasn't allowed to bring in things like makeup and skirts that were considered 'too short'. That seems such a petty complaint to me for someone who has been charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm on another human being. So there were a lot of moments like that where I didn't really feel the sympathy I think I was supposed to, and Sophie's quick decision to choose violence in most cases made it harder for me to appreciate the support she was requesting on behalf of prisoners like herself.

That being said, there were definitely some red flags here, particularly with the inconsistencies in treatment the prisoners experienced. It does seem like there should be more effort put into establishing firm guidelines and boundaries. The rehabilitation process, for example, struck me as terribly unjust, and I can understand the concerns Sophie raises.

This is a detailed look at one specific prison in the UK, but it does raise broader questions about the justice system, and the treatment and eventual rehabilitation of prisoners. This account operates on the conclusion that most criminals have become so due to poverty and inequality, and that seems tragically realistic to me. But the book also gives far more empathy to prisoners than I was willing to offer.

It was a really interesting read, and it was also fascinating to me to consider how I responded to it. I know I have some unconscious biases and it seems one of those is towards criminals (Probably not helped by my frequent enjoyment of serial killer podcasts and the like).

This book made me consider a little further the experiences of prisoners, and I think Sophie raises some really worthy considerations for reforming the prison system. It's more factual than personal, so don't look for a moving memoir here, but an interesting read all the same.

With thanks to the author and Netgalley for an ARC

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