Is Britain’s most notorious prisoner Charles Bronson on the verge of freedom?
Before a new parole review last month he fired his lawyer and refused to take any part in the process, angry that his request for a public hearing had been rejected.
In a letter to Sky News, the man who has spent half a century in jail wrote: “Sacked the legal team!”
Perhaps not the wisest move so close to the hearing.
Read more: Who is Charles Bronson?
He went on to say, in colourful language, that he’d have nothing to do with “the farcical jam roll” (parole) and asked: “What are they afraid of? The truth getting out?”
Since then, a new solicitor appears to have got a postponement of the review until today, when the Parole Board panel will assess his application.
It’s essentially a paper exercise, with the panel considering written statements from prison staff, psychiatrists, probation staff and Bronson’s legal team.
Its purpose is to decide if a prisoner is safe to be freed. Does he pose a risk to the public and, if he does, is it low enough to be manageable with restrictions on his movements and activities?
The panel could decide to free Bronson, recommend a move to an open prison, or delay things and hold an oral hearing.
Five decades behind bars
Bronson, 73, has spent 52 years in jail, much of it in solitary confinement, and this is his ninth appeal to the Parole Board.
He was jailed for seven years for armed robbery in 1974 and, but for two brief periods of freedom, has been locked up ever since because of repeated violent attacks on staff and other inmates.
In 1999, he took a prison art teacher hostage and got a life sentence, with a minimum three years to serve.
His last conviction, for assaulting a prison governor, was in 2014.
I showed Bronson’s letter to Bob Johnson, the psychiatrist who treated him 30 years ago.
He knows the prisoner better than most.
Was Bronson, who now calls himself Charles Salvador, once again scuppering his chances of parole by refusing to take part in any potential oral hearing?
“No, I don’t think so at all,” said Dr Johnson. “I think he’s very angry, and I don’t see how you could go through what he’s gone through and not be angry.
“The Parole Board doesn’t need to hear from him to make its decision.
“He’s very provocative. I don’t think he means it when he says he doesn’t want anything to do with his review. Very clearly, he enjoys the battle. He likes sticking up for himself.
“He asks what are they afraid of, the truth? That’s a very good question. And the truth is that he is being unjustifiably punished. What this is…he’s 73 years, and in solitary confinement.
“I mean, it’s unbelievable when you think what inner strength this man must have to survive.”
‘One simple dream’
Dr Johnson believes Bronson is institutionalised but could cope on the outside with the help of friends, and with his artwork to sustain him and earn him money.
Bronson’s letter to Sky News was accompanied by four of his trademark tormented drawings, one calling for an end to his imprisonment.
His naive-style artwork is vivid and grim with repetitive themes of madness, restraint, and despair, but it is not entirely without hope. He wrote beneath an early drawing: “God save our dreams. It’s all we have left. One simple dream will bring you through all this misery.”
At Bronson’s last parole hearing three years ago, the board members accepted his behaviour had improved.
They concluded he wasn’t ready for a move to an open prison, but suggested his behaviour should be tested in a less restrictive regime, as the start of a slow process towards release.
But nothing much has changed.
Since then, Bronson’s been moved to another jail, again high security, and he’s still segregated and locked up on his own 23 hours a day.
Reducing his security rating and testing him with other inmates is a decision for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). Will it ever allow it? The MoJ won’t comment on individual prisoners.
John Podmore, once the governor at Belmarsh prison, said he did move Bronson to a normal cell and worked with him to curb his outbursts. It was 30 years ago, and the experiment lasted only a few weeks.
‘It’s a Catch-22’
“I got a phone call, telling me Charlie had taken the Iraqi prisoners hostage,” he said. “He had them hog-tied and very frightened. It was horrendous. A bit of me was kind of heartbroken because our efforts had failed.”
While the incident was unfolding, Mr Podmore had to leave the prison and hand over command as his father had died suddenly.
Bronson later sent him a card expressing condolences, the only prisoner to do so.
“He wrote that he was sorry he had caused me so much trouble,” Mr Podmore said.
On Bronson’s chances of a release, Mr Podmore said: “The Parole Board recommended last time what I was trying to do 30 years ago, but it’s a Catch-22 situation.
“He’s not being moved because of his propensity for violence, but unless he’s moved, he can’t demonstrate he has changed.”
What hope of a ‘freedom party’?
The former governor believes Bronson’s chances of ever being released are diminishing, partly because of the current climate inside the prison system.
“These days you’re got the added dimension of serious organised crime, the level of drugs, radicalisation, the general chaos in the system, which I think is being handled badly by governments of all colours.
“It makes it a thousand times more difficult. There’s such a level of indiscipline around the system, the level of provocation Bronson is likely to face is now 10 times what it would have been 30 years ago.”
Despite his despair at the parole system, Bronson hasn’t given up hope of release.
His letter included an invitation to his “freedom party”.
He said it will be held in 2028, adding: “Don’t be late.”
