Report of the Inquiry into the circumstances of the Death of Bernard ...

10.6 Officer Downs said that Officer Bowcock had put up the rules. They had not
discussed it but Officer Downs said, “It was part of our job to make the prisoners conform
to the wing rules and it was appropriate in this instance to bring the rules to the attention
of Mr Lodge.”
10.7 When the police officers asked Mr Bowcock why he had thought it necessary to
pin the marked rules on the noticeboard before Sonny Lodge returned to the cell, Officer
Bowcock said that from entries in what he thought was the observation book, or possibly
his conversation with Officer Downs, he had an idea that Mr Lodge was not a “model
prisoner”.
10.8 In his statement to the inquiry, Officer Bowcock said he “decided that it would be
a good idea to draw Mr Lodge’s attention to this rule [about not abusing officers]
because…I understood that Mr Lodge had at times shown a negative attitude to prison
staff.” Officer Bowcock said it was his decision alone. When Mr Lodge came back to the
cell he seemed “surly and incoherent. I then alluded to the Prison Rules and showed Mr
Lodge that I had placed them on his noticeboard for his attention. Prison Rules are
supposed to be exhibited in every cell. I explained to Mr Lodge that it would be a good
idea … if he were to try to keep his head down and stay out of trouble.”
10.9 In oral evidence to the inquiry, Mr Bowcock said that he did not remember
whether pinning up the rules like that was something he had done before. He said he
could not remember and he did not remember thinking about it at the time but “in
retrospect, with hindsight, maybe it wasn’t excellent practice.”
10.10 Mr Bowcock said in his police statement that in his experience prisoners
frequently claimed they were being victimised. If all the cells had been searched and
there was a week left in the searching cycle then somebody would be searched twice
and “every time” prisoners complained that “you’re getting at them”. Mr Bowcock said
that he understood that prisoners resented searches “because once they’re in prison the
cell is their home.”
10.11 Mr Bowcock told the inquiry that “It's quite common for the job I was in for people
to hate you. And maybe they didn't hate me … they hated the uniform more than the
person inside it.” Mr Bowcock felt that prison officers were “easy targets, there was a lot
of resentment, anger, maybe.” Prisoners had “been out on the streets two weeks ago
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