The Prison Doctor by Dr Amanda Brown #Review @HQstories

The Prison Doctor by Dr Amanda Brown

Published 13th June 2019

Published by HQ 

288 pages

Book Description:

Horrifying, heartbreaking and eye-opening, these are the stories, the patients and the cases that have characterised a career spent being a doctor behind bars.

Violence. Drugs. Suicide. Welcome to the world of a Prison Doctor.

Dr Amanda Brown has treated inmates in the UK’s most infamous prisons – first in young offenders’ institutions, then at the notorious Wormwood Scrubs and finally at Europe’s largest women-only prison in Europe, Bronzefield.

From miraculous pregnancies to dirty protests, and from violent attacks on prisoners to heartbreaking acts of self-harm, she has witnessed it all.

In this eye-opening, inspirational memoir, Amanda reveals the stories, the patients and the cases that have shaped a career helping those most of us would rather forget.

Despite their crimes, she is still their doctor.

My Thoughts:

I am not a regular reader of non-fiction, but when a friend offered me the chance to read Amanda Brown's prison memoir I was interested to know what makes a regular GP move across into the prison service.

I was impressed with the leap of faith that Amanda took to step well and truly out of her comfort zone to leave the general practice she had spent so long building up and move into the prison service.

It is heart warming to know that the staff in our detention centres and prisons are concerned not only with the physical health of the inmates but also their mental wellbeing.  The constraints which restrict just how involved they can get are proven in Amanda's description of the doctor-patient relationship she built up with a young man at the detention centre, Jared. She gained his confidence sufficiently to find out what his passion was: writing and poetry. Knowing that he was moving to another facility Amanda wanted to expand Jared's vocabulary, buying a dictionary and thesaurus for him to take with him.  Unfortunately the rules state that she could not give him the book as staff are not permitted to gift anything to inmates and with no family to support him she watched him leave the detention centre with her hopes for his writing talent in tatters.

With language barriers, social and emotional walls which the individual has built up for self preservation plus the necessary rules of the prison system there are so many reasons a huge proportion of people entering these establishments fail to pull themselves out of the unfortunate cycle they find themselves in. The hurdles they have to overcome must feel like too much effort for many of them, when the draw of drugs and integrating into the right social group in prison must seem a much easier option.

I love the fact that Amanda and the others in her team do their utmost to not judge any one of the inmates. They all receive the same high standard of treatment no matter what their past has thrown at them. Every effort is given to help them escape the prison system and better themselves in the outside world, whether that be medical help or emotional support to identify with the inmate. It's not all about physical health but to help someone find it in themselves to be the best they can comes across so strongly in this book and I admire Amanda and every one in the prison system who is helping people when they are at their lowest point.

I learned a lot from this book and I recommend everyone reads it as I feel it will change your view of everyone on the other side of the bars, whether they be staff or inmate.

About the Author:

Dr Amanda Brown is a GP at the largest women-only prison in Europe, Bronzefield. She was a regular NHS GP for a number of years, until she gave up her practice to move into the prison service.  She worked at a teenage detention centre, before moving on to Wormwood Scrubs and the finally to Bronzefield where she continues to practice to this day. The Prison Doctor is her first book.