Guernsey prison "saved my life”

Wednesday 16 February 2022

Adam Pagett was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being caught importing drugs into Guernsey in 2005. He credits this experience and his time at Les Nicolles with saving his life and changing it for the better in many ways.

At the time he was arrested and charged with importation, he had been using heroin and crack cocaine for more than a decade. He knew that he could make more money bringing drugs into Guernsey than he could supplying them in the UK.

Mr Pagett grew up in Halifax. He joined the army and served six years before being dishonourably discharged for drug offences. From that point, his life spiralled out of control.

Pictured: Adam Pagett served in the British Army for six years and completed a tour of duty in Northern Ireland. He later sold his medal to buy drugs.

Looking back with Express now, he recognises he was suffering from depression and self-medicating with various drugs.

His mum asked him to leave home and he was sofa surfing for a while before sleeping rough in London and Rotterdam. He moved to Guernsey in 2000 for what was meant to be a new start. But he found the island’s high cost of living difficult to manage. He still jokes about his local shop being the M&S food hall on the Town Quay.

"Most of the crime is poverty driven in Guernsey," he said.

"It's in your face every day - what you can't have, right down to a sandwich at the local deli - you can be priced out of it. And at the supermarket. Nowhere in the world do they have M&S as a local supermarket. I couldn’t believe that. It was crazy. That’s two tiers up in England - it's above Sainsbury's. You might as well have Harrods just to top it off.

"Joking aside, that inequality is so visible, but there's still that invisible poverty [in Guernsey] too. I know four people off the top of my head now who live with other people just kipping in their flats because it’s the only way they can get by. As a single person, male or female, you aren't getting on the housing list and if you haven’t got a job that pays the high rents you’ve had it."

He began taking drugs again while living in Guernsey and decided to take the trip which would save his life and change it for ever.

He spent a year on remand at Les Nicolles before receiving his 10-year sentence. He says he deserved every day of that sentence - and he used it to turn his life around.

Pictured: Adam Pagett appealed his 10-year sentence at the time, but looking back now he told Express that he deserved every day of it. He served a third before being released on licence.

He had served two years before he told his mum he was in prison. She came to visit and told him she now knew he was safe.

"The times when I was homeless and going through chaotic drug addiction - that went on for a good 11 years - and there were times I spent sleeping on her floor in a sheltered bungalow. I’d say ‘why do you even bother?’ and she’d say ‘you’re my son and I love you’. It’s true that there’s no stronger bond than unconditional love between a parent and a child.

"I was in prison two years before I even told [mum] because I never wanted to say 'I’m in trouble again, I've not turned it round'. She thought I was working and doing well in Guernsey because I was at first. When she first came to visit me and I walked into the visit room, she was sat there, and she just said ‘at least I know you’re safe now’.

"I might have been 35 years old but I think she looked at me as if I was still a child. Not in a patronising way - because I was still a child in her eyes. She shouldered a burden of guilt because she used to say ‘maybe if I'd stayed with your father' or 'if I'd been there more for you' or 'if it hadn’t been such a struggle with money and stuff growing up’.

"I was a mixed race boy with a mother and two sisters and we lived from hand to mouth a lot of the time, so I think, I know, she would be very proud.

"I think she could always see something in me that I couldn’t see in myself. She’d say you’re unwell but you will get better."

Today in 2007, my 75 year year old mums life support machine was turned off, 10 days after being brutally attacked in her home. She was with my sister & granddaughter.
I was sat in a prison cell, serving 10 years with only my memories of her last visit 3 weeks before pic.twitter.com/h16Oppg3j7

— Padge (@AdamPagett3) August 13, 2021

Pictured: Not long after her last visit to see him in prison in Guernsey, Adam Pagett's mum died after a brutal attack in her home. 

Mr Pagett said it was during this visit that prison officers at Les Nicolles showed him some of the kindest treatment they could, which aided his recovery in ways they could not have predicted. They allowed his mum to stay a few minutes longer after visiting time had ended and they took photos of the pair. One of those photos is now among Mr Pagett's most treasured possessions as his mum died the following year in tragic circumstances. She was sexually assaulted, spent 10 days in hospital and then died. Mr Pagett was unable to go to her funeral.

He said the prison officers at Les Nicolles again showed him great kindness during this period, which he will never forget.

"They're not prison officers like in England where there's one officer to 100 inmates. They have time to stand and talk and they treat you with respect.

"I think that’s why the violence rate is so low. I never really saw any because it’s a very informal, friendly atmosphere. You know there is that boundary because the uniform they wear presents that boundary and reminds you of that boundary. When I was in they would come in your cell and sit on your bed and say ‘how are you doing, Padge?' and 'you alright?' and they were there for me when my mum died.

"They couldn’t give me what I wanted in going home. And really, would it have been the best thing for me to go home? It wouldn’t have worked very well. But what they could do at least was give me as many phone calls as I wanted and just be there to say 'how are you?', 'how are you going?', 'do you need anything?'

"The last photo I have with my mum is one the prison officers took. They let her stay behind when everybody left and let her stay and talk to me and they took pictures, so I've got photos. Things like that - small gestures that mean so much to a person. When I was just a prisoner, they didn’t need to do any of that. That is part of the reoffending - how people are treated."

53 today.
Reflecting on my life.
Born into poverty, racism, abuse, the constant need to belong, the army, 15 years of addiction, homelessness, begging, prison, grief, and loss.
13 years later happily married with grandchildren, and I am a social worker
Happy birthday to me

— Padge (@AdamPagett3) February 11, 2022

Pictured: Adam Padgett recently reflected on how he has turned his life around and shared his story with Express.

Today, Mr Pagett lives in England with his wife and works for the local council.

He has two stepchildren and four grandchildren. When he spoke to Express, the grandchildren were planning to throw him a birthday party.

Brilliant but exhausting birthday party thrown by my grandchildren for me
We played pass the parcel and amazingly everyone won once except me
Then, an evening watching minions eating snacks and treats
If wealth was measured by happiness, then I am the richest man in the world

— Padge (@AdamPagett3) February 13, 2022

Pictured: Adam Pagett's life today is very different to the chaos and unhappiness which characterised his years of drug abuse and homelessness. 

He credits his time in Les Nicolles with getting him to this point in his life.

While in prison, he took advantage of opportunities offered to him and managed to create a future for himself. 

"To stay in Guernsey prison, I had to write a letter to the Governor requesting to stay because I was serving so long. I should have been shipped to England. Guernsey’s not a huge prison. There’s only so much they can do. So they say to people serving long-term sentences that if you’re not local they think you’re better off in the UK.

"I know what UK prisons are like and I could see where I was better off and that was in Guernsey. I was still in a relationship for the first year or two. There was no better rehabilitation than in Guernsey. Drugs are an expensive problem in Guernsey and I expect they still are. You can imagine the price of drugs inside prison. It's triple the price in English prisons, where it's saturated. Guernsey prison is smaller, the price of drugs outside means it's not even worth really taking them in to sell because people haven’t got that sort of money.

"Nobody can force you, but with me I wanted to address my drug use, and I wanted out. I wanted out at the first opportunity. To use [drugs] inside - I could have done, but if I’d been caught straight away, you’re not going to get your first parole. I had a year to go before I was even sentenced and they were talking about 21 years because of the amount of drugs that involved and so that motivated me as well."

Pictured: Adam Pagett was arrested at Guernsey Airport. He now says that moment marked the end of a crazy period in his life and that it was a "relief" to be arrested.

He had to leave the island when he was released from prison on licence, but he had a head start on shaping a new life for himself.

"I had to leave. I was no longer in a relationship with someone local so my licence was terminated. It was basically being deported."

He returned to England, settled in the north east again and secured himself a volunteer role helping people who were homeless like he once was. This turned into paid work and he was able to study for qualifications in counselling and drug awareness. He later completed a social work qualification and now works with young people leaving the care system under Bradford County Council.

"When I left prison, I started volunteering in a homeless hostel and then I was given a contract of employment almost a year exactly after I left prison. I worked there for 10 years and while I was there I accessed college and then university."

Having said that prison saved his life, Mr Pagett also said he has ideas about how prison could help even more people who are facing troubles similar to those he faced. 

He accepts the individuals need to want to help themselves, as he did when he was arrested in 2005.

"It was an age thing where I'd just had enough. When I got arrested, it was a relief.

"Inwardly, I was relieved because it was the end of my crazy life. It was a positive. I might not have seen it at the time, but with the treatment that I got and everything. If I'd gone to prison for six months, it would have been an inconvenience and that’s it. I'd have still been psychologically addicted.

"I'd tried stopping taking crack cocaine and heroin more than one time in those 15 years. It wasn’t my first rodeo, so to go to prison [I thought] it was up to me how this plays out now. The support is there and I can access it. I don’t have to worry about where I'm going to live next or being able to attend that appointment because something's happened. It was an enforced abstinence and it worked.

"Your past doesn’t have to be what defines you, but it can be what shapes you."

Pictured top: Adam Pagett before and after his time spent at Les Nicolles Prison in Guernsey. All images courtesy of Adam Pagett.