The Notorious Inmates of Broadmoor
From the safety of my aunt and uncle’s garden, my cousins and I played cricket on a Sunday afternoon on the flat patio area of their Bracknell Forest home in England. In the distance, there was a familiar sound I’d heard many times before, and the hairs on my arms bristled.
It was the Broadmoor siren. An inmate had escaped.
We were quickly ushered into the house and the doors were promptly locked. Normally in this situation, an adult would close the blinds and curtains, but my aunt’s home had neither. The large, single-glazed windows were the only barrier protecting us from the outside world, as we hid behind large pieces of furniture.
Broadmoor Hospital is the oldest high-security facility in the UK. Originally named the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, it was built for men and women in 1863. Contrary to popular belief, the facility isn’t a prison and the daily operations are very different. Instead, sessions are based around therapy rather than the usual prison practises, such as job roles. Patients are often diagnosed with personality disorders and mental illness and can’t be incarcerated in a normal reformatory prison.
In 1912, Broadmoor was overcrowded and was in desperate need of another building to house patients. A branch in Rampton, Nottinghamshire was built and housed the overflow from Broadmoor…
