Boris Becker has to serve two and a half years in prison. An ex-con tells how the tennis star might fare at Wandsworth Prison.
Boris Becker (54) was sentenced to two years and six months in prison last Friday for delaying bankruptcy. The former tennis player was taken to Wandsworth Prison in London immediately after the verdict and has already spent the first few nights there. An ex-prisoner has now told what awaits him there. British filmmaker Chris Atkins (b. 1976) was in the same prison for tax fraud: he served part of his five-year sentence at Wandsworth Prison between July 2016 and March 2017.
If Boris Becker is “lucky”, “the guards are tennis fans and treat him mildly,” says Atkins of “Bild”. “Surely you know him from the news.” Otherwise the staff would take away ‘any dignity’. “You have to undress, you’re searched, and you’re put in a stinky prison suit where you can still smell the sweat of other inmates. He’s asked if he has any drug problems or mental health issues,” the filmmaker continues.
Chris Atkins reminisces about his own time at Wandsworth Prison. The way to his “tiny” cell was “cruel”. “People screamed and screamed and smashed the doors. It’s mostly people who are mentally ill or addicted to drugs,” he explains. It also gets “very cold in the cells because the prison doesn’t have much heating”.
No shower in the cell
The cell has a television, a desk, a toilet and a telephone that you can use for five minutes a day. According to Atkins, there is no shower. “You shower like every other day or so. It’s really bad, and you have to share that one shower room with about 100 other people, which is gross. They shower in shared showers,” says the filmmaker. After all, nobody will see Boris Becker naked: “Everyone wears swimming trunks.”
Atkins’ tip for Becker: The ex-tennis player should “relax and take a deep breath and let everything sink in”. He could “use the time in prison for new contacts”.
Source: Stern
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