Russell Brand's life in 'really dirty, extremely dangerous' and overcrowded prison system

Russell Brand's life in 'really dirty, extremely dangerous' and overcrowded prison system Wimbledon champion Boris Becker has previously revealed the life facing Brand inside, saying it was 'really dirty, extremely dangerous, there are murderers, paedophiles, drug dealers' Just before 3pm on Thursday, as Russell Brand was led to the cells, his gilded lifestyle was immediately swapped for a scary and lonely existence in the British penal system. Though Brand, 51, has probably started off fairly well protected from other inmates in a Vulnerable Prisoner Unit, he will not have been exempt from the humiliating routine faced by all newcomers. On arrival, he had to hand over his clothes at reception before being subjected to a strip-search to check he had no contraband hidden anywhere in his person. No longer decked out in his trademark open necked shirt and tight trousers, Brand will currently be wearing a pair of grey prison-issue jogging bottoms with matching sweatshirt. And he will have been given a prison number that he will now be known as by guards. Instead of high-end organic products and healthy goodies, Brand is now being fed processed, cheap food. He will have been given a “first night pack” that consists of toiletries, including a toothbrush and toothpaste and a food pack including cereal, tea, longlife milk and sugar. Inmates are also issued with a single toilet roll, plus t-shirts, sweatshirts and underwear. Brand will be monitored around the clock and was given a three-minute phone call upon arrival. Exactly where he is being held has not been confirmed, but it has been reported he is in either Wandsworth or Belmarsh prison. The jail where he will serve the majority of his sentence is yet to be determined, and is reportedly yet to be decided by the UK Prison Service. Boris Becker broke down in tears as he described how he survived being locked up with murderers, one of whom threatened to kill him. The three-time Wimbledon champion said that he was a "nobody" in Wandsworth jail after he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in 2022, after being found guilty of hiding £2.5million in assets to avoid paying debts after being declared bankrupt. Becker said he had learned a "hard lesson" that had taught him to "look in the mirror". He said: "I was immediately confronted with a reality that I had no experience with. It was dangerous. I tried not to look anyone in the eye and stay in my corner. "Wandsworth is really big, really dirty, extremely dangerous, there are murderers, paedophiles, drug dealers, you meet everyone. It's about surviving. You go out of your cell and you need to save your skin, the guards won't do it for you." Becker said he had an altercation with an inmate who was "in for murder". The German tennis star said: "He wanted to kill me. He couldn't accept that I was friends with Black inmates. He underestimated that other inmates would come to my help and threaten him. "There was an inmate who was in jail for murder and he wanted to get at my money. He started to blackmail me and said he'd have me. He started off being friendly but turned out to have other intentions." Becker added: "In prison you are a nobody. You are only a number. Mine was A2923EV. I wasn't called Boris, I was a number. And nobody gives a s*** who you are." He described meagre portions of food, and said there was a lot of violence and few opportunities to exercise. But he said: "I believe I rediscovered the human in me, the person I once was. I've learnt a hard lesson. A very expensive one. A very painful one."