Mark Leech. A PRODUCT OF THE SYSTEM (Victor Gollancz, #6.99).

* EACH narrow cell in which we dwell/ Is a foul and dark latrine/ And

the fetid breath of living death/ Chokes up each grated screen/ And all

but lust is turned to dust/ Inside Humanity's Machine. Such was Oscar

Wilde's description of prison life in The Ballad of Reading Gaol, and if

Mark Leech's account of life inside is anything to go by, that machine

is badly in need of an overhaul.

A school-of-hard-knocks autobiography that charts Leech's downward

spiral from abuse victim to Borstal boy, recidivist con, and unlikely

jailbird celebrity, A Product of the System is a holiday-in-hell guide

to the penal system from one of its most experienced visitors; a

provocative, enlightened, and whine-free look at ''a silent world

shrouded in darkness from the public''.