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Ben
Lecturing
About Me
- prisonerben
- United Kingdom
- Previously known as "one of Britain's best known prisoners...he constantly questions authority and exposes the futility of the system" The Times, Ben was finally released from prison after 32 years in August 2012. Pleading guilty to the murder of a friend when he was 14 years old, he renounced violence and fought for the recognition of the inherent dignity of all human beings. As a result of speaking truth to power, he served far longer than the recommended 10 years, leading Education Secretary Michael Gove to argue that he had "been punished excessively for a crime committed as a child". One of the more intellectual of prisoner-campaigners, Ben chose to educate himself from schoolboy level to having both undergraduate and post graduate degrees. He is currently one of very few prisoners in Britain ever to attempt a Doctorate. Ben's speciality is non-violent action and the Human Needs Theory. Now on Life Licence, He is forging a career as a CJ policy consultant, writer and - as ever - campaigner.
Short, sharp and pointed. Ouch!
ReplyDeleteI dunno, have you actually been to a Butlins lately? Oh, hang on...that's awkward...sorry.
ReplyDelete(bad taste I know, couldn't resist - love the blog though)
Good point, well made.
ReplyDeleteMind you, having spent a week in Skegness when 'Agga-Doo' was all the rage, I really do wonder what the 'Daily Fail' mob are trying to prove by likening prisons to holiday camps!
It says something about us using Prisons as dumping grounds. Clearly many of those individuals should have been in a psychiatric hospital. I feel sorry for prison staff having to deal with such situations when they clearly are not qualified to do so. It seems impossible to me to stop suicide if a person is determined to take their own life.
ReplyDeleteDo you have the numbers between male and female and age. I watched a documentary on Holloway Prison last year and many of the women were self harmers. The staff were impressive in dealing with some very disturbed young people.
It is all very sad but given the lack of mental health hospitals it is inevitable that we will continue to have such numbers....
Sadly, most incidents of self-harm are amongst women. Perhaps they turn their distress inwards, where men express this outwards as aggression?
ReplyDelete