Prison staff love to play up the risks they face in their job. Two
questions, though. How many screws have been killed by prisoners? And
how many cons have died at the hands of prison staff?
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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.
I don't know. But I could take a guess at a ratio that leans heavily on the side of dead prisoners. Do you have statistics?
ReplyDeleteno screw has been killed on the british mainland in living memory.
ReplyDeleteHmm. I suspect that the prisoner is more likely to be the one killed, but statistically just 'numbers of deaths' won't say much.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to look at the individual risk faced by each, you'd need to compare numbers of deaths per annum per thousand (of that type). Otherwise the fact that there are less prison officers than prisoners will always make their side look lower.
There are additional arguments which can come into play, in the sense that prisoners should not be at risk of violence from officers (note 'should' rather than 'will not' - those that do not abide by this are not fit to do the job) except where necessary to defend themselves or similar, whereas it has certainly been known for prisoners to attack officers.
I also suspect that death rates in both cases are low, and a more reliable statistic might be hospitalisations per thousand (inmates/officers) per year if you actually wanted to quantify the risk.
Oh, as I rarely send Christmas cards to anyone, I'll not be sending you one either! But I wish you all the best for the festive season nonetheless...
there has been some drastic incompetence in the prison service - the case of a young offenders institution who put a right wing fascist in the same cell as an asian youth. within 24 hours the fascist had beaten the poor lad to death.
ReplyDeletemerry xmas by the way, love the blog! :-)