There are two main avenues that channel this urge to control. Firstly, to limit our physical movement. Even though each wing sits within its own secure compound, at best we are permitted access to the outside for one hour daily. Movement to other wings is totally forbidden. Contrast this with Shepton where, in the 10 hours a day we were unlocked, there was free access to both the yard and other wings.
The second avenue of control is a hair-trigger IEP system. This is an "administrative procedure", legally separate from the disciplinary process, lacking any legal safeguards. It allows wing staff to strip us of privileges, including family visits, at the click of a pen. A healthy prison with competent, engaged staff has little need to issue IEP warnings; a simple face-to-face conversation is usually enough to clarify or resolve an issue.
At Erlestoke, IEP warnings are issued as the first response to any problem. So far I have had IEP's for not attending a double booked appointment and for not going to work when I was meant to be recovering from a general anaesthetic. All very unnecessary and avoidable by the simple method of talking to me.
Instead, staff creep along the landing and quietly slide the IEP warning under my door.
These control measures and the attitude that underlies them suggests to me that management perceive the prison as being barely under control and that staff are too afraid of this to even attempt to engage with the prisoners.
Like all short-sighted managers, they only increase the prospects for disorder by screwing the lid on tighter.
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I predict a riot.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, these procedures are insidiously creeping into Shepton big time! Apparently the IEP targets are too low there & staff have been told that.
ReplyDeleteAnd iep stands for.... U forget for people who have no experience of the prison system sometimes u need to speak in leymans. Not using acronyms.
ReplyDeleteSupersainr: Incentives and Earned Privileges. But from my experience of working in those places,it seems to be more about punishment than reward. Ed.
ReplyDeleteHah. Perfect Orwellian name then.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like the kind of totalitarian control and arbitrary punishment system our current government is aspiring to!
ReplyDeleteThe big issue with the IEP is that it is open to abuse by the staff. It assumes that all staff are rather robotic and therefore their decisions are not open to any other influences that are human------ personal likes and dislikes, etc....... ( oh the big wheels in the prison cog are allowed......... oh, shit I shouldn't ......... ). And if your face doesn't fit then ....... (I shall leave this to the imagination)
ReplyDeletePart of the issue about the tight regime is that Shepton Mallet is a lifer jail and they are usually not a control problem by the time they get to Cat C so the regime can be more laid back. Secondly, there are a high proportion of sex offenders in Shepton, who by nature are more compliant within the system. Erlestoke used to be very good and laid back but the drug gangs and parcels coming over the fence ruined that so the screws locked it down. That seems to be the problem all over the Cat C jails at the moment, the nature of the cons has lost the privileges they once had. Too many gangstas and nobheads.
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