In a fit of wickedness I have joined the forums over on prisonofficer.org.uk, where prison staff feel content to bitch and moan more than the average bunch of miscontent Lifers. I thought - you nevr know - that it may be possible that they and I may possibly learn from each other.
So far it has been a profoundly depressing experience. I appreciate that staff have little conception of the lives that prisoners lead, or of the pains of imprisonment. But the gap in perceptions is truly mindboggling in its width.
Prison staff are the people cons see the most of. they control, in various ways, the quality of every cons daily life. Their attitudes and outlook are crucial in effecting the future course and decisions that prisoners make.
Faced with indifferent staff who radiate an attitude of contempt, who believe that prison is akin to Butlins, it follows that the effect staff have on the attitudes of cons is likely to be negative.
If staff are regarded as being a virus that spreads the Daily Mail mentality - coupled with the Daily Star intelligence - then the hope that prison can be anything more than human warehousing is dead in the water.
The famous 'Stamford Prison Experiment' performed by Philip Zimbardo, was cut short from two weeks to one; Zimbardo's girlfriend got panicky, and begged him to stop.
ReplyDeleteReal-life, however, keeps going on, and the inherent and fundamental rift between keepers and kept, is part of the 'human' condition. Understanding it is one thing; trying to change it may be fundamentally pointless at best.
Good comments Ben, you are clearly one of the few that understands lifers and what they go through, while Prison staff may work day in and day out in prisons often in the same location only a lifer truly understands the experience. Health staff, education staff even prisoners with short sentences gasp little of the problems that go on.
ReplyDeleteI only hope now you are out that you don't become one of 'them' become disconnected from the Prison life that you have fought so tirelessly against
Kev, that is always a danger. Prison life evolves, the culture changes as do the rules and so on. Every released con has a mental construct of prison - as they knew it and left it. It is important that I know that in a couple of years time the prison I knew may not exist.
ReplyDeleteI had a look. Interesting discussions, Ben! Particularly interested in the one about prisoners doing "proper" work for companies and not being paid NMW. I hate this idea. But I gotsta admit that it seems sensible for companies to be made to pay the going rate for a job, while prisoners should pay a contribution to room and board - similar to the way single squaddies get paid minus the cost of barracks.
ReplyDeleteBen - have you read Dostoyevsky's House of the Dead? It is amazing that the experience of incarceration doesn't seem to have changed much. For the unfortunates in Siberia in the nineteenth century, the prison poison was vodka - now it is drugs. At one point, the author says that prison is worthless in reforming people -all it is good for is keeping society free from an individual's misdeeds for a while. I do wonder what those complaining about TVs in cells for prisoners would have made of the fact that Siberian labour camps had plenty of women around - and a steady trade in prostitution was rife (aided and abetted by bent screws - as was the illicit trade in vodka).
ReplyDeleteBut there is a terribly cynical and sad quote from the book which runs along the lines of 'man is a creature who can get used to anything'. At various points, he laments the waste of human potential which is warehoused in Russia's prisons.
@Jill, I have no problem with prisoners being paid at full rates by private companies and living costs then deducted. But at present these companies are not even paying the prison service the full rate - private companies only use prisoner labour prrcisely because it is so cheap.
ReplyDelete“The degree of civilisation in a society is revealed by entering its prisons.”
ReplyDeleteIt's so true. We really do need a revolution in terms of the entire criminal justice system if we are ever going to sort out the problems we have in society.
Ben - yes, quite, and exactly my objection. The flip side, which I think the screws were remarkably poor at expressing - confrontation and crossness seemed to be the mode of communication and you find this exact same thing on many forums talking about welfare benefits/cuts/issues - is that as much as it's egregious for companies to benefit from slave labour, be it prisoners or welfare recipients or any other group, it's equally egregious to have prisoners earning a full-time wage but taking no responsibility for paying room and board. I don't mean to imply you don't realise this, of course. As someone outside of both the prison and welfare loop, I see a correlation in attitudes - I may have it wrong, but it does seem of interest in terms of how public opinion is moulded by vested interests.
ReplyDeleteAlistair - that would be another quote from the Dostoyevsky book I mentioned (contrary to popular belief, it was not Churchill or Mandela that first said this).
ReplyDeleteGet a life,saddo! 30 years banged up-says it all really.
ReplyDeleteThat is truly the laziest, most pathetic piece of trollery I have yet to encounter! At least put some vigor into it!
DeleteSorry to say that's about par for the course for internet trolling.
DeleteYouth of today... no dedication to anything etc. -.o
Hope life is treating you well, has your PO nagged you into the world of work yet?
In this country, most police, and prison staff, are supporters of the party, which backs their right-wing, police state, ideology, the Tories, so that is why they all read the Daily Mail, and Sun! Democracy, cannot work in an area of secret societies, which this place have been controlled for hundreds of years!
ReplyDelete