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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.
Enjoyed that Ben. My Blog today was written about an hour ago and if it was married to this there might be something more to it? How'd you and Paddington end up? Great stuff keep going, I know I am. Got a couple of meetings lined up with officialdom perhaps you could send me a brief idea of some of the less clichéd hurdles to reintegration.
ReplyDeleteCouple of quick points: Every Gov that comes to power has some new useless initiative which it thinks it will try out on two of the most important institutions of the state the NHS and HMP Service. Never do they listen never do they get it right. Of course you will always have people you need to put in prison and who can never be freed. (We all agree on that right) Of course prison by it's very nature is a punishment, but it should also be about why and how you got there and why and how you won't land in there again. It should be about a better future for you and therefore for society as a whole. The lock em up and throw away the key has never no will never work, also the reality that if you lock someone up 23 hours a day who has never worked, can't read, can,t write and expect him to find employment. As you said you can't say to someone you can rejoin society but no on a level playing field, your not quite like the rest of us, so therefore it is even harder for those who come out of prison to do the day today things like pay bills, work and stay clean than the rest of us. The Prison service needs to change but so does the use of prison as a painkiller for all of societies ills. Prison are like wheels in hamster huts you run round and round but get nowhere. You change that by changing who goes to prison, how we treat them and how we educate them. And as Ben said the victim of a crime is to close to the emotions of that crime to say how prison and prisoners should rehabilitate. A whole new way of thinking is needed.
ReplyDeleteLots of people have killed. Some of them are allowed to leave the experience behind them while others, like Ben (and me), are meant never to forget. You can become very sick of waking each morning with the internal accusation 'you killed so-and-so'. We must forget in order to carry on and hopefully contribute something of use to the world. Ben accuses himself too much. Guilt cripples you, good or bad. The good should be helped to move on.
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