Saturday, October 8, 2011

Handle with Care

Physical contact is rare in prisons, even in the showers!

Physical contact between staff and cons is extremely limited, only allowed when being pat-searched or when being "restrained".  Routine handling of prisoners is, apart from the above, taboo.

Contrast this with American prisons, where it seems that staff routinely hold prisoners by the upper arm.

If tried on a prisoner in the UK, in normal circumstances the screw could expect a fight.

2 comments:

  1. Is this also true of women's prisons? Are they not a bit more touchy-feely with each other in those places? Maybe the US/UK comparison is more about the British being less tactile than our american cousins anyhow?

    Interesting comparison...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unrelated to this post, but the Ed might want to print out the following BBC article, "A Point of View: Prisons don't work" by Will Self, and forward it to Ben for his comments:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15196517

    I'd be interested in his thoughts.

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