Astonished

So the parliamentary e-petition for capital punishment hasn't reached the threshold of 100,000 signatures.  Hmm. Perhaps my despair of the masses has been misplaced.

Self Loathing

You could reasonably assume that murderers are broadly against capital punishment.  And you'd be right.

But on occasion I bump into a fellow Lifer whose views are worse than a Daily Mail editorial.  These people give a glimpse into that taboo area - the suffering that murderers endure because of the crime they committed.  Such emotional twists and turns are hardly welcomed in the public discourse which prefers to portray us as monochrome monsters.  Sadly, it is also an area that prison staff, such as psychologists, run away from in horror.

These emotional convolutions can express themselves in incredible depths of self-loathing, to the degree that some Lifers support a return to executions.

Whilst I empathise with their distress, I'd prefer they pick an avenue to pursue that doesn't involve those of us who prefer to remain alive!

A Wonderful Sunny Day

At last, sunshine. This led to my pottering around, on the wing, sitting in the yard, just passing the day with gossip and wild speculation. Topics covered included laptops, compensation, smelly rubbish bins, prisoners’ votes, the Open University, Parole Board, the election and - a perennial favourite - the general stupidity of prison managers.

I return to the wing for tea and bang-up, to find that the wing staff have had their usual productive workday. They all sat around a table outside of the office, tea and newspapers to hand. They had been discussing the merits of capital punishment.
Isn't it nice to know that the people in charge of our welfare actually want to see us killed?!

The Death Penalty

Between 1900 and the abolition of the death penalty, just shy of half of those sentenced to death were not executed. They had their sentences commuted to Life and tended to serve around 10 years before they were released.

Overwhelmingly, they went on to live obscure, non-criminal lives. It makes me wonder what was the point of killing the other half.