How to Shoot yourself in the foot without really trying

How to Shoot yourself in the foot without really trying 

Hello, you lovely people, sorry I haven’t written lately, but my hands and fingers haven’t been working properly for a while now and I have found it easier to talk than write. Indeed, a podcast of this rant can be found by clicking here. I also haven’t spoken a lot about prison issues recently because of the pandemic and I didn’t want to get in the way. 

I know life has been awful for those of you of who have loved ones inside our jails. However, I am going to say something quite controversial here…….. The prison staff have done a decent job of keeping your loved one’s safe. The amount of cases is not in the tens of thousands that it could have been. There have been deaths on both sides of the door and my heart hurts for every family that has lost a loved one to this horrific virus. The prisons carried out their duties to the best of its ability and that is to care for those remanded to its custody. Some of the innovation that has come out of this hellish time is to be applauded and I, for one, hope that it remains post COVID-19.  No, I do not like the idea of a lot of lockdown (“bang-up” to you and me), I hate the idea of you not being able to visit your loved ones in prisons, I hate the fact that you can’t see them and that it has taken 12 weeks to roll out the video visits that some jails had ready after 3 weeks. I hate all that, but I am thankful that the prisons have not turned into static morgues. I am thankful for all decent and humane prison staff that have continued to come into an enclosed environment day in and day out during this pandemic Now that might be an unpopular statement, but heck everyone is entitled to their opinion are they not? 

HOWEVER!!

I read with utter despair the article written by Danny Shaw on the BBC website this morning regarding HMPPS informing us of their decision to issue PAVA spray to the adult male prison estate (Pepper spray deployed in prisons despite concerns for BAME inmates)

Now I don’t want to go off on a rant here, my opinion on the use of PAVA in jails is well documented and indeed I had a little rant about it back in 2018  (Would you like salami with your pepper?) but ……….

Before I go off on the idiocy off issuing the PAVA at the present time, can I just recap for a minute?

The trial of PAVA did not exactly go to plan. The report of the trial makes for excruciating reading. Here’s a couple of excerpts to whet your whistle (and your whistle should be a double scotch)

This one is a cracker:

"The PAVA in prisons project found staff using PAVA more quickly than they would a baton or C&R, and that some staff were developing an over-reliance on PAVA as a way of resolving conflict. The decision-making process was at times flawed, and it appears that some staff will use PAVA outside of guidelines."

I am saving the best for last:

“The PAVA in prisons project was unable to conclusively demonstrate that PAVA had any direct impact on levels of prison violence.”

Let’s go for that one again, shall we?  “unable to demonstrate that it had any direct impact on levels of violence”…. Yet they have decided to roll it out. Look! If you think I am making this shit up, feel free to check for yourself. Here’s the link to the report (Pava Trial).

So of course, even though the charity Mind issued a warning in September of last year giving their concerns on the use of PAVA on someone’s mental health  (Mind.org.uk) AND the prison service said that they would, and I quote here “agreed to change the way that they intend to introduce the spray including more robust guidance and training for prison officers using PAVA, monitoring the use of PAVA across the country, and involving prison race and equality liaison officers in reviews of the use of force in prisons.” They’re still going ahead with it. (Interesting morsel of gossip here is that they made that statement AFTER the Equality and Human Rights commission FUNDED a prisoner to bring a legal challenge against the Secretary of State for Justice.) 

Anyway, roll out PAVA they decided to do; despite most of the studies showing that it is used disproportionally more against younger people and those who identify as BAME. Even the Ministry of Justice (I don’t know about you but every time I hear The Ministry of Justice, I picture the late Robert Hardy C.B.E. as Cornelius Fudge in the Harry potter films) said that as “difficult to explain.” I could take a stab at it, but I better not. 

Today, the article from Danny Shaw hit the back pages of t’internet. Prisons don’t get the front pages, do they? Well sometimes they do, but that’s only when we have decided to jail more people or unless we “lags” have acted up again. However, as an admirer of Danny and what he does, read it I did over my morning tea. After cleaning up the screen on my iPad (other reading appliances are available) from the tea that I had sprayed over it, I read the article again.

Here’s a quote from HMPPS’ Deputy Head of Safer Custody that was allegedly written in April a few weeks after the prisons went into lockdown:

"Due to the unprecedented challenges we are facing at this time I have taken the operational decision to extend the provision of PAVA to all adult male closed prisons,"

Now, personal feelings aside on the individual; let’s dissect this comment. “Unprecedented challenges” Come on man! you’ve locked them all up and are only letting them out in small groups at a time… You are not going to have 50 prisoners charging one staff member that necessitates you spraying them with an incapacitant spray stronger than the pepper sprays the country’s police use. 

Look, I have listened to the Secretary of State of Justice, the current prisons minister, the CEO of HMPPS all say that they are “delighted the way prisoners have adapted to the lockdown” (Just a not here people, we’re kind used to be banged up 23 hours a day, it ain’t nothing but a thing; it’s not as if we could do anything about it anyway.) But…..

We gave you our consent during this period. We knew the unwritten contract and agreed to it. We know / knew that it was bad on the outside. We know/knew that you are doing a good thing by coming to work every day and at least you are trying to ensure that we get our phone calls, our showers and hopefully a small amount of fresh air. We appreciated this. The contract was there. You treat us with decency, and we will respect you. Don’t lie to us, don’t promise us things that you know can never happen, but treat us with DECENCY and we’ll be ok.  “Yes, we are from opposite sides of the door, but we’ll try to get through this together.” Ok, we get it… you bullshitted us when it came to the early release of prisoners scheme but hell, we know it wasn’t you, it was those suits again. It’s ok we don’t blame you.”

So, let’s get to one of my major gripes with all this idiocy from a bunch of “suits” who haven’t walked the landings since my literary hero, Oscar Wilde was resident in Reading Jail out of the way.

The timing of this is beyond comprehension and the fact that HMPPS / MOJ thought they could sneak this shit out in the hope that no-one would notice beggars belief. 

It stuns me that the Deputy Head of Safer Custody (you have to love the irony of Safer Custody issuing a letter about an incapacitant that causes mental health problems) could have made this decision at this time. 

There is only one result that can come from this idiotic mandate.

They will destroy any of the goodwill that has been built up between prisoners and staff over the last few months. Any, work done by staff over the last few months in building those, vital, relationships with prisoners will have been in vain. The gap between prisoner and staff will now be wider than it ever has been. We will look at your belts, and see the place where the cannister goes, or if you are carrying it, we will see it. We will then realise that you have reverted to being “one of them.” We will realise that you don’t really treat us as fellow human beings rather you “put up with us” because that’s your job. Do you really not get it? You are looking more and more like police officers every day and some of us have had a traumatic experience with police officers. You are all morphing into one, and we will not like it one bit. 

And you’re doing it now? Now, when we have tried to work with you as you have us? The trust is broken. We won’t trust you anymore. This is the time where you should have been backing down from being oppressive not increasing your armoury. 

The minute we see this PAVA, as soon as we see you carrying an extra weapon, we will presume that the staff are getting ready for an incident. It only takes a spark to light a fire.

This nonsensical move from HMPPS and the way they have tried to let it slide into the news cycle fills me with anger and with sadness. 

Anger because I just cannot accept that this decision has been made in these times. Anger because this decision has been made without the added research promised to the ECHR. Anger because it reeks of the oppression of prisoners.

Sad, because this week I had an article published by HMPPS and in it I thanked them for taking me in as one of their own. Whereas, I could not feel more apart from them as I do now.

Of course, its just my opinion, I could be wrong.