An Unchained Melody

 

                                                                                       A podcast of this blog can be found here

Hello!

 

It’s been a while since I have written anything. Partly because my mind moves slightly faster than the moving of my hands these days. 

 

Some of you may be aware that I spend my days working in the nation’s prisons. I try to help my fellow prisoners feel slightly more safe when they enter our country’s jails. I believe that the first few weeks, if not months, of residency in a prison are when those who are remanded or sentenced to custody are at their most vulnerable. I know I was when I entered jail all those years ago. 

 

Since my release, I have worked with both the private and public sector in devising programs to help residents adjust to a new way of living. I train current residents in how to help a new arrival settle into prison life by using their own experiences. I mean who better to help a new prisoner than an existing prisoner? I am so very lucky to be able to do this and nothing brings a greater smile to my face when I meet the new peer mentors on their first day of work. 

 

Those of us who have criminal records must go through vigorous vetting procedures, annually, to ensure that we meet the expectations of the prison service in order that we can “draw” keys. Now these keys are not handed out lightly and we can never have cell keys. They are used in order that we can go about our work without having to have a member of staff detailed to us. As I said there are rigorous checks done before we are allowed to have them and we must undergo key training  and security vetting in every prison we work in. 

 

Now with that being said; I wanted to share with you, something that hit me in the middle of the solar plexus and unsettled me slightly.

 

Let me give you some background.

 

Recently, I had the pleasure of helping devise a new early days in custody process in a local remand prison. This was an interesting and, although I didn’t realise it at the time, quite emotional experience for me. What made this prison different from all the others that I have worked in over the past 5 years is that I was a resident in this one many years ago. 

 

The work for this prison has taken a long time as the  current pandemic had made it difficult to get the entire program installed. Without the help and “buy in” from the management, staff and the residents, it just would not have been possible. 

 

The day of the launch, I went to meet with the peer mentors (called Insiders) to ensure that they were ready for “lift-off.” They were unhappy and were arguing amongst themselves. So, I sat and I listened to their grievances, their woes and their worries. To be honest with you, there was nothing earth shatteringly bad; they just need to vent their frustrations as I sat there and sighed. It was then that I admonished myself. I had forgotten that what we, who enjoy our freedom, deem to be a minor inconvenience is a major problem for those who we incarcerate. There was shouting and naughty words and at one point I thought we would have to call the whole thing off. However, I continued to sit there for another hour. At which point I said to them “Look, arguing is good. It shows you care. It shows you have passion. Keep going, I have all day, if that what’s you need.” There were heated discussions between 3 of them against 1 other. They rallied against this one person until I stepped in and said that perhaps they should think of other things that were upsetting this man (such as a rather large sentence that had been handed down to him the week before). Then they clicked and got it. Their frustration was hiding their nervousness. Before we all knew it, they were up and shaking hands. And this, this brought me happiness. I was able to just sit and listen to their issues without judgement, without them fearing reprisal and let them know that I understood. I am and always will be an ex-prisoner and they knew that I could relate to what was going through their minds.

 

The prison really did pull out all the stops for a launch of their new wing and process. A ribbon was even produced for me to cut. How wonderful! But… I made the decision that it wasn’t for me to cut, it was for one of the Insiders to take the glory. After all, it is they who make any of my projects work. The scissors (suitably blunt!)  were then passed to this young man who has been in and out of prison for most of his life. He looked at me as if I was mad ! I told him, “it’s your program, your job and therefore your right to do this.” Off he went, in the eyesight of the entire prison management and opened the newly refurbished wing. They applauded and my goodness did he smile!! 

 

What no one else saw was the tear in his eye as he looked at me. He thanked me and told that the day was the best he had had in a long time. I can’t repeat, for obvious reasons, his precise words but they were along the lines of “Can you bleeping believe it, a bunch of bleeps just bleeping applauded me?!!!”  I replied ‘Why thank me? This is your gig, I am purely your voice.“ Upon reflection I think that was rather ungracious of me as he wanted to thank me for giving him an opportunity. I will apologise to him when I next see him. But I left the prison that day knowing that if I did nothing else that week, I had brought a smile to some people’s faces and that made me content.

 

It wasn’t until a day or so later, whilst sitting wondering why I felt strange that it hit me. I had been working in a jail that once held me captive. I held open a gate for one of the governors and then locked it behind him. There it was! In my hands were the keys to the jail that once held me. 

 

I tend to brush off what I do and tend to say to people that drawing keys doesn’t really bother me that much. I joke about it and tell people that I expect Darth Vadar to pop out at any minute shouting “welcome to the dark side.” However, I guess that it does affect me. But not in the way you think.

 

If you will allow me a little indulgence here; IT FILLS ME WITH PRIDE!

 

I am an ex-prisoner who was held in a number of the country’s jails throughout his sentence and here I am with a key chain, an ID that says I am part of the prison team. The management and staff in all the prisons in which I work, welcome me. They know my past but never use it against me; rather they understand the benefit of it. 

 

We all use these lovely words these days; resettlement, rehabilitation, reform etc. and I rally against them; but you know what? If I am not an example of the system working I don’t know what is! 

 

Of course, it’s just my opinion I could be wrong!

 

PS Not only was it a prison that I used to be in, it was the same wing (I swore then that it needed changing and now it has!).

Is Building New Prisons Really The Answer?

An audio file  of this post can be found here  

The One Where the Government concede defeat!

    The Ministry of Justice issued a press release on the 28^th of June announcing the news that they were to build 4 more prisons over the next six years. (To read this wonderful piece of self-promotion click here.) This is in addition to the two new builds underway at Wellingborough, near Northampton and Glen Parva in Leicestershire. This therefore gives England 6 new prisons within the next 6 years.

 

Now I don’t want to go off on a rant here but;

 

    Let’s cast our minds back to the hazy old days when Liz Truss, who was the then Secretary of State for Justice, announced the building of 4 new prisons. In that release (a copy can be found here) she stated that the government’s intention was to build 5000 new spaces which would create 2000 new jobs. More importantly, this announcement was touted as being “new for old.” Meaning that there would be closures of the more Victorian, not fit for purpose, gaols that riddle the prison estate and lovely new ones would take their place. So, new shiny prisons were announced, sites had been identified and, off we go. At least, that’s what I thought. 

 

    Local communities were up in arms at having a prison located near them. Because, well, prisoners are awful people and they were sure to scale the 20 feet walls, leap over the barbed wire and pillage the local community, weren’t they? Town Hall meetings were held, placards were made, leaflets distributed and NIMBY’s (not in my back yard’s) sucked their teeth. Eventually, planning applications were withdrawn. Therefore, as is the case with most of the government’s new initiatives, the idea of building more jails was soon to be consigned to the trash can of history.

 

    Some two justice secretaries later and bids were to be invited from the private sector for the operating of a new prison to be built on the site of the old HMP Wellingborough. Later this year bids will be invited for the operating of a new prison at the old HMP Glen Parva site. Both of these prisons are being financed with taxpayer money and indeed in 2018 the government announced a ban on prisons being built using private company’s money and that all building would be publicly funded from thereon in. The operating of these two prisons, however, will be carried out by the private sector; with the operator of the first prison being announced in the very near future. Thereafter tenders will be asked from, again, the private sector for Glen Parva. The government has yet to announce whether the next onslaught of warehouses – sorry prisons- will be privately managed or publicly run.  I am not going to go into the pros and cons of private versus public; save to say that the government have said that at least ONE out of the four will be publicly run. Kind of gives you an idea of what the government think of our state-run prison service, doesn’t it?

 

    Those of you that know me, know that I am not an abolitionist, I actually see the need for prison. If someone has been found to be such a dangerous a person that they cannot live in our society then democracy says that we must remove that person from it. However, the government’s announcement seems to me to have been issued with some glee; almost as if they’re proud of the fact that the UK incarcerates more people per capita than any other country in Europe, save for Poland. 

 

    It is as if they are saying “Look what we are doing, we are building more prisons, this will keep society safe!” I paraphrase of course, the actual release states “Four new prisons are to be built across England over the next six years – boosting efforts to cut crime and kickstart the economy.” 

 

    Let’s take a look at that statement, shall we?  “Cut crime” How does building a prison cut crime? It does not. It purely houses people that have committed a crime.  What it does allow for us to do; is to jail more people. The government has been rather sneaky here, and I know that must have come as a shock to you, but in the release given by Liz Truss she deliberately mentioned that she would be closing old prisons that are not fit for purpose. Yet Richard Heaton (he of the civil service) admitted on 29^thJune this year whilst giving evidence at the Public Accounts Committee, that the government has no intention of closing any prisons, Rather, they plan to increase current estate. I believe he even said, when trying to justify building more prison in order to reduce over-crowding that “We don’t have overcrowding in our prisons, rather we have crowding.”  Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you this year’s winner of the Humphrey Appleby award for civil service jargon.

 

    I am comforted, however, that the latest press release from the MOJ informs us that the new prisons will have concrete walls! I kid you not!  Here was me thinking that polystyrene blocks would have been more economical. Additionally, thank goodness for their ingenuity of “using pipework to deliver the water!” The bar-less windows are a nice touch, though! The Oxygen thief that wrote this press release needs to find another vocation in life and perhaps needs a hug.

 

    The act of building new prisons stupefies me somewhat. Let’s look at the case of HMP Berwyn; the last prison to be built by the government that opened in 2017. It was heralded to be the “prison of the future”, yet it only holds about 75% of its capacity.  It’s that bad that even the workshop provider, that bastion of bailouts, Interserve PLC allegedly tried to get out of the contract and only opened one of the two workshops proposed.  This therefore means that a large proportion of the residents have no purposeful activity at all. Rather they languish in their cells watching daytime television, becoming experts on how to buy and sell antiques and how to buy a house at auction and renovate it on a small budget. If this is the “future” it doesn’t bode well for the new prisons, does it?

 

    Building 6 more prisons isn’t an accomplishment of which to be proud. It’s admitting failure on a colossal scale. Prisoners fall into many categories and lumping them into a prison for “x” months and hoping that after “y” months of inane boredom, attendance at courses that are ill-equipped to help, stuffing balloons into plastics bags for 12 hours a week as a job and being locked in a cell for @16 hours a day just isn’t going to make society any safer. These people who are jailed are going to be released one day. Who knows they might even be the NIMBY’s next-door neighbour? Think about that, won’t you? The next time you say, “lock them up and give them bread and water” remember that the serving prisoner today could be your next-door neighbour tomorrow. 

 

    Prisons need to be decent, safe, clean places where we place those who have committed such heinous crimes that are so are abhorrent to us that we cannot face them. They must offer to help the person remanded to a term of incarceration that ability to start rebuilding themselves, if they so desire. In my opinion, the only way to cut crime is to get to the root cause of why that person commits the crime in the first place. A person must not be sent to a prison as a place of safety by a magistrate or judge.  Prisons must not be used for those souls who are disturbed, addicted to substances or victims of historic abuse; to name but a few real maladies. We must stop sending people to a prison, located in the middle of nowhere and miles from their families, as the first option. The sooner the judiciary realise this, the sooner we can stop building warehouses for society’s forgotten many. 

 

    I wish the government well in their expansion plan. I only wish that it would have stuck to its word and that we could have closed some of the Victorian hell holes that blight our countryside today.  Those edifices of despair in which we place our fellow citizens for an inordinate amount of time and then turf them back ono the street hoping that they will not reoffend; all the time getting upset with them when they do. But if they continue to try and build themselves of the problems of society as opposed to facing them; I will be there to help pick up the pieces of those whom society would rather forget. At least I can visit them in bar-less window lined cells with a good concrete wall!

 

    Thomas Paine once wrote that “when our jails are empty and our streets free of beggars, then can a country be proud of its constitution.” Well our jails are full, and our streets lined with those just trying to survive. Not much to be proud of, is there? 

 

As always, it’s just my opinion, I could be wrong. 

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.