Prison

Prison

Sunday 19 April 2015

Maintaining Your Moral Compass in Jail

The prison system can often be a difficult place in which to behave like a ‘normal’ person. Different rules and standards can apply. Sometimes words or actions that outside would be considered decent and praiseworthy can land a prisoner in deep trouble or even danger. I was reflecting on this during a recent exchange I had on Twitter and thought I’d share a few thoughts on my own experiences in prison.

'Snitches get stitches'
I’ve posted before on this blog about the perilous position of inmates who are labelled as ‘grasses’ (informers) or ‘screw-boys’ (those eager to suck up to the staff). Both types of con can find themselves ostracised by fellow prisoners and, in many cases, find themselves on the receiving end of threats and violence – sometimes very extreme. 

Although the atmosphere does vary from nick to nick, and even wing to wing, there is a general consensus that ‘grasses’ are the lowest of the low and far more dangerous than sex offenders (who are, in most cases, segregated for their own protection on Rule 45 or held on separate wings).

According to common prison lore, another unforgiveable sin is being seen to save a member of staff from attack or even death. In his memoirs Parkhurst Tales, Norman Parker – a very old-school con – describes the grim consequences faced by a fellow prisoner who had pulled an unconscious screw from a burning building at grave risk to his own safety. 

Prison life old-style
In a prison context what would be regarded as an heroic act anywhere else suddenly becomes treachery against other cons. In many cases, having been seen to have rescued a member of staff would be a rapid short-cut to spending the rest of your sentence down the Block (segregation unit) or these days on a Vulnerable Prisoner Unit (VPU) having a thoroughly miserable existence. At best it might involve being transferred to another prison perhaps hundreds of miles from your family. 

For that reason, some emergencies in prison can require the making of split-second decisions about whether or not to get involved. I remember one particular case in a Cat-B when two wing officers were involved in a particularly nasty altercation with two cons on a landing and neither screw could reach the green general alarm button. 

One of them shouted – to no-one in particular – “Hit the alarm!” Needless to say, no-one moved a muscle. There was already a large crowd watching the scrap and cat-calling. To have gone anywhere near that alarm would have been a public declaration that the con involved was a screw-boy and probably a grass. In any case, other members of staff were soon on the scene and we were all ordered to get back behind our doors for early bang-up. To be honest, I don’t really think that there had been any expectation that one of us would break ranks, but it was worth a try.

"Don't panic...!"
During the time I was inside, I honestly can’t recall any con ever sounding the alarm during trouble. I have occasionally seen inmates trying to persuade some new and gullible arrival in the system that he should just push the green button if he wanted to ask a member of staff for some advice – which would probably be “You’re nicked, lad!” as a screw put him on a charge. However, I can’t actually remember anyone being daft or green enough to actually test this.

Dealing with the bullying of weaker and more vulnerable cons can be another moral challenge. You can’t just walk up to a wing screw and report it – otherwise you become a grass and end up in deep trouble. On the other hand, just letting it continue lowers your own moral standards and leads you to question your own humanity. Fortunately, most bullies are cowards and will back off if several large cons – particular ex-armed services veterans – pay them a quiet visit and advise them to pull their horns in. This does genuinely work in most cases.

Problems involving members of staff can be much more problematic. I was once involved in a potentially dangerous situation in prison where I was forced to make a moral decision that could have had traumatic consequences for the rest of my own sentence. It occurred when I was working as a peer mentor in the education department of a Cat-B jail. 

Prison education session in classroom
Generally, these basic literacy sessions were pretty calm and sedate. Most cons were either glad to be out of their cells for a couple of hours in a clean, bright classroom being taught by a pleasant female tutor, or else were heavily medicated and inclined to doze off in the sunny warmth of the room.

However, on this occasion we had what we termed a ‘refusenik’ – a con who resented having been forced to attend education classes and who was extremely hyper. I’ll call him Dave (not his real name). His nickname was ‘Dangerous’ because of his aggressive and unpredictable behaviour.

In fact, he was living with serious mental illness and was back in prison on recall. His medication hadn’t yet stabilised his condition since he had arrived back in custody and he could be extremely aggressive, particularly towards female members of staff. Since he was 6ft 4” tall, he could be very intimidating, even for fellow cons.

It all started when he was asked – very politely – by the young female tutor not to eat a bag of dry breakfast cereal he had brought with him into the classroom, but to wait until break. He responded by simply ignoring her request and munched on loudly. He was sitting right at the back of the room which usually accommodated about 12 prisoners per session.

Ideal for disrupting lessons in jail
Having defied her once – and having got away with it – Dave decided to try his luck with other means of both getting attention and disrupting the lesson. His next ploy was to flick prison-issue rice krispies at other cons. Childish behaviour, but sometimes prisoners can revert to infantile actions in the slammer.

Clearly the education session was degenerating into a circus. Rather than call for the duty screw – who was down the corridor reading the paper and drinking his tea – the tutor made the error of confronting the disruptive con directly at the back of the room. This placed her about five metres from the nearest general alarm button which was located next to her desk in case of trouble.

Dave didn’t like the idea of being giving a dressing down by a young, slight woman so he stood up and towered over her. At this stage there had been no actual physical contact between them. Intimidated, she retreated into the far corner – nowhere near the alarm – as he advanced towards her. She was completely trapped and starting to panic. This was the point at which moral decisions had to be made.

Either the other peer mentor assigned to the class and I could stand by and allow what could be a very nasty situation to end up with a serious assault against the tutor, or we had to do something. Hitting the alarm really wasn’t an option as we knew the potential consequences, especially as peer mentors were already considered halfway to being screw-boys anyway.

Restrained
In the end, both of us walked up to the corner and placed ourselves between the tutor and Dave, making it clear that if he wanted to hurt her then he’d have to deal with us first. I don’t particularly like the idea of being thumped by a bloke who is much bigger than me, but the only alternative to becoming part of a human shield in front of the tutor was to press the damned alarm button and take the consequences once the story got around the nick.

Fortunately, ‘Dangerous Dave’ backed off. Intimidating a female member of staff was one thing, getting into a possible scrap with two big cons was another. He weighed up his options and then grumpily stomped back to his seat, giving the tutor the chance to get back to her desk and hit the alarm. In a few moments four screws arrived and Dave was being ‘twisted up’ – placed in a restraint hold – and then marched down the Block to cool off. We didn’t see him again on the wing for a week or so and he didn’t return to education classes.

In this case, we were both very lucky. Our fellow cons saw the logic in what we’d done and neither of us got any negative reactions. However, this incident shows what an ethical minefield prison can be and why having an accurate moral compass to help you negotiate the potential hazards can be essential. Just ask yourself how you would have handled this situation!

31 comments:

  1. Thinking just of the last 6 months I can think of at least 5 separate occasions when an inmate (or inmates) have physically helped an officer by helping restrain, preventing others joining in or pushing the 'general alarm' button, all in a Cat B local and all with no app . apparent detriment to their 'status' on the wing afterwards.

    Even prisoners have (sometimes) a sense of justice and if a decent officer needs aid more often than not its provided; officers who aren't so well respected may find help from inmates slightly slower or even non-existent.

    Regarding bullying and being seen as a grass from my experience they're 2 different fruits. Many prisoners will 'tell' on a bully but would never tell about mobiles or other contraband.

    An interesting read even if some of you experiences are either outdated or my prison is different from the normal.

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    1. Thanks for sharing your own experiences. As I point out above, no two prisons - or even wings - are identical, so there is room for wide variations. I've certainly never witnessed any prisoner pressing the alarm, but obviously it can and does happen.

      I do agree with your analysis of the willingness of cons to help 'decent' members of staff - and there are plenty of these in the system, as I've mentioned in previous blog posts. The issue of informing is much more controversial and I've been in prisons where the 'one minute' rule applied to visits to the wing office. Anything longer than a minute, if you were on your own, was noted and followed up. Perhaps part of that is the current paranoia over the drugs trade.

      My own experiences of prison (other than as a visitor and regular correspondent with serving prisoners) ended last year, so not so long ago that the culture could have shifted very noticeably. Perhaps your nick is just a nicer, less confrontational place to work! If so, that's actually good news, particularly in the present climate.

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  2. Maybe Dave had the munchies as a bad side effect to his medication, he should have been left alone to eat.

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    1. I think that there was certainly a good argument for him not having been forced to attend education classes, especially while his illness hadn't been stabilised. Unfortunately, the governor was determined to ensure that every education session was full, so people like Dave were forced to come. Usually we were searched to ensure that no-one had food with them before entering the education department, but that hadn't happened.

      Sadly, Dave's story didn't end well. A while later he attacked a female nurse, dragging her through the meds hatch and injuring her following some altercation over medications. He was twisted up by the screws and we never saw him again - possibly he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act, although I'm not sure of that.

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    2. Dave should have been allowed to eat in class just to keep him happy.

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  3. Alex, you mention “ . . . peer mentors were already considered halfway to being screw-boys”. Are the benefits of being a peer mentor, an Insider (as you were) or a Listener – such as the satisfaction of helping others, time out of cell, a good mark on your record – not worth it if your fellow cons are shiftily watching you out of the corners of their eyes?

    And are those cons who voluntarily attend classes, subject to suspicion that they are too complicit with the powers-that-be? How are they regarded?

    Thanks.

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    1. As an officer I can say that Peers, Listeners, people in education or employment are generally envied by other prisoners due to their extended time out of their cells. Even cleaning jobs are sought after for time out of cell privileges and Hotplate is seen as extra food bonus as well. The general opinion of other inmates doesn't seem to worry or bother them and generally they seem to be closer to the 'top' of the 'caste' system that seems to exist in most wings.

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    2. Thanks for your questions. It's also good to have a contribution from a serving member of staff as this gives a wider perspective.

      In my own experience most prisoners recognise that having fellow cons who are willing to help their peers is a positive thing. Certainly, Listeners seem to have an increasing workload these days as tensions rise due to overcrowding and staff shortages. This in turn means that there are generally less opportunities for members of staff to interact with individual inmates. In many respects, Insiders and other peer mentors are finding that they are taking on some of those daily tasks - such as giving advice to other prisoners or helping them find their way through prison bureaucracy.

      I think that any prisoner who tends to work closely with the administration will be under some degree of suspicion. I must admit that when I was in my Cat-D (open) prison I was absolutely horrified when the number one governor used to call me by my first name in public - in meetings for example - mainly because he and I did a lot of work together. I also used to visit other prisons to give presentations on peer mentoring and participated in regional meetings for governors. None of this is 'normal' for prisoners, but we were trying to develop new ways of improving everyday life for inmates via the use of peer mentors.

      It's inevitable that in those circumstances you do get to know staff at a personal level and many of them start to see beyond the 'con' label and get to know you too. It's often the same with orderlies who get to work next to officers all day. They call inmates by their first names (or nicknames) and they take their tea breaks together.

      Of course, all of these are privileged positions and those who get them can be deeply resented by other cons. When this jealousy is mixed with a suspicion that there may be some 'grassing' going on as well, then gossip and rumours can make life difficult on the wings.

      At the same time, the officer who commented above is also right. These days jobs - pretty much any work - are in short supply in many prisons and there can be long waiting lists, so getting a job - even if it only pays £8 or £10 per week - is a real bonus. A lots of jobs have different perks as mentioned above. Servery workers often get leftover food; cons who work in the staff mess get well fed; inmates working in the stores always have decent kit... and all these workers get to spend working hours out of their cells. Cons who spend their days locked behind their doors can get very envious of those with jobs (although there are also a fair few who really do prefer to be unemployed and fester in their pits all day!)

      Participation in education isn't really such a contentious issue, although a fair number of prisoners really resent being forced back into classrooms. You can always tell who really wants to be there and those who are attending under duress.

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    3. Where my own opinion differs is the idea that mentors, orderlies and other cons with privileged jobs don't really care what other inmates think of them. There is often intense peer pressure on wings - much of which may not be seen by staff - and cons who are perceived as being privileged can face bullying or come under pressure to break rules.

      I know one visits hall orderly who actually quit what was a really sought-after jail job because he was continually pressured and threatened by drug dealers to collect small parcels of contraband that had been left by visitors in the visitors' washroom or in the bins and smuggle them back onto the wings. Eventually, he just couldn't cope with the threats and so he chucked the job in and became a wing cleaner.

      I suppose that there will always be some prisoners who view anyone who works in jobs that involve close contact with staff as 'screw-boys' who are complicit in the system. At the same time, much also depends on how people behave on the wing. A lad who is well regarded and popular with his mates probably won't face too many problems just because he becomes a mentor or an orderly.

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    4. Completely different ethos in the female prisons I've been in. Generally the officers were either good or bad. Plenty of us had positive working relationships with the good officers. No one had positive relationships with the bad officers and they were just avoided as much as possible by everyone. Chatting with the good officers was not frowned upon at all and no one got any shit from other prisoners for doing so. I don't recall any incidents where any officer needed to be rescued or was being threatened. Listeners and peer mentors were not considered to be too much in the pockets of the officers either. Maybe this is just some of the differences between men and women and how we handle situations differently

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    5. Thanks for your comments and for sharing your own experiences. It is always interesting to compare prisons in the male and female estates - there do seem to be some major differences. From what you've written here it does sound like there is less of a rigid 'them' and 'us' divide between inmates and members of staff.

      Male prisons can be highly charged environments where distorted ideas of 'masculinity' and an individual's 'rep' as a con can be more important than working cooperatively or - sometimes - just behaving in a normal, rational way! Perhaps it also has a lot to do with the kind of offences male prisoners are in for... a significant number of cons have committed acts involving violence, so there can be a tendency to punch first and think about the consequences later.

      Moreover, male prisons seem to have a far greater problem with the covert drugs trade - and all the bullying, debt, violence and grassing that can be involved. Hence the endemic fear of grasses and screw-boys - they can be very bad for business!

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    6. Drugs aren't so much of an issue in female prisons as appears in male prisons although they are present either brought in by people on ROTL or supplied by staff. There doesn't seem to be the same level of bullying violence and debt around the stuff in female prisons as there is in male prisons - those getting the stuff from staff have made their own arrangements for payment and those getting it from their mates on ROTL used to get family/friends to put the payment into the supplier's prison account via postal order and if they didn't pay up they didn't get supplied. However, virtually every prison I was in had a lively trade in hooch brewing which usually made people pretty sick rather than anything else. And there was one very notable incident at Downview where healthcare was dumping a load of alcohol handwash and some bright spark on the recycling crew decided they could drink it (it had alcohol in it so of course it was drinkable don't you know) which resulted in some very sick idiots and a few getting their stomach pumped to boot. No one ever had to grass anyone up because they usually did something remarkably dumb that meant they shot themselves nicely in the foot without any help from anyone. But if you really wanted to anonymously grass someone up all you really needed to do was write it on a complaint form, stick it in a complaint box off your landing (they were all over the place) and sit back and watch the fun.

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  4. Interestingly I found people in prison to have just as much if not more of a moral compass than a lot of people I knew on the outside who are bigger crooks than those on the inside in large part. I find society's attitude towards those who are incarcerated to be massively hypocritical - they denigrate the cons whilst happily breaking the law in all sorts of ways. I found it quite easy to maintain my moral compass whilst inside. I have a good sense of self and a good sense of right and wrong on a secular level. In fact the only people I found with suspect moral compasses whilst inside were those who went overboard on the religion front. Mind you I've always found religious fanatic types to have a very odd sense of morality. They certainly did not practice being kind to others, considering others, helping others etc but were more than happy to ram the bible/koran etc down your throat as proof of their morality

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    1. Thanks for your comments. I remember one very 'old-school' prison officer who told me that in his opinion most people are law-breakers of one sort or another, but just haven't been caught! When I asked him if he was including himself in that generalisation, he just smiled.

      I think that because prison is such a closed society certain actions that would be considered perfectly 'normal' outside can have multiple meanings and implications inside. Many cons - even those not in for theft - don't really regard taking something from the prison as being dishonest. Because resources are in such short supply, pretty much everyone pinched paper, pencils, pens etc from the education department. Of course, it is theft - even if not removed from the establishment - but many inmates wouldn't see it in that way. Mind you, I've met a fair few prison officers who are also a tad light fingered...

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  5. I wonder whether you were allowed to stand up to Dangerous Dave becuase A) being a tutor she wasn't a 'real' screw and B) she was a She; I guess that being female she would be afforded a certain degree of respect and the notion that a man does not hit a woman.
    I would imagine and wonder that if it was a prison officer taking the class whether you would have stood up for him and if you did, there would have been any repercussions?

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  6. Chris (no crisis) Grayling is sacked by Cameron!

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  7. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/our-new-justice-secretary-michael-gove-wanted-to-bring-back-hanging-10239681.html

    "It was wrong to abolish hanging" is not the same as "bring back hanging"...

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  8. Hi Alex, good stuff! I don't see where to contact you, so here's a link to my blog. http://offendersmind.blogspot.com I'll put up a link to your page. Be well. Keep up the good work.

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  9. No post for almost a month, has the blog finished?

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    1. Thanks for your question. No, the blog is continuing, but I've had a serious medical condition and I'm still recuperating! Back soon...

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    2. Sorry to hear that, hope you recover soon.

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  10. Get well soon!

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  11. I've been thinking about a remake of "Porridge", Peter Kaye should play Fletcher while Paddy McGuiness should play his side kick. I'm not sure about the Governor role or Mr Mackay.

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  12. Are you recovering from a heart attack?

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  13. Get well soon missing your blogs

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  14. Alex,

    keep on the mend. Wishing you all the best

    Anthony

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    1. Thanks for all your kind comments. I'm gradually recuperating and hope to resume posting in the not too distant future!

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  15. The jail is a place viewed by many as a place of extremely violent and felonious people, but what we need to understand is that, some of the people serving time in jail are falsely convicted. But, with all the suffering and isolation, it would really be difficult to cope with the jail life, which is why loved ones have to subscribe for Inmate calling plans to communicate with their incarcerated loved ones. Constant communication would help making their burdens lighter, hence compelling them to tightly hold on to their morality even inside the jail.

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  16. The jail is a place viewed by many as a place of extremely violent and felonious people, but what we need to understand is that, some of the people serving time in jail are falsely convicted. But, with all the suffering and isolation, it would really be difficult to cope with the jail life, which is why loved ones have to subscribe for Inmate calling plans to communicate with their incarcerated loved ones. Constant communication would help making their burdens lighter, hence compelling them to tightly hold on to their morality even inside the jail.

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  17. Hi Alex,

    Love the blog. Do you think it might be worth a quick one line post so your readers know you're not well rather than just abandoned the blog? Some might not look in the comments section and you may unfortunately lose some reader who think you're just not posting any more?

    Hope you feel better soon.

    Jim.

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