tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post7334022612656535072..comments2024-03-19T08:48:37.047+00:00Comments on Prison UK: An Insider's View: Acts of Despair… Suicide in PrisonPrisonUKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05060870139110580938noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-21945378279733793112014-09-13T11:01:38.820+01:002014-09-13T11:01:38.820+01:00Thanks for your comments. Having been a voluntary ...Thanks for your comments. Having been a voluntary adult literacy mentor (Toe by Toe) in four prisons, I would definitely agree that improving literacy has a major role to play in rehabilitation and future employability. The problem however, is that this programme is totally voluntary and even when you have a captive audience of cons, persuading some people to give up 20 minutes of their association period five times each week isn't always easy.<br /><br />In my experience, trying to impose compulsory education on adults in prison often becomes a disaster. I well remember being at a C-cat prison when this policy was introduced. I was then working as a paid peer mentor in the Education Department and we had endless problems. Refuseniks regularly disrupted classes, there was occasional violence, the alarm bell started ringing every day, civilian teaching staff were reduced to tears or took sick leave and - worst of all - those men who had volunteered for education in order to improve their reading and writing skills became distracted and disillusioned. My view is that forcing adults into classrooms is utterly counter-productive as I've previously written back in July in my blog post entitled A Prison Education.<br /><br />My solution would be to incentivise learning. Award phone or canteen credits to prisoner who hit targets or who pass exams. Distribute paperback books and magazines to those who regularly attend classes and work. Hand out pens and writing pads to cons so they can practice writing home. I believe that encouragement is far more effective than coercion. This really isn't rocket science.PrisonUKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05060870139110580938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-36890523215588757712014-09-13T10:29:28.911+01:002014-09-13T10:29:28.911+01:00There should be a greater focus on prison literacy...There should be a greater focus on prison literacy, it doesn't take much to teach a con to read and write. Dyslexia can be managed very easily with simple techniquesAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-43980572104649120512014-09-13T10:14:30.883+01:002014-09-13T10:14:30.883+01:00Cheers for that link. Very interesting comparisons...Cheers for that link. Very interesting comparisons.PrisonUKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05060870139110580938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-46351655208132365242014-09-13T08:24:33.139+01:002014-09-13T08:24:33.139+01:00http://www.dropoutprevention.org/engage/incarcerat...http://www.dropoutprevention.org/engage/incarceration-within-american-and-nordic-prisons/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-90015467797496031252014-09-12T16:36:29.693+01:002014-09-12T16:36:29.693+01:00Only if the ticket is strictly one-way.Only if the ticket is strictly one-way.PrisonUKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05060870139110580938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-91251786733132154042014-09-12T16:35:46.128+01:002014-09-12T16:35:46.128+01:00Who knows? Stranger things have happened. A number...Who knows? Stranger things have happened. A number of former ministers have ended up in the slammer after Inspector Knacker has 'felt their collars'.PrisonUKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05060870139110580938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-57357777028237909722014-09-12T16:19:21.902+01:002014-09-12T16:19:21.902+01:00Just buy Chris Grayling a flight ticket to Norway ...Just buy Chris Grayling a flight ticket to Norway for a Prison trip to Halden and Bastoy. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-58999380843355396882014-09-12T16:09:44.710+01:002014-09-12T16:09:44.710+01:00Oh my goodness, how I would love to see Mr Graylin...Oh my goodness, how I would love to see Mr Grayling crying and peeing his pants!! Can you imagine the headlines?! I do wish something like that could be arranged. It'd do him good.Sirikithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13188194741226037319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-82283083150922923982014-09-12T11:11:52.443+01:002014-09-12T11:11:52.443+01:00I think Chris Grayling hasn't made many prison...I think Chris Grayling hasn't made many prison visits recently. I think he realises that the hostile reception he would receive from both staff and inmates would result in a tsunami of negative media coverage and being a cunning and devious ex-journalist and PR man, he's far too canny to put himself in the firing line.<br /><br />As far as spending 24 hours in prison, I well remember the story - told to me by an officer - about a young screw who was on duty for the first time and was very nervous. His older, more experienced colleagues played a mean trick on him by saying that they'd had a tip off about some contraband items hidden in a particular cell. They told him to go and search for these when all the prisoners were out of their cells for work or education. <br /><br />This young guy made the mistake of not springing the lock on the cell door from the outside (the correct procedure to prevent staff getting locked in a cell by mistake or from being taken hostage by a prisoner slamming the door when the screw is inside the cell). As soon as he was searching, a fellow officer slammed the door shut and trapped him in the cell. <br /><br />They left him there for an hour and just ignored his frantic pressing of the cell call bell. When they returned to release him, he was crying and had wet himself in his panic. He was totally shattered by just having been locked up in a cell for one hour. Imagine how politicians would react! PrisonUKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05060870139110580938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-79579065889330133102014-09-12T11:01:29.007+01:002014-09-12T11:01:29.007+01:00Thanks for your comments. In theory at least that ...Thanks for your comments. In theory at least that is supposed to be one of the reasons for the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) system - to monitor prisoners who are deemed to be at risk of suicide or self-harm and to share this information effectively between the relevant departments within a prison, including healthcare and psychology. Unfortunately, this often just becomes a tick box exercise with staff glancing through the observation window into the cell.<br /><br />Another key weakness of the ACCT system is that it tends to rely far too much on self-reporting by an individual prisoner. When they are called in to routine reviews, the safer custody manager asks how they are feeling. If they state that they are no longer feeling suicidal, they may well be taken off the ACCT. If an inmate is truly serious about suicide then he or she is hardly likely to admit this.<br /><br />Another well-documented phenomenon is that when a person is so troubled that they come to see suicide as the only option, they often show external signs of having cheered up. Observers can often misinterpret this as indicating that the crisis is over. In fact, having made the decision to act, the person planning to kill themselves often relaxes because they believe that their misery is now coming to an end. <br /><br />I had this experience myself as a university student. One of my very close friends - almost like a brother - had been very depressed. Suddenly he seemed much improved and was even cheerful for a couple of days. Then he killed himself using a massive overdose of prescription medication. It took time for his friends, myself included, to come to terms with what had happened, but then I understood why he had suddenly cheered up. It was all about his relief once he had made the decision to die. PrisonUKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05060870139110580938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-45461195094337968432014-09-12T10:20:19.794+01:002014-09-12T10:20:19.794+01:00And I hate Chris Grayling - he should be made to s...And I hate Chris Grayling - he should be made to spend a month, or a week, or even 24 hours in one of his horrible inhuman prisons. Just as a publicity stunt. Sirikithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13188194741226037319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-1715326102024432682014-09-12T10:15:04.440+01:002014-09-12T10:15:04.440+01:00Sadly, too, attempted suicides being 'saved fr...Sadly, too, attempted suicides being 'saved from themselves' (what a bizarre way to put it) is only a snapshot - what's to stop them trying again (and succeeding) at a later stage? Any attempted suicide is an indictment of the penal system in this country. I am Norwegian, and UK prisons seem to me to be draconian, degrading and, worst of all, pointless institutions. Sirikithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13188194741226037319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-61700683912177917662014-09-11T23:57:57.574+01:002014-09-11T23:57:57.574+01:00Thanks for your comments, Andrew. I think that we ...Thanks for your comments, Andrew. I think that we are experiencing the negative consequences of a paradigm shift in what the MOJ expects the prison system to do. The focus under Chris Grayling has been an ideologically motivated move back to the punitive theory of imprisonment when all of us who have direct experience of the prison system (from whichever side of the cell door) know doesn't deliver positive outcomes. <br /><br />As presently constituted the prison system fails on pretty much every test, except as a form of costly human warehousing that is no longer even safe or decent. Overcrowding, staff shortages and reduced budgets are making our prisons less safe across the board, but even more so for inmates who are vulnerable, elderly or who live with mental heath conditions.<br /><br />I would estimate that about 60 percent of the prisoners I encountered inside prison should not have been in custody at all. Some demonstrated disturbed behaviours such as indicated that they were in need of psychiatric treatment. Incarceration in a penal environment exacerbated their conditions to the point that some were a danger to themselves and others.<br /><br />Moreover, I still fail to see the justification for the imprisonment of people convicted of non-violent offences, or where there has been no evidence of offending behaviour for many years (as with some historic sexual offences). In my view, most of these prisoners could be supervised and/or treated much more effectively in the community and at a much reduced cost to the public purse.<br /><br />What we currently have is a criminal justice system that is increasingly informed by the editorials of the Daily Mail and the Telegraph (which I noticed of late is becoming uncharacteristically critical of our failing prison estate), often based on a dangerous combination of misinformation, supposition and downright deception. <br /><br />Chris Grayling is a shocker because I'm sure he knows that his policies are dangerous, inhumane and will not deliver positive results. However, he is also a very cynical ex-journalist and PR man who is playing to a very specific audience for purely party political advantage. Mike Spurr - whom I've known for 30 years - has spent his entire career in the Prison Service and NOMS and should know far better. In many ways, his betrayal of his colleagues is all the greater. PrisonUKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05060870139110580938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-87312780266848905492014-09-11T22:10:37.716+01:002014-09-11T22:10:37.716+01:00*Bastoy*BastoyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-49017635277881670002014-09-11T22:00:21.656+01:002014-09-11T22:00:21.656+01:00Yes, Halden is the most humane Prison in the World...Yes, Halden is the most humane Prison in the World and Balstoy Island Prison rehabilitates sex offenders.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-54975648019787848272014-09-11T19:57:37.749+01:002014-09-11T19:57:37.749+01:00Thanks for your comment. I think that more frontli...Thanks for your comment. I think that more frontline staff would definitely make a difference, but the best outcomes would be to reduce the number of people sent to prison for non-violent offences; to place people with severe mental health conditions in appropriate therapeutic environments; to provide appropriate mental health services for inmates suffering from less severe conditions and to recruit wing staff who are genuinely committed to supporting and encouraging rehabilitation. If the Scandinavian model works so well and cuts reoffending, why not import the best of what really works? PrisonUKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05060870139110580938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-87679737692653302372014-09-11T19:56:54.789+01:002014-09-11T19:56:54.789+01:00Thank you - that post makes sense to me.
In a nea...Thank you - that post makes sense to me.<br /><br />In a near 30 year career as a probation officer I visited over 60 prisons and worked or had attachments in 4 or 5 prisons or young offender custody centres from 5 days up to 5 years. I did suicide watch assessor work between 1997 and 2002.<br /><br />Please keep writing.<br /><br />You are right to direct responsibility to the Secretary of State for Justice and some who work in senior managerial positions in his ministry but that responsibility spreads far beyond them.<br /><br />It particularly involves David Cameron, who appointed Grayling and his whole government who uphold his dangerous criminal justice policies as well as those who support them in both houses of Parliament and possibly even us who elected them and take little interest in how they are doing our work as members of the UK State?Andrew_S_Hattonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09115192522317353139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623255227619374869.post-28262568522282911552014-09-11T19:36:48.933+01:002014-09-11T19:36:48.933+01:00It appears to me that a lot of issues you've w...It appears to me that a lot of issues you've written posts about (although not all) would be solved (or at least greatly alleviated) simply by ensuring more staff are employed in the Prison Service. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com