Treatment of prisoners during lockdown

There are probably a minority of cases where I wouldn't worry about prisoners, like those who commit horrible murders or rapes. I'm just being honest and I know I shouldnt feel like that. But for the majority of prisoners I do care that they are being treated this way. I think its inhumane and needs to be addressed.
Being deprived of freedom is the punishment. I think we can all understand how difficult it is to be deprived of ones liberty after the last few months. It's very coldhearted to have no compassion.

I wish people would realise that prison isn't the easy life that they think it is. As Luckygirl has said they are locked up for many hours a day and not allowed out.
The do not get any treats like DVD/CD, players, TV's or anything else until they earn them. They are quickly removed if they have done anything wrong. Even decent duvets and pillows have to be earned.
They don't have access to email or internet. Any TV they have in their cell is just freeview channels. Most don't have mobiles, and the ones that do have them illegally.
They cannot make any phone calls when they like, and again this privilege can be taken anyway at any point.

I know they are there for their crimes, and rightly so, but they are still human beings and should be allowed out of their cells for longer exercise etc.

It is so easy to judge when you don't know anyone that has been through the system and what they have to go through.

I agree conditions are not good in prison especially under lockdown but unpopular though this may be I ask that a thought is spares for the officersworking in these volatile conditions. My dd and sil are both prisoner officers working 12 and 14 hour shifts because so many if their colleagues are off either because they have tested positive or a member of their family has.

I also think it is inhumane we are supposed to be a civilised society the punishment is to be taken out of society not to be kept in conditions that are detrimental to their health I hope for your relative and others it is addressed

I worked in an Y.O.I. and adult male prison ( y.o.I - young offender institute. That means 18 and over. I am still in contact with lots of current prison officer friends.
You may not know, but most out of cell activities are run by non uniform staff ( as I was) The majority of those are currently not working in prisons so therefore those activities are shut down , education , library etc. In normal circumstances 1 teacher would have approx 20 students ( from various wings ) in their classroom with a prison officer patrolling the education department.
The education dept could be several classrooms perhaps over 2 floors. They also have the responsibility of ensuring nothing
untoward goes on in the toilets - bullying , passing of drugs.
Also there will be a fair amount of officers how are unable to go to work due to shielding exactly as in a normal working environment.
Believe me the governors and management of the prison will not be taking the current situation with lack of resources for prisoners as an opportunity to be extra ' nasty ' to them, it is being done to keep the virus as low as possible ( think care homes o f perhaps 30-40 people ) to prisons that hold 600 - 1000 prisoners. We have not heard of mass deaths due to horrendous outbreaks in prisons. I agree that every suicide , be it in the community or in prison is awful, but sadly it happens everyday pre coronavirus .
Apologies for the long post .

The Prison Doctor is a book written by Dr. Amanda Brown. Well worth a read . It explodes the myth that life in prison is a doddle.

life in prison should be punishment and certainly should not be a doddle. Don`t want the time, don`t do the crime.

My opinion of that book ( and I have read it ) is that it is not a 100% true representation of life in prisons . Although I fully accept every prison runs slightly different. The one I worked in was a category B.

They are there as a punishment.

Ok, so being there is the punishment. Now what? Do we want to keep on just locking the same people up again and again or do we want them to come out after that first imprisonment a better person? Do we want to give them the skills to cope on the outside, and, dare I say it, the chance to grow and flourish?

I have plenty of sympathy for victims of all crimes, and yes, especially serious ones. I have been a victim of crime myself and worked with offenders and victims. If we don't put more resources into the prison services nothing will change. Those released will go on offending and the officers will continue to struggle. The recidivism rate in this country is deplorable.

On behalf of the whole of society, but particularly with a thought to future victims, we should all be thinking of the prison service when we next cast our votes. After all, inevitably we will pay for it either way.

My opinion of that book ( and I have read it ) is that it is not a 100% true representation of life in prisons

I'm sure it isn't. It can't be. She can only talk of her experience.

And she would have no first hand knowledge of what goes on outside of her treatment room

What about all the prisoners guilty of sexual assault and pedophiles do you think they are all mentally ill and should be rehabilitated?
I can tell you from a professional perspective that it’s extremely unlikely that they can be rehabilitated and in my opinion belong in prison where they can no longer harm children which result in the harm of their future generations.
I have also seen patients in a forensic setting making up symptoms of mental health problems just to have a break from prison.
Yes I have no doubt there are some genuinely mentally unwell people in prison but don’t forget a lot are plain bad

Cassiej Do you really class people who rape torture or murder children and babies as Human Beings.
I would happily administer a lethal injection to all of them

Thank you so much Luckygirl.

To be incarcerated in prison is devastating, to be there whilst COVID 19 is amongst us does not bear thinking about but I have wondered on a daily basis how it has affected them.

I took my PAT dog to a young offenders' prison 10 years ago which took an awful lot of organising but it was something I really wanted to do. When we eventually reached the boys, it was wonderful to see them melt over my Border Terrier, clearly missing their own pets. However, as expected their future pleasure was thwarted due to lack of funds for the extra surveillance necessary for staff to facilitate our visit

My heart now goes out to all prisoners stuck in there with this potentially explosive virus circulating. I keep waiting for the media to enquire what the statistics are for prisons but unless I have missed it, none are forthcoming. Says a lot doesn't it?

Perhaps now that the advice on meeting up with others has changed, prisoners will have a little more contact with other prisoners. However, there are many people living alone in their own homes who are virtual prisoners at the moment, and they're not criminals.

Thank you for opening this discussion, Luckygirl, and thanks to all the informed comments from those who have experience of the prison environment.
I was a secondary school teacher, and some of our pupils were already quite disturbed at 11. Not all of them went on to engage in criminal behaviour, but many did, having grown up in households where drugs were used routinely, or else getting into drugs to escape a bleak existence.
Of course, there are those who do have to be imprisoned, and my respect goes to those who work with them in prison.
It is quite clear that prisoners with poor mental health (the majority) are in desperate need of more and better support. Unfortunately this looks unlikely, given the costs of this epidemic over the next years.

The young man's background is so tragic. He is in prison which must surely highlight he is a repeat offender. The system uses prison as a last resort. There will have been reports done on him before sentencing, all to consider what would be the most appropriate. How many times have we heard that someone has been given community payback when we have considered the offence to be horrendous. Yes, it sounds he needs special care and this should be afforded him and all others with special needs not only in penal establishments but also in the community. There is also a saying A society is judged by how it cares for its elderly. Well we've seen very clearly how that works in the UK. Care homes are warehouses for old people and they are not a threat to society and they have to pay for being locked up. It's an unjust world.

Thank you for starting this interesting thread luckygirl, I cannot imagine how bleak an existence it must be for your relative, staring at the same four walls day after day. I am starting to develop cabin fever myself and I have a house, garden, can eat what I like when I like, pick a book off my shelf, walk my dog....you get the picture. Some people, like your relative, have a heavy load right from conception and life will always be more difficult for them than for most of us. Rehabilitation, efforts to help offenders to settle safely back into society without offending must surely be the most important function of prison, for the sake of all of us. I am saddened by the number of posters who see this situation as black and white, your brave post shows us otherwise.

For what it’s worth I think their should be compulsory apprenticeships in prison. Let them choose their trade. At least when they come out they will have a skill set that they can use.

I have worked with a few young offenders over the years and many people end up in prison because they failed to pay fines. Their offense wasn't a custodial one but non payment of fines is. A street worker told me that soliciting isn't a custodial offence so a judge would fine the maximum he could so they would end up in prison. So not all inmates are hardened criminals .

I think the way that people respond to this says more about them, than the situation!

I think it's appalling Luckygirl, and for those who believe in severe punishment (as if having your liberty taken away isn't punishment enough), it doesn't even work. We have very high rates of recidivism in this country, as compared to countries who concentrate more on creating a humane environment and a focus on rehabilitation.

It must be dreadful during this crisis. I feel sorry for the prisoners and the prison staff.

Can I just say something here .. I’m well aware that some folk shouldn’t be in prison that is a failing of the “system”.. but there are rapists murderers arsonists paedophiles ,the list goes on and on and they do deserve to be in prison and atm they’re locked up to try and stop the spread of covid regardless of why they are in prison it’s as simple as that .
My son retired from the Royal Navy and went into the prison service and he hated it ... he lasted less than two years ,this from a submariner who was used to being”locked up “underwater for months at a time ..the reason he hated was because there is no discipline at all and as he said the lunatics are in charge of the asylum.. not just because of staff shortages but because the vast majority of prisoners just have no respect for anybody or anything except for what they want to do which almost always illegal.. then they complain because they’re inside....

No not all inmates are hardened criminals or repeat offenders. Some just had the misfortune to come up against a harsh judge who gave the maximum sentence they could. The thing I have learnt is there is no justice in the justice system, we all read about people let off lightly when we think they should have been given a much harsher sentence. We don't read about the cases which go the other way.
People in Prison are not so different from the rest of us whatever you may think. Not all prisoners take drugs and some come out with some skills they never went in with but they are generally those with longer sentences. Short sentences are pointless they don't help in any way at all. Prison is really about survival, to come out undamaged by the experience would be a result, to come out improved by the experience would be a bloody miracle.

I agree there are a lot of people who are in prison because the public needs protection from them. However our system is clearly not working given the rate of recidivism.

I agree with you Luckygirl that such treatment of prisoners is beneath a cultured society, which we all would like to think ours is.

It is even worse that people with mental health problems cannot get treatment.

Thank you for having the courage to mention these things.

IMO no-one, whatever crime they have committed, has the slightest chance of becoming a better human being while in prisons like those you name. If treatment, remedial classes and education was automatically part of a prison sentence, it might just do some good.

Unfair on the victim and all the law-abiding citizens who do not commit crime?

Perhaps. No-one with physical or mental health problems should be denied treatment, nor denied a good education, so obviously facilities made available to inmates in prison, must be available to the law-abiding citizen as well.

One of the prime objects of legal punishment is the prevention of a re-occurrence of the crime, either by the person who actually committed it, or by others who might get the same idea.

I hope neither a victim or any victim's family and friends could disagree with that point of view.

To be fair, much more help should be available for the victims of crime than is the case, at present.

But if crime is to be prevented, which it unfortunately never will entirely be, then the obvious place to start is with a reform of the current prison system.