13 May Treatment of prisoners in England and Wales – Timothy’s story
He was sentenced to forty months in prison, charged with intent to supply and possession of class B drugs. During Timothy’s time in HMP Altcourse he expected to be treated in accordance with Her Majesty’s Prison Service’s mission statement: to treat all prisoners with respect and humanity. Unfortunately when he arrived he saw that was not necessarily the case.
Prisons in England and Wales have been under a lot scrutiny in recent years. Claims that they are overpopulated and understaffed, mistreating prisoners and not rehabilitating offenders back into society are very common amongst news outlets. This could be for a variety of reasons; one common reason is the lack of funding for prisons, meaning they have had to cut certain programmes and schemes to help prisoners reintegrate back into normal life after their release.
These problems occurring in prisons have definitely increased over the past few years during the time of the cuts. “It is noticeable that the huge increase in violence across the prison estate has really only taken place in the past five years, at the time when large reductions in staff numbers were taking effect.”
An overpopulated and understaffed work situation meant that living conditions for prisoners were significantly reduced. According to the annual prison report carried out by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of prisons for England and Wales for the years 2017-2018 there has been a clear decline in the living conditions for prisoners, stating that they found “some of the most disturbing prison conditions” they have ever seen.
Timothy was definitely a witness to this lack of resources. With only being allowed out of his cell for three hours a day and having to share a cell only designed for one person, he saw firsthand the dire living conditions for prisoners in England and Wales. “Being stuck in your cell for 21 hours a day on your own affects people in different ways. Some people can’t deal with it, get stressed and depressed which leads some prisoners to self harm or suicide in extreme circumstances. (When this happens it usually has a lot of other issues e.g. outside relationships, drug use and feeling helpless). Most prisoners share a cell, it’s just high risk ones that don’t for either mental health reasons or being violent towards cellmates”
Being in such a small cell for such a long time throughout the day does not meet the standards set out by the HM Chief Inspector, they described it as “a totally unacceptable situation… Where they eat all their meals, with a poorly screened or unscreened lavatory inches from their bed or food.”
Steve, who has been a prison officer for 15 years believes the lack of staff from the cuts has had a huge impact on the way prisons are run “More staff are needed nationwide because they made some cuts, the prison service cut the workforce by a third nationally and it had a big impact on how you deal with a prisoner now because before you could be a bit more robust but with the shortage of staff you have to use your interpersonal skills and good communication to deal with a prisoner.”
The HM Chief Inspector inspected a variety of male and female prisons, custody cells, police custody, and some military detention facilities. When inspecting they found that “safety had declined in 14 prisons inspected; nine prisons showed improvement.”
When talking to Timothy about whether or not he felt safe in the prisons he has been held in he said he had felt safe but could understand why other prisoners would feel unsafe in such an environment. “Personally, I keep out of most people’s way when I’m in here, I don’t get involved in a lot of the issues that are had unless it directly affects me or someone I get along with. Like when my cellmate who I got close to was getting attacked by these other guys I did what I needed to to defend him but then I got put on basic. Other than that I try to stay out of it. Some people are targets though, the crackheads and the quieter guys are usually victims to the stronger prisoners who know more people in here”
The safety of a prison usually varies around the country. According to the annual prison report the worst prisons for the last few years have been HMP Wormwood Scrubs, HMP Nottingham and HMP Liverpool in regards to safety, they have all failed to reach 11 of the safety recommendations from the HM Inspectorate. Talking to Nathanael, someone who has been in custody in three different prisons across the country he can vouch for this. “Depending on which jail (you’re in) depends how much violence goes on, (HMP) Stoke Heath has to be the quietest I’ve been to in this sense. Usually alarms go off at least 3-4 times a day (in other jails) which are usually for fights in the jail but here (HMP Stoke Heath) maybe once a day, if at all that day.”
During Timothy’s time at HMP Bedford he got into a fight and broke his hand. Although he was the instigator for the fight he still needed to receive medical attention immediately as he had broken his hand. When he asked for help the officers declined to send him to the nurse for three days. “I knew I had broken it, I was in a lot of pain as well. I wanted to see the nurse so I could get it in a cast before it started to heal in a weird way.”
After eventually allowing Timothy to see the nurse, the nurse adhered that there was no problem with his hand and refused to send him to hospital. Timothy, still in a lot of pain persisted that he needed to go to the hospital. The officers decided to send the doctor to go and see him his cell who said he should have been sent to hospital straight away. After this he was sent to hospital a day later where they put a cast on but it was too late to mend his hand back to its original form, it had become deformed. Steve believes all prisons should provide the necessary healthcare “In my opinion all prisons should provide 24hr healthcare, as some prisons only provide healthcare till about 5 o’clock with nothing throughout the night; just a phone number for the doctor.”
This is not an uncommon issue for a lot of prisoners in England and Wales; there are a lot of solicitor firms dedicated to helping prisoners with issues just like this “I am in the process of taking my issue to a solicitor but it’s harder because it happened when I was in prison the first time and they don’t make it easy for you to make a claim while you’re in here”
Another common issue within the prison system is racism. Within the annual prison report there is a section called ‘The Lammy Review’ which addresses the issue, highlighting the overrepresentation of people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds in prison, he reported ”There is evidence to suggest differential treatment against black and minority ethnic prisoners.” Timothy agrees with this from looking back at his own experiences “There is definitely a racial element in this jail as to how they treat you, majority of people from ethnic backgrounds are kept on two wings, not usually given wing jobs and staff don’t usually talk to them unless they have to.”
It is not only prisoners who can see just how prominent the race issue is within prisons. Mary and Paul, the parents of a prisoner also agree that there is an unfair treatment to minorities but in a more systematic way. “One major thing which sickens me to my core is the price of products for black people, for their hair or skin products – it costs more than it does out here and they only get £15.50 to spend a week when a pot of cream is £6 because it’s a black product. It’s appalling.” Which is interesting because ethnic minorities make up 26% of the prison population.
According to the Prison Reform Trust “black men are 26% more likely to be remanded in custody than white men.” Lammy also stated that “The lack of staff diversity ‘helps perpetuate a culture of “us and them’’ ’, it said, contributing to an atmosphere ‘in which many rebel against prison regimes, rather than start on the road to a life without offending.’”
Within the prison system there are many flaws and many improvements could be made. From a prisoner’s perspective: “More qualifications need to be available, it (prison) is meant to ‘rehabilitate’ but who really is going to want to go from making £1000s a day to working a sh*t job for minimum wage, also making people feel that they can still do something positive and make a decent wage a month.” From a prison guard’s perspective: “Many of the luxuries and privileges need to be taken away from the prisoners and replaced with purposeful activities e.g. education and handwork.” And from a prisoner’s family’s perspective: “Communication desperately needs improving.The first point of call; the front office don’t always have the information you need.” So although the prison system is a positive for society in many ways, there are definite improvements to be made.
