theForum

state of our current prison system!


https://forum.unlock.org.uk/Topic25005.aspx

By Wentworth2 - 23 Feb 18 9:24 PM

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/17/uk-brutal-prisons-failing-violence-drugs-gangs

When will society learn that prison just does not work? Or does it?
By CC - 9 Mar 18 6:14 PM

AB2014 - 8 Mar 18 10:15 AM
CC - 6 Mar 18 10:45 PM
The Sanity Clause !
So true, I found myself in this situation. I was fortunately on a fixed sentence but even so I wanted to do a particular course but was denied despite it being on my sentence plan (and despite me transferring there specifically for that course).
 I had to use a solicitor to get the prison to put me on the course I had transferred there to do. He was successful . I would have been released without it otherwise. Unfortunately whilst there some box ticker (and I`m being polite here) took a dislike to me and wanted me on a different course and so began what seemed to me like  a Marx Brothers movie.
I was sent to psychology to do the course he decided I should do, psychology turned me away. A few days later the box ticker (OMU minion) sought me out and demanded to know why I wasn't doing the course. I patiently explained that Psychology didn't deem it worthwhile or necessary! Now it would be reasonable to expect at this point that said OMU minion would have accepted their (way more qualified ) judgement and the case would be closed but no, I was sent again and ordered to do the course.
This turned into a farcical routine for a while but at no point did the OMU minion ever go to Psychology himself to sort this out and I was wearing a rut in the carpet so to speak. By this time (several weeks) I was getting a bit fed up with it all, the fun aspect was wearing off. ON the final visit to psychology I asked the psychology person to please allow me to take the assessment for the course just to bring this to an end and they agreed there and then.
So I did the assessment and was sent away to await the result. A couple of days later I had a visit from the psychologist who took me for my assessment. she took me to one side and told me I had got top marks in the assessment as they expected and handed me a formal letter to keep informing me of same. They also told me that a copy would be put in my permanent file and a third copy sent to the OMU !   finally and I have to say being handed that letter made my day. I was not bothered again. That is until my parole when the OMU tried their best to sink my parole by saying I had refused to do a course I needed, Out came the letter and I got it anyway.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Sy6oiJbEk
Looking back now it was funny and a bit farcical but it would have been a lot more serious if I wasn't on a fixed sentence and parole only made a few months difference anyway but OH dear reading other comments it appears to be quite common.
 I cannot agree with Derek Arnold that prison is in anyway a good thing but I would like to wish anyone who has to go through this the very best of luck. Derek is absolutely right you have to steer your own course, be the architect of your own fate. Don`t rely on anyone in the system to do it for you but tread carefully some staff dont like you taking the initiative as in my case.


I think this shows that once you are in prison, your future is not in your hands. Whatever it is you want, you depend 100% on someone else, whether you're talking about doing courses, getting your post or going to the library. That only stops if/when you get to Cat D, but even then, when the box-tickers disagree, you're still relying on someone else, whatever you try to do. In CC's case, if he hadn't persuaded Psychology to let him do the assessment and they hadn't given him the letter, he would have been stuck. I remember being assessed for ETS many years ago, and being told by the assessor that I had done better than anyone else he had ever assessed. I still had to do the course. It later emerged that they often included people who didn't need to do the course, just to help and encourage the others who did need to do it. Why bother assessing me, then, other than as a box-ticking exercise?

I strongly feel that prison is not the best place for rehab, mainly because it is hard for it to exist in such an environment.. The main contributing factor to my offending was low self esteem, a common trait for people who commit similar offences to mine so I was told by psychology and my personal experience of prison staff( at the one I was in) was they were happy to do all they could to lower it further, sometimes in petty ways. i.e calling me to the wing office to "see how long it took me to get there" really!!! they pay them for this. There were a few good staff there but far outweighed by the others. this is one of the more milder examples in my experience. In the end a listener got a governor involved, I was moved to another wing and the staff in question were expressly prohibited from contact with me. My unpopularity with said staff was I am certain because I took the initiative throughout my sentence, as AB2014 says you are not allowed  control and in my case I insisted upon it to do what I transferred there to do by using a solicitor. To my advantage my solicitor was all too used to this system and knew exactly how to get results but seriously he shouldn't have to. I had legal aid so the MOJ was paying the obstructive staff at the prison and paying the solicitor to deal with the obstructive staff. The insanity Clause alright.