By Foxtrot - 6 Mar 12 8:26 PM
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20969898
"The prisons that are to close are Bullwood Hall in Essex, Canterbury, Gloucester, Kingston in Portsmouth, Shrewsbury, and Camp Hill on the Isle of Wight.The UK's oldest working prison, Shepton Mallet, in Somerset, is also among those to be shut."
I know it's not forward looking, but has anyone had any experience of these places?
I accepted my guilt, but don't punish me forever.
To fully understand something, you must live it first.
Give peas a chance.
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By Newton - 6 Sep 10 12:30 PM
Shrewsbury was my last port of call. Very old, very drafty, but the best food in the prison estate - and well know for this! Was having it's designation changed from local and remand to sex offenders only when I was there. Population about 80% S/O the rest others. Remand had stopped. Not much difference form other others with respect to staff. Everything took ages (even longer than other places I was in) nobody wanted to do anything. Quite a few fights - probably due to lack of work. didn't see much drug staff around but wasn't looking for it. A lot of older inmates. Wife says staff she dealt with about visits were the best she ever dealt with. Visitors got very wet on visits as quite a way to walk in the rain! Work very limited probably only about 50% of the population whop could work were in work. Officers in the visits hall just sat around chatting to each other - left us to get on with it - great! Parking, wife says, was dreadful or expensive! Visits waiting room very cold. Not much different to other government run prisons I had been in for my one and only 'stretch'. Don't miss any of them!!!! I'm not going back.
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By Foxtrot - 6 Mar 12 8:26 PM
I'll be any foxy old tart you like.
I accepted my guilt, but don't punish me forever.
To fully understand something, you must live it first.
Give peas a chance.
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By east72 - 3 Sep 13 9:43 PM
Four more to go on the news tonight
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23958223
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By The Stig - 11 Mar 11 6:26 PM
WHERE AS REHABILITATION GONE THEN MR GRAYLING. IOI THAT IS THE ANSWER SEND MORE PEOPLE TO PRISON.
We all accept our crimes but should we be punished more for it?
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By Anonymous - 12 Apr 13 3:50 PM
Surely that's going to be a good thing right ? After all, too many people are being sent to prison when they could be serving sentences in the community. In regards to sharing "experiences" of these places, sadly Foxy, there are those on here who want to forget, so maybe not a good question. |
By Foxtrot - 6 Mar 12 8:26 PM
Oh I don't know - some may feel it has a cathartic effect. This thread is very disjointed as many posts or members have been deleted. I can't even remember what my second comment was in reply to.
Anyway, remember, although they are closing a number of prisons, they are actually intending to increase the overall prison capacity, so they obviously plan to send more people down.
Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.
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By Anonymous - 12 Apr 13 3:50 PM
Super-Max Prisons ? - Maybe that's the way it should go in the UK. Lets get rid of those terrible Victorian hellholes, and give our inmates a better punishment environment  I would get everyone under one roof, in a great central location, with good road and rail links, surrounded by good housing for the screws. Makes sense yes ? |
By Anonymous - 5 Sep 10 3:02 AM
I would get everyone under one roof, in a great central location, with good road and rail links, surrounded by good housing for the screws. Makes sense yes ?  Seriously though, the U.S. is the way it will probably go. Huge industrial privatised complexes run for profit. Poor old and outdated PRINDUS, (Prison Industries), won't get a look
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By Anonymous - 5 Sep 10 3:02 AM
I would get everyone under one roof, in a great central location, with good road and rail links, surrounded by good housing for the screws. Makes sense yes ? |
By Anonymous - 12 Apr 13 3:50 PM
Lets not forget that Prison labour in the USA has its roots in slavery. After the 1861-1865 Civil War, a system of “hiring out prisoners” was introduced in order to continue the slavery tradition. Freed slaves were charged with not carrying out their sharecropping commitments (cultivating someone else’s land in exchange for part of the harvest) or petty thievery – which were almost never proven – and were then “hired out” for cotton picking, working in mines and building railroads. From 1870 until 1910 in the state of Georgia, 88% of hired-out convicts were Black. In Alabama, 93% of “hired-out” miners were Black. In Mississippi, a huge prison farm similar to the old slave plantations replaced the system of hiring out convicts. The notorious Parchman plantation existed until 1972. We all know "that hard work will set us free" IanC so thanks for the light hearted reference to the concentration camp, but surely having a constructive form of punishment where inmates can work, learn new skills and earn some money is the way to go ?. |
By Anonymous - 12 Apr 13 3:50 PM
A scheme under which prisoners are being paid to collect information from homeowners for insurance companies could be extended nationwide, the Ministry of Justice indicated today.
It has faced criticism over the initiative which is being run at Oakwood prison, Wolverhampton, and Drake Hall prison, Staffordshire.
Inmates ask possible customers their names and postcodes and whether they would be interested in a quote for their valuable items. Their replies are then recorded by the prisoners in a computer system.
Critics warned the programme could supply offenders with enough details of homes with valuables to be able to target after their release.
But the MoJ insisted there was no security risk involved as inmates were working from computers without internet access and were not allowed a pen to record the data.
“Prisoners placed in call-centres are risk assessed and their work is subject to stringent security measures, with calls supervised and recorded,” a spokesman said.
He said Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, knew about the scheme and fully supported it as a way of teaching new skills to offenders.
It could be rolled out nationwide if it was deemed a success, he confirmed.
Is this the start ?
Why have call centres in India when we have the resources already here.
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