A serving prison governor from one of the country’s crowded jails has spoken exclusively to Sky News about conditions inside, the reality of early release and why we should rethink who is sent to jail.
Here is what he told us.
There is a smell you always associate with prison – the smell of unwashed bodies. Inmates can go two weeks, sometimes more, without changing their clothes.
Laundry services are one of the first things to get dropped as overcrowding means other things are prioritised and access to showers during unlock hours is limited. Personal hygiene is always a trigger for conflict.
Prisoners do not go to prison to be further punished. The punishment is going to prison. When the regime is so curtailed, so tight – prisoners feel they are being further punished, and they are reacting to that through their behaviour.
Even the delivery of food can be a flashpoint for further aggression. If staff are stretched for time – lunch will be taken to cell doors rather than allowing inmates out to the canteen. But for the prisoner – that’s just another example of being denied space out of their cell.
They’re kept behind cell doors anywhere between 20 and 23 hours a day, sometimes in a cell designed for one being shared by two. Floor space is minimal. Toilets can be next to the bed. It’s not conducive to a living environment. So unlock time reaches fever pitch.
On the wings you hear every sound imaginable. A fine line between frenzied excitement and something more sinister. Staff have their wits about them.
Violence
You’d expect jail to be violent by its very nature as an institution. But this is constant. Every day. And it’s getting worse.
Across the estate prisoner on prisoner assaults increased by 16% in the year to March. Assaults on staff increased by 24%. I couldn’t wholeheartedly say staff are safe at work, and at times they dread coming in. They’re leaving the landing in tears. They’re overwhelmed.
The availability of weapons heightens it. And they can be anything. A broken piece of furniture, a razor blade, a kettle of boiling water. Even plastic cutlery. Witnessing the aftermath of attacks with these kind of instruments is very difficult. But you can’t totally eradicate them.
If the day passes where there’s been no violence or incidents of self harm we’d consider it a good day.
Finding a prisoner who has cut themselves is traumatic. Yes you raise the alarm, you summon help from the health team. But in that moment a prison officer’s assistance can be what stands between life and death.
Sometimes there is no warning – staff might find a prisoner who has taken their own life. You might have been the last to see them, locking up the night before.
You might have had a purposeful conversation with them. And the next time you see them – they’ve taken their own life. That is not just another prisoner. It’s a human being you might have got to know very well.
Drugs
The Chief Inspector of Prisons noted in his report earlier this month that illicit drugs were of concern in “too many” prisons.
You can smell them on the wings. You’re more likely to smell them than see them because most of the abuse of drugs takes place behind cell doors. The amount of time prisoners spend behind them lends itself to it – making the passage of time easier.
The threat from drones bringing drugs into prisons has never been as acute as it is today. In order to get them in, prisoners will try to game the system – sometimes with threats and intimidation – to be housed in cells more convenient for accessing them from the outside.
Psychoactive substances have had massive repercussions within the prison environment. Previously rational prisoners take on a virtual personality change. It really does change them. The addiction, though, is such that they just cannot stop.
Early release
Thousands of people were released from across the prison estate last week after serving 40% of their sentence, in order to free up space. Next month we’ll see thousands more do the same.
Irrespective of what stage of their sentence people are released, there will always be those you fear will go on to re-offend. There weren’t many prisoners that I either spoke to or saw released that were talking about this as a golden opportunity to turn their life around.
I worry we’ve pushed the policy through rather quickly, and have concerns about the external infrastructure in place to support them. Releasing prisoners without anywhere to live is only going to go one way.
Which begs the question – are we doing the right thing by these individuals or are we just setting them up to fail to make sure we’ve increased some prison spaces?
If a large proportion of those we’ve released end up coming back, then we haven’t really achieved anything.
Future
If we’re serious about reducing the prison population we need to look at sentencing guidelines for certain offences. This has been topical recently, with high profile cases where we’ve seen people going to prison for cyber-related offences, comments on social media.
Prison needs to be for serious and organised crime, for violent offences.
These will be decisions that need to be made above my pay grade.
If we don’t get it right, and if we don’t review it, then I think the danger is – particularly for the younger generation – they may come to prison for relatively innocuous misdemeanours, and leave with ideas and associations that will take crime to an altogether different level.
And the reaction?
Responding to the points raised by the prison governor, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “This government inherited a prison system in crisis – putting pressure on the entire justice system and ultimately the public at risk.
“We are taking the difficult but necessary action to make sure we can keep locking up dangerous criminals and keep people safe.
“We thank all our staff for their hard work and we will continue to drive improvements in our prisons to help more offenders turn their back on crime.”
The government insists emergency early release measures to deal with overcrowding form only part of their plan to reform the prison system. In the longer term they say they will look at building further cell spaces, review their approach to sentencing and increase the number of probation officers.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.