Prison life

[GlassOfBeans]

Has their ever been a programme that seems to show what a prison is actually like?

Prison Break?

 

[stunrw]

My town is home to Canada's first privately-owned prison, although that only lasted for five years and it's now run by the state.

My pet hate is trying to make justice into a business. It never works. The state cant do it so why in the every living fuck do they think a private co can do it

 

[TikToc]

Sorry ive just snorted my drink out of my nose.

Thats hillarious

In the pub again? Sure you're not Irish?

 

[forgotmyacc]

My pet hate is trying to make justice into a business. It never works. The state cant do it so why in the every living fuck do they think a private co can do it

Not the same thing, but kinda. My teenage son has special needs and uses a respite service occasionally. There's people trying to open private services atm. Unfortunately where there's money to be made you'll always get some gobshite trying to capitalise !

 

[eggfriedrice]

I remember going to a UK one in the midlands (there were 3 on the same site ) and the officer with me was no more than 5 feet. Female. But by Christ when she barked they all behaved.

Does one of them have a 🪶 in the name? Trying to work out the melon emoji
Tbh I’m quite tall for a female, 5’8.. but I’ve got a massive gob on me I can shout from the office and they can hear me up on the 3s landing

 

[observerisshe]

Hi all
I’m the same as a previous poster, the only person inside I’ve been exposed to is Sam Walker. Absolute misogynistic bell end from Liverpool. He is openly on his phone in jail.How is this allowed?
Also…why do female prison officers fall for inmates, are they just so manipulative? Or are the officers naive?

 

[Ravenstown]

And the prisoners food is still better than hers. With or without an inexplicable egg

Bish can't cook, man. I would rather be served institution food rather than her cosyplay workhouse cattlefeed.

 

[Ambrosie]

I read Orange Is The New Black but didn't find Piper's account very compelling. Just kept going on about how lucky she was to be middle class and have her friends and family send in loads of stuff for her.

My image of a Women's prison is a mix between Bad Girls and Wentworth However going by @Ambrosie's posts it's not quite as dramatic as that

I was on the “nice” enhanced wing where you would get chucked off for the tiniest thing. When I went to health care appointments or saw those from other wings on way to work or whatever, I have to admit I was a bit scared! Definitely a few aggressive ladies who were waiting to start a fight. One did start on me and I told her to fuck herself and she launched herself at me, luckily a guard grabbed her and removed her. I was set to defend myself but she was a lot “harder” than me. A few weeks later she had the nerve to ask if I would give her my book (we were both waiting to see the nurse. I had shocking ulcers while I was there, it was grim) as she was on segregation and had no TV. She did NOT get my book

 

[TikToc]

In my experience, the CPS work very closely with the police and they do in fact have a lot of control over which judge presided over a case. You lot can talk about how they’re not meant to and that the UK is not like the US and blah blah blah, but in MY EXPERIENCE they were able to delay a case being brought to court because they were waiting for a particular judge that they had chosen to sit over it.

By "you lot" I'm guessing you mean, people that actually work in the system and know what they're talking about? YOU OKAY HUN ?

 

[bourb0nbiscuits]

Everything I know about prisons comes from books I’ve read, which are most likely embellished, but one sticks in my mind - The Governor by Vanessa Frake. She’s a hell of a woman! What struck me though was that she truly thought that prisons need more money to rehabilitate, provide more education etc. So the conundrum I find is that prison is supposed to be a deterrent and a punishment - if we are treating it as a sort of grown-up-school-come-rehab, is there any deterrent or punishment? I’m not saying I agree with one way more than the other, I don’t actually think I know enough about prisons and what goes on to have an opinion but it’s definitely something I’ve thought about a lot. It seems that along with all these different prisoners comes a massive host of problems - drugs, mental health, alcohol dependency, emotional and behavioural problems, the list goes on. How do you have a blanket rule for all those different people? You can’t, it will never work. Might work for some and scare them off ever setting foot outside the line again but others it will intensify into monsters.how on earth can it be done though? It seems an absolutely insurmountable task.

Prisons were punishment initially and that was that but as the years have gone on and we have evolved, it’s just no longer that simple.

Apologies if none of that makes sense, it’s been a really long day!

I work in adult MH services, we assess lots of different types of people from people who are working in professional jobs to ex prisoners and everyone in between.

The majority of ex prisoners we see have had horrendous childhoods ( physical/emotional /sexual abuse/ poverty/ parents with substance misuse problems/Mental illness ) or been in and out of care or from a really young age have just gone from institution to institution or foster carer to foster carer. They get to 18 and are given a flat & struggle to manage running a home, bills etc. They usually haven’t got good family role models so muddle along and end up in prison. Lots then struggle when they’re released without the structure that it gives them and say they’re going to offend again so they go back.

I know this is generalising but this is my experience, there are arseholes out there too!

 

[stunrw]

Absolutely loads are in prison due to mental health issues. I’ve got a lad who went to a police station & started smashing it up and threatening the officers with a broken bottle purely for the fact he was struggling with his mental health & wanted to go back to prison.
It is really sad & during keyworker sessions (which rarely get facilitated but I love when I get detailed keyworker) you can actually sit and have a somewhat deep conversation about their past and what some of them have been through is absolutely horrible.
I don’t condone crime in the slightest but hearing everyone’s individual stories you can’t help but feel for them in some way and have empathy towards them and then others are just downright vile human beings who have had everything given to them on a plate, a normal ish upbringing and are just awful awful people

Thats why you are good at what you do. With your training and humanity you can walk that very fine line between empathy and security. I always look at it as explanation rather than excuse

 

[Terflife]

not sure if anyone's interested about drugs in prison , but thought I'd tell you all about a recent (last few years) 'trend' in ways of getting high.....
BUSCOPAN!
it's smoked & proper smashes you. (I've never taken it but have seen women do it) .
Heroin is the main drug of choice, but spice has been flooding jails for a good while now.
tobacco & lighters are sought after too, since the smoking ban.
the amount of you can make from selling a bit of burn is crazy! 2 skinny rolls can go for around £10 worth of canteen items! .

 

[stunrw]

I'd love to know who discovered this
Like who decides one day.... ya know what? I'm gonna crush up my ibs medication, smoke it, and see what happens

As @eggfriedrice will attest, if there's a way they will find it very quickly.

Look at the Mamba epidemic from some years ago. Turned out the letters that were coming in were sprayed with the synthetic chemical. So they smoked the letters.

Now there is a machine to test for it and the dogs are trained. But over here it was like the night of the living dead with people off their faces and nobody could work out how........

 

[moreanimalsplease1]

Edit: And please, don't touch the dog. Sound like a but they are doing their job and they know when they are working. It won't distract the dog, but the handlers get annoyed

my friend didn’t think about her actions and went to stroke a sniffer dog.. the dog sat (alerted) and she ended up getting strip searched

She didn’t have anything to hide so it was fine but quite embarrassing for her - lesson learnt! IGNORE THE DOG

 

[bargainhunt99]

Just joining to say that someone close to me did a 4 month stretch in a UK prison well known for suicides last year. An older building. It was a shock, especially as nobody dealing with the case believed they'd get sent down and this person wouldn't put up much of a defence because they wanted to face their guilt, having done something very out of character.

There was a lot of boredom. Life was quite mundane. The worst thing was the 23 hour a day 'lock up' in a cell. No opportunities for playing pool or anything. The 'hour out' was for a walk round the yard and a trip to the library. If there was 'staff training' on a given day, they never got out of the pad at all. Short-term prisoners weren't offered much in the way of jobs that got them out of their pads and there was so little to do. My friend waited weeks to get on an art course, which only came up in the last few weeks of the sentence. That meant two hours a day release from the pad a few days a week. Time was spent drawing, making things out of basic implements and watching the very limited TV service. You had to be doing more 'serious' time to earn certain privileges. Mental health and opportunities for various forms of rehabilitation wasn't really addressed very well. First cellmate was a pain in the bdackside but there was the option to bunk up with another person in the last month, which improved things somewhat. The food was ok, if a bit bland for a vegetarian.

My friend, thankfully, took in their stride, accepting that they were there to be punished. They said it wasn't a time full of dramas, like you see on TV. There was the odd ruckus but it was usually diffused. Surprising, considering how long the inmates had to spend in their pads. It was awful for the family outside, though, because communication was limited and it took nearly a month to get any kind of communication at all, due to the various checks and procedures.

It makes me laugh cos on soaps it makes it look like visitors can rock up whenever they like.

 

[Ambrosie]

To get back on topic: any good prison documentaries people can recommend?

I’ve enjoyed First and Last 24hrs on YouTube, Parole and Tagged on BBC, and one just called “Prison” on Channel 4.

Any others?

Not a documentary, but the drama Time is very good. Sean Bean is in it. It gets all the “prisony” details right.

 

[stunrw]

If there's a fire in a prison how do they evacuate it without everyone running loose?

None of us could really answer that without compromising security. But there are well practiced multi-agency plans if the worst were ever to happen.

No amok would be run

 

[Livia Fantasy]

Such an eye-opening thread. Much love to everyone contributing so far, from either side. Hope everyone's in a good place <3

 

[Leo100]

No. Its first who arrives gets in first. Abit confused by this comment tbh.

Well first come first served gives the impression not everyone gets in

 

[veevee04]

If i was put in prison , I would keep doing stuff to be put in segregation. I can't imagine having to share space with loads of women. It would drive me mad. I would rather be segregated for the whole sentence with books and sleeping hahaha.