Last week I returned to my old gaff – Holloway prison. I was with fellow commissioners for the Howard League Commission on English Prisons Today and we were given a good tour of the place.
We went first to reception, where prisoners enter and leave the establishment. I remembered being on the other side of the two-way mirrors, in the holding room where women had smuggled out drugs and drug-taking paraphernalia (lighter, silver paper) despite the thorough strip searches. They had a toot in the toilets. Feeling infuriated with being locked up, I felt a kind of satisfaction they’d got one over the establishment.
Then we went onto the wings, initially to the First Night Centre. My jaw dropped: carpet on the floors, unheard of in my time. I remembered being thrown into a cell and having to learn the ropes from other, more experienced prisoners. Had things really got that much better?
On the main wings, the palace had clearly had a good lick of paint since I was there. The prisoners’ lockers looked pretty much intact, and relatively clean. Most people were still in four or six bed cells but joy of joys, there was a small TV in each one. Never had it so good!
It was when we actually went into a four-bed cell I realised that the changes, while admirable, were largely superficial. Just one woman was out, on an activity. The rest were banged up and in bed, despite it being the middle of the day, because there wasn’t enough staff to make use of all the prison facilities. These prisoners were bored, fed up, and deeply depressed.
“Haven’t you got anything to do apart from watching TV?” asked a fellow commissioner. Yes, and they proudly showed us knitting and handiwork kits, but it was obvious they couldn’t get up the motivation to actually do any of it.
At healthcare we met a team of keen NHS professionals who were clearly doing some fantastic work. “Do you have enough to meet the needs?” I asked them. There was a resounding ‘No’ from the head of counselling, and echoed by the others. The main message they gave us was that the work they were doing would be far more effective if it was being done in the community, rather than in the prison environment. Sending women to prison, for mainly short sentences, was counter-productive.
The majority of women prisoners are banged up for non-violent crimes and 66% of them have dependent children aged under 18. Of these children only 5% stay in their own home while mother is in prison. Most women prisoners are vulnerable and have mental health problems.
But those blessed politicians continue their love-affair ……… with prison!
