The sun is out today and it’s the first time this year I’ve truly noticed it. Sometimes it seems like the rays of the sun don’t actually ever reach prison but today it’s obvious that of course they do. Access to nature is one of the many things of which we have been deprived so I thought I’d reflect on that today and try to work out the effect of being withdrawn from the natural world.
I would love to start by trying to establish the evidence base for the importance of access to nature but one of the other major things of which we are deprived is information. Therefore, I cannot evidence my assertion that to be part of the natural world is a good thing but let us just agree that this is the case. It has huge emotional health benefits as well and… well, there will be so many good reasons. It is also vital to fully appreciate what might be the biggest threat to human life – climate change.
By depriving us of contact with trees, plants, hills, grass, animals etc, the authorities are amputating one of the limbs of our humanity which they don’t need to do. It surely cannot be regarded as part of a humane punishment and it’s definitely not part of a positive rehabilitation. To isolate us from nature cannot transform our lives positively nor can it unlock our potential.
To dispossess us of the natural world further embeds the industrial nature of prison existence. This is a factory of concrete, pipes, bricks and steel. This factory is cruel, unethical and financially inefficient. It is an amoral warehouse, storing humans in a way that infringes numerous UN rules and regulations. (For absolute clarity, I cannot confirm that the UN rules commonly referred to as the “Mandela rules” include an references to the natural world because I am denied a copy of them – I’ll let you make a judgement on that yourself.)
At a fundamental level, all life on earth depends on the sun and relies on a complex ecological system full of pathways and nodes. Humans exist in and because of the rest of nature. We eat, drink and breathe the output of nature and as we appreciate more about the importance of human behaviour on the planet, we should be making better informed decisions. While there is and open ended and imprecise promise of a new prison which will apparently contain green spaces, I am very cynical about the entire project.
I must, of course, accept the removal of certain freedoms for people in prison but there is a line over which the state must not cross for either legal or ethical reasons. Until the wider public realises that the way prisoners are treated does matter then the authorities will continue to act in this shameful manner. I’m not sure the public will care about the suffering of prisoners until they realise that they could become imprisoned despite not committing any illegal acts – I am living proof of that.
I strongly argue that to keep prisoners locked in a brick box with almost no ventilation and less than 4m2 of space each with only one hour of time outside in an exercise yard made of concrete and tarmac which doesn’t see the sun (so much so that even the moss doesn’t grow) is totally and utterly wrong. It has nothing to do with punishment nor rehabilitation. It is inhumane and ,in the words of the CPT, torturous.
NaN.