Prisons are very murky, shadowy places. They are dark and dangerous at the best of times but at night, they take on a whole new level of ominousness.
When that cell door closes at the end of the day and you know it won’t be opening for the next 12 hours, it fills you with doom. You have been incapacitated and disabled.
The thoughts in your head darken and the horrific gloom of despair begins to appear. It doesn’t matter how strong you are, nobody is immune to the mental torture and make no mistake – it is torturous.
After a while, you develop strategies to cope. Some guys numb themselves by taking drugs. Others try to escape by watching violent films until they fall asleep, although I would strongly argue that the resulting effect of being exposed to such violence can’t be a good thing.
Some listen to loud dance music to try and take them away from the reality of their situation and others simply cry themselves to sleep. Every night.
Many guys get angry and start shouting. They bang their door and argue out of their window at anyone who wants to join in. Then the staff come along and shout at the prisoner to be quiet (?!). When the prisoner shouts back and begins to argue with the guard, the guard gets angry and yells at the prisoner to be calm (?!).
The result of all this is the most terrible symphony ever written. Not terrible in terms of quality but the effect on anyone listening to it. The bangs, the screams, the yelling, the crying, the threats, the gunfire from the TV, the loud, fast dance music – it all adds up to a sound more laden with misery than anything I’ve heard before.
Of course, some people would feel that this is the right thing. That prisons should be tough. They should not be nice places, and I’ve written before about this. My position on this is that prisons don’t know what they should be. They don’t have a clear sense of their purpose. Sure they have the cute tag line “Helping to build a safer Scotland: Unlocking potential, transforming lives.” However, on the very broad spectrum which includes punishment but also includes rehabilitation, prisons don’t know where they’re placed.
What I do know for sure is that prisons should not be damaging to health. I don’t know anyone in the criminal justice system no matter how skilled they are with words who would be able to argue that prisons are not psychologically damaging.
For guilty prisoners to reflect on their criminal actions and the harm they have caused is a very important aspect of rehabilitation but I think this needs to be done in a therapeutic environment with care. If it isn’t then I think long term psychological harm is likely and the potential of that when the prisoner is released must be clear to everyone.
NaN.