Today, I’d like to write about culture in prison. I don’t mean the kind of culture represented by poetry or art, I mean the ethos of prison. The manner in which the prison community interacts, the ways that the different elements engage with each other to create a way of life.

People disagree about the proportion but most people would feel that prisons should have some rehabilitative and some punitive elements. By blending those together, the Scottish Prison Service establishes a culture and that culture influences everything. The success of a prison emerges from its culture and, of course, it’s failures emerge from the same thing.

So what are the rehabilitative elements of prison?There is education, there are offending behaviour courses and there are activities to improve physical, emotional and spiritual health. There are opportunities to develop positive attitudes towards employment, there are ways for prisoners to reassess their approach to authority and there are practical independent living skills exercises.

What are the punitive elements of prison? Of course, the main one is withdrawal from society and restriction of liberties. Cellular confinement is another one along with isolation from other people. Harsh and aggressive treatment by staff, restrictions on property and access to leisure activities and the requirement to do unpaid work are also punitive elements.

The task of the prison authorities is to blend those elements skilfully to create an appropriate culture. Allow me the indulgence of drawing an analogy with coffee. There is a widely held belief that 100% arabica coffee is “the best” but people who really know about coffee understand that the ultimate art of coffee is to skilfully blend arabica and robusta. It’s the same with whisky: yes, a single malt can be wonderful but arguably the very best whisky emerges from very carefully and deftly blending different whiskies.

So how does this prison blend those elements or, in other words, what is the culture in this prison? The overwhelming influences on us come from the staff we see most of the time, the residential staff. We see others but mostly it’s the hall staff. Referring back to my list of rehabilitative and punitive elements, the majority of rehabilitative elements happen away from the hall (residential space) and the majority of punitive elements happen in the hall. Therefore, there is an imbalance where we spend the majority of our time within a punitive environment. That, in itself, isn’t a disaster if the hall staff are sufficiently skilled but unfortunately, they are not,

The result is a culture based on bullying, intimidation, a lack of care and based on disrespect. Staff deliberately provoke prisoners in contravention of prison rules and they do not seek to influence our behaviour by example and leadership. They certainly fail to enlist the willing cooperation of prisoners.

Worse still, staff are influencing our behaviour by their example. They are aggressive and abusive, they shout and swear and they demonstrate cruelty. These are our influences which overwhelm us and only the strongest of us have any defences to that force.

Is it any surprise that prisons are failing, that prisoners are seeking refuge in drugs or that people are being liberated from prisons even less able to act appropriately than they were before imprisonment?

There are so many people to blame for this and, therefore, the solution requires a wide-ranging review involving all relevant groups including prisoners themselves and it needs to be done urgently.

NaN.