Oh my holy crap. What the actual f*** are you doing? Why are you being so thick? How can you be so chuffing blind???
I appreciate that my opening sentences this week haven’t been my normal calm style but, seriously, prisoners can be so stupid. The senior management in prisons must be rubbing their hands together with glee because we are making their jobs so easy!
It’s probably worth me stating that I do, of course, realise that many people in prison are in educational poverty which is a major crimogenic factor. However, that, linked with a toxic sense of ego, creates an obscenely deluded body of prisoners driven by craving and desire but one which is easily abused by the Criminal Justice System.
“We” jump up and down about which brand of peanut butter is available in the canteen but we say nothing about the SPS causing the deaths of prisoners (google the suicides in Polmont and, even worse, watch the CCTV from Edinburgh of 17(?) prison officers murdering a prisoner. “We” spread nonsense rumours about trainers being found in soup yet we ignore the fact that the system for progression in prisons is broken and not fit for purpose.
“We” whinge because we were given a Mars bar last night instead of a Snickers, however we look past the catastrophic communication in here which is at the root of everything which is going wrong. “We” argue passionately about Sky TV, even thought the rules on admissibility of evidence in court effectively means now it is virtually impossible to defend yourself.
I want to jump up and shout “WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? F***ING STOP IT!!” but I can’t. Or won’t. Because they don’t care about these things, because they don’t think it will affect them – which actually is the same reasons the majority of the public don’t give a toss about what happens in the Criminal Justice System.
The estimated 90% of prisoners who are properly convicted don’t care about deaths in custody, nor progression, nor management communication or rules of admissibility of evidence. Instead, they are self-indulgent criminals who make it so easy by only asking the easy questions. Yes, they might offer aggression and violence to staff but guards can deal with that.
Only by asking the difficult questions can improvements be made for us all – both the 90% properly convicted and the 10% wrongfully convicted.
May I finish by asking you to do something? Google the HMIRS Report on progression which was published in June 2024 and read the summary (Here – #6). Then email your MSP and ask how this situation has been allowed to develop and what they are going to do about it.
Thank you.
NaN.