Prison
So yesterday I went to prison
No jokes, we all know it was for uni and not because I committed some atrocious crime.
It was amazing.
No, really, It really was amazing. I had so much fun, and I never thought I'd say I had fun in a Prison...but I did.
Going in we got our day passes, and thus by-passed the huge queue of people waiting to go in and visit friends/loved ones- I felt a bit bad queue hopping, but the security dude behind the double perspex bullet proof glass told us to, and I didn't want to argue. He also took our phones and locked them away!
We were treated like VIP's...what a bizzare concept- VIP in prison. Hahaha.
Anyway, had our bags/coats/scarfs scanned through x-ray, walked through a metal detector (which unlike in dublin airport did NOT go off, thankfully), then i was frisked by a female officer, front and back- that was weird. I kinda felt like I'd done something wrong, but hadn't.
We were told by the nice man looking in our bags to walk through the door behind him into a room. We did this. Lots of people followed...after a couple of minutes the door behind us closed. And after 30 seconds of being confined in this 'room' which was just glass, the door in front of us automatically opened. We turned to our right to face a door that we had been told by X-ray man would 'buzz' which was to indicate to us to open it. We waited, and waited. The other people were taken through some sliding bars to a female officer, only when those had closed again (and the other doors weren't open from the glass room) did our door 'buzz'. Through we went into a 'reception' type area where Chris met us.
It felt like a prison at that point. All the security we had had to go through just to get ten feet inside! Chris took us through another metal, barred door, and another, and another, and on the other side of that one was an outside door. We went outside and through the confines of the prison- were pointed out the 'hanging cell' they used to use- nice! Of course it's not in use anymore (although later one inmate delighfully told us apparently they have to keep it oiled incase they decide to bring back that law again and start hanging people). Through a heavy gate, and another, down some steps, and we were walking alongside the cells. The only hassle we had was from a couple of lads in one of the cells who saw us and shouted something like 'hey ladies (muffle muffle muffle)' couldn't make it out and ignored said felon anyway.
Through another gate, and another, and at a door, through the door bit, and the iron gate on the inside. We were into the Education Department.
Downstairs are the workshops, which unfortunately we didn't get to see.
Upstairs after dumping our coats, we met 3 inmates who were working on their files- which were huge. One is a peer mentor in the prison for others who are not so good at reading and writing, and has been offered a place at a university open day in April after he gets out. Another is a fantastic, and I mean, fantastic artist who's work, frankly should be in gallery's; and the third was a peer drugs worker within the prison, helping other prisoners through drugs rehabilitation. All have good literacy skills, and all quite obviously enjoy being in the Education department.
And I can understand why. A completely different ethos undermines that department. No officers are allowed in, unless something serious is going on. The prisoners don't want them there, and frankly, the workers can work better without them too. So what they have is a huge level of trust and respect, which works both ways. Prisoners trust and respect staff, staff equally trust and respect prisoners. This works to a level where they have a whole fitted out kitchen, which they teach cookery in- bear in mind there are knives and all sorts of other weapons, and yet, to date, there have never been any problems. The education is open to everyone who wants to participate in it, and is obviously very popular, although for some reasons they cannot work with some people-those who are a severe risk, although they try to work with as many as possible. During the morning they have English and Maths classes, and the afternoon is given over to more vocational subjects: Art (they have an art room with pottery and everything!), Cookery, Barbering (they have a salon). We saw the barber class, just as they'd finished. They are all learning to be barbers, so that they can be wing barbers in the prison and earn a little money, of course it is also a recognised profession outside of the prison too for when they get out. Everything is accredited with certificates and none of the certificates have HMP on it, so you can't tell that it wasn't done in a college. The workers, tutors, incidentally aren't specially trained to work in prisons, they are just experts in their field who come in to deliver the programmes.
The courses are all proper courses- OCN and Clait for example- that was interesting, there were 2 full computer suites there for them to do their Clait on.
The courses they do (the levels, ie: clait level one, level two etc) are 4 weeks long. One of the programmes run is 'Family Man'; this is about being a father inside prison and maintaining a relationship with the family and children outside prison so that you are not estranged from them when you get out. After the 4 weeks, the people doing this course put on a play that visualises for them what it has taught them. We were lucky- yesterday was the day of the play.
In we went and sat down with 80-100 prisoners in this large room (no officers remember)- it did not feel like a prison, more like a college room. This play was performed, inevitably with the 'police' and 'judge' parts being overexaggerated. But the meaning behind the play was very clear, there were serious issues in there that the actors wanted us to see.
Another thing i thought that was great about it was that some of the staff were acting alongside the inmates in this, playing the role of wife (its an all male prison). Again, it did not speak out to me as a prison.
We were offered tea and coffee afterwards, and cakes that had been made and biscuits. The BBC were there filming it to show positive steps being taken in prisons, and they were also recording it for radio, which will be aired on BBC West Midlands at some point. They were interviewing people afterwards, those in it, the governors who had come to see it, the education officers, tutors, and er..us! Jodie was approached and said 'oh no, I don't like talking into mic's...but ali will' thus i was forced to gobble out something about being a uni student doing CPY and the reason for the visit.
And what did I think about the play?
Again something was garbled out about how wonderful it was, the positive work going on, how many skills the prisoners had and how they just had to use them when they got out.
Thankfully interview didn't last long...I went very red, I do this, if I'm not prepared to do something and it gets thrust upon me. I felt it. Embarassingly I had been talking to a governor just before I was rudely interrupted...so she saw me go red. Arrrggg
There was a presentation ceremony for everyone who took part as well.
All in all it was a good day.
We left after that, after several hours in there which just flew by; this was because there was going to be 'movement'. This is when inmates are taken back to their cells, both from the visitors hall and the education building. The staff have to stay in the buildings then, they aren't allowed out, so we decided to slip out before that happened, else goodness knows when we'd have gotten out.
Back through gates galore, into the old building. There we said goodbye to our hostess, and waited for some more glass doors to open, stepped through, they closed behind us, and thirty seconds later the ones in front opened. We were back in the reception area to face the guards behind the double perspex bullet proof glass to give in our passes and collect our mobile phones.
And that concludes my day in prison.
Not at all what I expected. At no point did I feel frightened or threatened by the prisoners, who were more than happy to talk to us, and were really polite too. There were no officers, it didn't feel like i was 'locked in' I didn't feel claustrophobic in any way. The building we were in was lovely and more like a college than a prison.
However, I am aware (from talking to the Deacon) that not all prisons are like that, not all Category B prisons have that ethos and freedom, and no doubt the cells are actually very different to the education department. I'm under no illusion about that. But I have to say, my visit to that department was a very positive experience. I'd absolutely love to work in that department, I really would. I loved the ethos, the atmosphere, the informal-ness of it.
Am now considering prison career...
Ali
-x-
No jokes, we all know it was for uni and not because I committed some atrocious crime.
It was amazing.
No, really, It really was amazing. I had so much fun, and I never thought I'd say I had fun in a Prison...but I did.
Going in we got our day passes, and thus by-passed the huge queue of people waiting to go in and visit friends/loved ones- I felt a bit bad queue hopping, but the security dude behind the double perspex bullet proof glass told us to, and I didn't want to argue. He also took our phones and locked them away!
We were treated like VIP's...what a bizzare concept- VIP in prison. Hahaha.
Anyway, had our bags/coats/scarfs scanned through x-ray, walked through a metal detector (which unlike in dublin airport did NOT go off, thankfully), then i was frisked by a female officer, front and back- that was weird. I kinda felt like I'd done something wrong, but hadn't.
We were told by the nice man looking in our bags to walk through the door behind him into a room. We did this. Lots of people followed...after a couple of minutes the door behind us closed. And after 30 seconds of being confined in this 'room' which was just glass, the door in front of us automatically opened. We turned to our right to face a door that we had been told by X-ray man would 'buzz' which was to indicate to us to open it. We waited, and waited. The other people were taken through some sliding bars to a female officer, only when those had closed again (and the other doors weren't open from the glass room) did our door 'buzz'. Through we went into a 'reception' type area where Chris met us.
It felt like a prison at that point. All the security we had had to go through just to get ten feet inside! Chris took us through another metal, barred door, and another, and another, and on the other side of that one was an outside door. We went outside and through the confines of the prison- were pointed out the 'hanging cell' they used to use- nice! Of course it's not in use anymore (although later one inmate delighfully told us apparently they have to keep it oiled incase they decide to bring back that law again and start hanging people). Through a heavy gate, and another, down some steps, and we were walking alongside the cells. The only hassle we had was from a couple of lads in one of the cells who saw us and shouted something like 'hey ladies (muffle muffle muffle)' couldn't make it out and ignored said felon anyway.
Through another gate, and another, and at a door, through the door bit, and the iron gate on the inside. We were into the Education Department.
Downstairs are the workshops, which unfortunately we didn't get to see.
Upstairs after dumping our coats, we met 3 inmates who were working on their files- which were huge. One is a peer mentor in the prison for others who are not so good at reading and writing, and has been offered a place at a university open day in April after he gets out. Another is a fantastic, and I mean, fantastic artist who's work, frankly should be in gallery's; and the third was a peer drugs worker within the prison, helping other prisoners through drugs rehabilitation. All have good literacy skills, and all quite obviously enjoy being in the Education department.
And I can understand why. A completely different ethos undermines that department. No officers are allowed in, unless something serious is going on. The prisoners don't want them there, and frankly, the workers can work better without them too. So what they have is a huge level of trust and respect, which works both ways. Prisoners trust and respect staff, staff equally trust and respect prisoners. This works to a level where they have a whole fitted out kitchen, which they teach cookery in- bear in mind there are knives and all sorts of other weapons, and yet, to date, there have never been any problems. The education is open to everyone who wants to participate in it, and is obviously very popular, although for some reasons they cannot work with some people-those who are a severe risk, although they try to work with as many as possible. During the morning they have English and Maths classes, and the afternoon is given over to more vocational subjects: Art (they have an art room with pottery and everything!), Cookery, Barbering (they have a salon). We saw the barber class, just as they'd finished. They are all learning to be barbers, so that they can be wing barbers in the prison and earn a little money, of course it is also a recognised profession outside of the prison too for when they get out. Everything is accredited with certificates and none of the certificates have HMP on it, so you can't tell that it wasn't done in a college. The workers, tutors, incidentally aren't specially trained to work in prisons, they are just experts in their field who come in to deliver the programmes.
The courses are all proper courses- OCN and Clait for example- that was interesting, there were 2 full computer suites there for them to do their Clait on.
The courses they do (the levels, ie: clait level one, level two etc) are 4 weeks long. One of the programmes run is 'Family Man'; this is about being a father inside prison and maintaining a relationship with the family and children outside prison so that you are not estranged from them when you get out. After the 4 weeks, the people doing this course put on a play that visualises for them what it has taught them. We were lucky- yesterday was the day of the play.
In we went and sat down with 80-100 prisoners in this large room (no officers remember)- it did not feel like a prison, more like a college room. This play was performed, inevitably with the 'police' and 'judge' parts being overexaggerated. But the meaning behind the play was very clear, there were serious issues in there that the actors wanted us to see.
Another thing i thought that was great about it was that some of the staff were acting alongside the inmates in this, playing the role of wife (its an all male prison). Again, it did not speak out to me as a prison.
We were offered tea and coffee afterwards, and cakes that had been made and biscuits. The BBC were there filming it to show positive steps being taken in prisons, and they were also recording it for radio, which will be aired on BBC West Midlands at some point. They were interviewing people afterwards, those in it, the governors who had come to see it, the education officers, tutors, and er..us! Jodie was approached and said 'oh no, I don't like talking into mic's...but ali will' thus i was forced to gobble out something about being a uni student doing CPY and the reason for the visit.
And what did I think about the play?
Again something was garbled out about how wonderful it was, the positive work going on, how many skills the prisoners had and how they just had to use them when they got out.
Thankfully interview didn't last long...I went very red, I do this, if I'm not prepared to do something and it gets thrust upon me. I felt it. Embarassingly I had been talking to a governor just before I was rudely interrupted...so she saw me go red. Arrrggg
There was a presentation ceremony for everyone who took part as well.
All in all it was a good day.
We left after that, after several hours in there which just flew by; this was because there was going to be 'movement'. This is when inmates are taken back to their cells, both from the visitors hall and the education building. The staff have to stay in the buildings then, they aren't allowed out, so we decided to slip out before that happened, else goodness knows when we'd have gotten out.
Back through gates galore, into the old building. There we said goodbye to our hostess, and waited for some more glass doors to open, stepped through, they closed behind us, and thirty seconds later the ones in front opened. We were back in the reception area to face the guards behind the double perspex bullet proof glass to give in our passes and collect our mobile phones.
And that concludes my day in prison.
Not at all what I expected. At no point did I feel frightened or threatened by the prisoners, who were more than happy to talk to us, and were really polite too. There were no officers, it didn't feel like i was 'locked in' I didn't feel claustrophobic in any way. The building we were in was lovely and more like a college than a prison.
However, I am aware (from talking to the Deacon) that not all prisons are like that, not all Category B prisons have that ethos and freedom, and no doubt the cells are actually very different to the education department. I'm under no illusion about that. But I have to say, my visit to that department was a very positive experience. I'd absolutely love to work in that department, I really would. I loved the ethos, the atmosphere, the informal-ness of it.
Am now considering prison career...
Ali
-x-
posted by Culinali at 9:58 am
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