|
|
 |
| |
Former Islington Mayor and Pentonville prison visitor Pat Haynesf
|
The squalor in Pentonville prison is a national disgrace
In the wake of an independent report that slammed ‘disgraceful’ conditions at Pentonville, former Islington Mayor and prison Visitor Pat Haynes lambasts the government treatment of prisoners
INMATES at Pentonville prison are living in “endemic squalor and poverty”, according to a report last week.
Pentonville was built by the Victorians in 1842 as a ‘model’ prison, with 1,000 cells in four wings designed for one inmate per cell.
Today the size of the cell is the same – 13 ft by 7ft, and 10ft high, but now it’s two to a cell rather than one.
Each cell has two beds, a lavatory and a wash basin, a small table and a chair. The two prisoners have to spend many hours and eat all their meals in the cell in degrading circumstances which are a disgrace to a ‘civilised’ nation.
I joined the board in 1977 and retired in 2006. Of course there have been many changes but some problems remain. For example, a prisoner in 1904 complained about cockroaches. The cockroaches are still there and pest infestation remains a problem.
Prisons were once Crown property and hence outside the jurisdiction of normal legislation. That changed in 1999. Now the local environmental health officer with Islington Council conducts regular inspections and indeed have threatened to have the kitchens closed unless immediate remedial action is taken.
The new report by the prison’s Independent Monitoring Board is thorough and paints a bleak picture of life in the institution.
Pentonville has about 1,400 prisoners and more than 400 staff with an average of 70 prisoners coming or going out each day. This causes an administrative burden.
The ever-growing prison population, now at record levels, has had a serious impact on Pentonville, as elsewhere, and inmates have suffered.
There are many good officers and a number of activities such as education, drug and alcohol rehabilitation courses, workshops, training courses and an active gym. But all these worthy routines aimed at promoting a ‘good and useful life’ are badly affected by conditions at the prison.
It is one of the scandals of the Labour government since 1997 that it has failed in this area of criminal justice. The government’s answer is to build more and more prisons for more and more prisoners. The number of women prisoners has actually doubled in 10 years of a Labour government.
I’ve been an active member of the Labour Party for more than 50 years, and I am ashamed.
The government’s “tough on crime” approach has merely created overcrowding in our prisons rather than dealing with the issues that make people offend in the first place.
I would like to see more supervised community service for non-violent prisoners and better training and education for those locked up.
Prison is often a dumping ground for inadequates. They are frequently mentally frail and need treatment rather than incarceration.
Many are waiting on remand and should not be there.
Some things have improved, however.
When I became a prison visitor in 1968, Pentonville still employed the degrading system of ‘slopping out’ with a bucket in the cell for a lavatory.
That changed in the next decade under the efforts of the first Chief Inspector of Prisons, Stephen Tummin.
But in those days the majority of prisoners were given daily work like sewing mail bags.
Today, with the large numbers on remand, many prisoners remain in cells with no activities.
|
 |
|
| |
|
|
|
