An A Category remand and local prison. This prison is a bit of hell hole, especially House Unit 5. The amount of bureaucracy involved for a prisoner, just to accomplish the simplest of things in this prison, is a nightmare. Take for example, making a phone call, you need to submit a phone number in advance for verification and that can take a good few days. You need to submit a canteen list for food that you want to purchase (usually up to £15 a week and that includes your phone calls) a week in advance. You have to put a visitors name down for a visit, 5 days in advance, hen your visitor has to call up to confirm this visit. Visitors go through a number of security checks including, sniffer dog, finger printing, having a picture taken, ID copied, ultra violet stamp on hand, security pat down as well as checking of shoes and inside of mouth before being allowed in a visits hall that seats a maximum of three people to a single person on fixed chairs. There is only one department in this prison that deserves praise, and that is the Observation, Classification and Allocation department.
I feel the prison system offers just wanton punishment, and should actually do a lot more for a prisoner - i.e. teach them skills that they can use on the outside, and keep a prisoner occupied with tasks, so that the mind doesn't idle for 20 hours a day.
Apologies for the rant. |