Justice and Peace in prison - an unhappy divorce

Photo by Devon Wilson on Unsplash

Justice means fair treatment and Peace, freedom from disturbance or war, agreement/harmony among people.

However, justice is commonly understood to mean the implementation of laws and law institutions, such as police, courts, prisons and probation - that is, something systemic. So justice is seen and experienced as a legalistic process, rather than 'fair treatment'.

Prisons demonstrate the divorce of justice (fair treatment) and peace (freedom from disturbance/harmony). The reasons are self-evident: chronic disinvestment and underfunding and corresponding institutional stagnation and dysfunctionality.

Entering HMP Wandsworth is like being in an episode of the BBC sitcom 'Porridge' without the laughs. Our Victorian prisons maintain a bleak Victorian culture, a time warp in which the prisoner is stripped of dignity and decency. Nothing is explained. You are left to cope as best you can; to stay well, to get enough to eat, to keep warm, to avoid violence, with no guidance or apparent care. It is dirty and insanitary and feels like being at the bottom of a well where the predominant feelings are of disorientation, abandonment and fear. It's not surprising that self-harm and suicides are daily occurrences, since the prisoner realises very quickly that he has lost most human rights. Inside the 'law' is that of the jungle; bullying, intimidation and abuse (and not merely from other prisoners).

In prison you have choices. Since cells are unlocked for brief periods only you choose between getting a shower, or medication, walking in the yard or getting something to eat. These activities take place simultaneously so as not to place to great a strain on staffing resources. To the outside world this would seem barmy, however the outside world is unaware. Dysfunction in prisons leads to stupid things happening, things that are not logical, or defensible, however, a system that is short-staffed, ignorant and unaccountable, casually cruel, permits this nonsense. It feels surreal, an Alice-in-Wonderland world.

More than fifty percent of inmates have mental or emotional health issues, however, prisons lack the resources to deal with them. The long-term effects of this situation on vulnerable prisoners (and incidentally on their families, friends and wider society) are grim, as are the further effects of the last two-year lockdown for Covid 19.

The popular 'Porridge' stereotype of the cheeky, cheery rogue is way off the mark, even if the Victorian ugliness of the cell block is not. What is so chilling is that, when the official statistics for violence, self-harm, suicides and unaccounted-for deaths are published, some two years in arrears, there appears to be no follow-up but just a general shrugging of shoulders. Remember, there are no votes in prisons.