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It's some years since I first wrote about my experiences in prison, 6
years to be precise and from discussing this issue with recently released
inmates, it appears that the situation is not much better than it was back
in 2002.
Mental health issues pose the single biggest problem for both inmates
and the staff of any prison. Self harm being one of the single biggest
problems to deal with.
My experience of how these issues were and still are dealt with is
one that, even now fills me with a sense of hopelessness. How do you
address the multitude of problems faced by most female prisoners? Do you
address the immediate problems, typically drug abuse and fear that their
children will be removed from the care permanently, making them prone to
depression or do you take the time to go right back to the causes of that
abuse, the history lying in dysfunctional upbringings?
You then have the added problem that some of the mental health issues
may have been bought on by the drug abuse, psychosis being prevalent in
the crack cocaine and amphetamine users - can you even treat these
prisoners, given the damage to the brain through persistent substance
abuse?
What about the prisoners who get short sentences, very prevalent in
the female estate - they spend on average 3-6 months in prison at any
given time. Mental health teams may begin to make progress only to have
their clients leave with no follow up in place.
The list is endless — most of the seriously mentally ill, the
persistent self harmers, the psychotic and the manic depressives, spend
their entire prison life in isolation, for their own protection and in
some cases for the protection of other prisoners - This practice cannot be
of any help to the prisoner, sadly this has become a necessity, the fear
of litigation or in the worse case scenarios, prosecution of prison
officers through perceived neglect should a prisoner either attack another
inmate or take their own life, dominates the decision making process.
These few very ill inmates take up the vast majority of any allocated
mental health services to the prison system, which leaves the rest of the
population with a very hit and miss service.
Being imprisoned, is of itself, something that causes mental health
problems, being away from your family and in particular children, leaves
you feeling quite desperate at times. There needs to be a radical rethink
about who we should actually be putting in prison in the first place.
Most of the female estate are in for non violent crimes, they do not
pose a threat to society and prison just compounds and even creates mental
health problems.
My gut feeling however, is that nobody really cares and I can see
politicians baying at the mere thought of spending tax payers money trying
to help anyone in prison. After all the latest rethink on how to deal with
prison overcrowding is to build bigger prisons! Yep, folks welcome to the
American Way - I don't suppose it ever occurs to anyone, that given the
levels of repeat offending, that prison doesn't work and it doesn't work
because it isn't a therapeutic environment, it doesn't rehabilitate, it
doesn't serve any purpose other than to give society a rest and until the
vast amount of resource needed is put into place, society will continue to
be the victims of those nobody cares about.
Competing interests:
I served a total of 8 months in three women's prisons
Does anyone even care?
It's some years since I first wrote about my experiences in prison, 6
years to be precise and from discussing this issue with recently released
inmates, it appears that the situation is not much better than it was back
in 2002.
Mental health issues pose the single biggest problem for both inmates
and the staff of any prison. Self harm being one of the single biggest
problems to deal with.
My experience of how these issues were and still are dealt with is
one that, even now fills me with a sense of hopelessness. How do you
address the multitude of problems faced by most female prisoners? Do you
address the immediate problems, typically drug abuse and fear that their
children will be removed from the care permanently, making them prone to
depression or do you take the time to go right back to the causes of that
abuse, the history lying in dysfunctional upbringings?
You then have the added problem that some of the mental health issues
may have been bought on by the drug abuse, psychosis being prevalent in
the crack cocaine and amphetamine users - can you even treat these
prisoners, given the damage to the brain through persistent substance
abuse?
What about the prisoners who get short sentences, very prevalent in
the female estate - they spend on average 3-6 months in prison at any
given time. Mental health teams may begin to make progress only to have
their clients leave with no follow up in place.
The list is endless — most of the seriously mentally ill, the
persistent self harmers, the psychotic and the manic depressives, spend
their entire prison life in isolation, for their own protection and in
some cases for the protection of other prisoners - This practice cannot be
of any help to the prisoner, sadly this has become a necessity, the fear
of litigation or in the worse case scenarios, prosecution of prison
officers through perceived neglect should a prisoner either attack another
inmate or take their own life, dominates the decision making process.
These few very ill inmates take up the vast majority of any allocated
mental health services to the prison system, which leaves the rest of the
population with a very hit and miss service.
Being imprisoned, is of itself, something that causes mental health
problems, being away from your family and in particular children, leaves
you feeling quite desperate at times. There needs to be a radical rethink
about who we should actually be putting in prison in the first place.
Most of the female estate are in for non violent crimes, they do not
pose a threat to society and prison just compounds and even creates mental
health problems.
My gut feeling however, is that nobody really cares and I can see
politicians baying at the mere thought of spending tax payers money trying
to help anyone in prison. After all the latest rethink on how to deal with
prison overcrowding is to build bigger prisons! Yep, folks welcome to the
American Way - I don't suppose it ever occurs to anyone, that given the
levels of repeat offending, that prison doesn't work and it doesn't work
because it isn't a therapeutic environment, it doesn't rehabilitate, it
doesn't serve any purpose other than to give society a rest and until the
vast amount of resource needed is put into place, society will continue to
be the victims of those nobody cares about.
Competing interests:
I served a total of 8 months in three women's prisons
Competing interests: No competing interests