I was in prison and saw how power can corrupt officers
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Version 0 of 1. Ruth Wyner recalls the inhumanity of incarceration, while John Coffin and GD Stewart and discuss the need for accountability and justice Re the article by Deborah Coles and Jessica Pandian (In Britain, a jail sentence is often a death sentence. What’s going on in our prisons?, 31 October), at the turn of the century I received a ridiculous five-year prison sentence for allegedly allowing heroin into a homeless project that I ran. Local police and some vociferous local residents didn’t like my ideas about expansion of provision. Luckily I am a middle-class woman who was supported by some good people and was released after seven months. I came out with a tumour, but I have survived, so far. Prisons create internal as well as external trauma; this was added to the abuse, neglect and trauma suffered throughout their lives by the vast majority of my fellow inmates, ordinary people who had not had the benefits and support that luckier people have. In fact, I found the nastiest people in the prison to be prison officers who seemed to delight in being able to dominate and abuse their charges. The decent officers I met didn’t survive in the job. They left pretty quickly before they became infected by the deeply ingrained culture, partly caused by the awful conditions within which many of them worked. “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” remarked Lord Acton. Indeed. It’s about time the human race grew up and lived up to its much-used description: humane.Ruth WynerCambridge We must not forget the elderly and those with chronic health conditions in prison. I am aware of a prisoner who was incarcerated at 87, despite the judge being aware that he had cancer and other long-term health problems. It appears that he did not receive the specialist care he needed. His condition deteriorated rapidly and after only three weeks he was admitted to hospital. He and his family spent their last hours together while he was kept under guard. He maintained his innocence throughout and, too late for him, an appeal is at last going to be heard. According to the health and social care committee’s report on prison health in 2018, the standardised mortality rate of prisoners is 50% higher than the general population. The report said: “A prison sentence, we heard strongly, is a deprivation of someone’s liberty: it is not a sentence to poorer health or poorer health and care services.” Tragically, four years later, imprisonment is all too often a death sentence.John CoffinBurnham-on-Crouch, Essex Fundamentally our prison problems start with politicians in Whitehall taking over the administration of justice, including nationalising magistrates courts. These deal with 97% of all criminal court cases and most go no further. The magistrates courts used to be run by committees responsible to the local magistrates and local government. They were abolished by New Labour and replaced by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service, which is now responsible to the justice department. The Conservative government made huge reductions in justice department budgets and closed half of the magistrates courts in Wales and England. Prisons are desperately underfunded. Add to that the awful record of the Home Office in dealing with prisons while politicians are forever calling for more miscreants to be banged up. In 20 years as a local magistrate I saw this excessive centralisation at first hand and concluded that while the old system was not perfect, with the dead hand of the Westminster civil service and politicians there will be no real improvement. If we wish to improve our justice system we need to decentralise the police and the courts so that there is local accountability; and there must be a recognition that the cheese-paring of justice in this country is counterproductive.GD StewartRetired magistrate, Henllan, Denbighshire Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication. |