" You slaggggggg"


After a strenuous bout of face fat pulling , I separated Winnie from Mary so that the bulldog could have a peaceful half hour in bed at breakfast time.
You can actually see her smiling don't you think?
Anyhow today's blog......well it's about the super prison which is planned to be built some twenty miles away. Apparently it is going to be the biggest penitentiary in the UK with over 2000 cons being banged up at any one time!
There is going to be a recruitment drive locally for Prision officers and the like, and I guess the knock on effect of support services will help with the poor employment figures in the area.

I have only one experience of prison life and that was in the American midwest. 
I was visiting a spinal rehabilitation centre and asked my nursing guide why the unit had so many portering staff. 
" Portering staff?" She repeated, confused at my question
" You know all the men in orange uniforms that are taking the patients to gym and occupational therapy" 
" oh them" the nurse said " they're prisioners from the local prison" 

The prisoners proved to be an invaluable asset to the rehab unit. Not only did they carry out portering duties, they ran messages, fed the patents who were unable to feed themselves and interacted , albeit on a supervised level with the mainly young patient population of the facility.

I asked the nurse why having the prisioners around worked so well
And she gave me some guff  about " raising self esteem, getting cons beck into the workplace and intigrating people of all classes and experiences"

" oh" she added with a smile " they are cheap" 





50 comments:

  1. Perhaps you should put a word in at the hospital where you work for some 'portering staff' ;-)

    I do agree with the ethos behind this, being banged up in prison, especially for the younger minor offenders teaches them nothing except how to offend again. They need to learn responsibility, and how society outside their narrow field of vision and experience of it actually works.

    And they'd be cheaper for the NHS ......

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    1. They ought to have good parents who would do the same thing. ...and a lot cheaper for the country.

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    2. I think that one US prison allows dogs in.....I think thats a great idea

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    3. There are programs all over the country with dogs and cats. Mostly dogs though, and often puppies destined for service work. A great, great idea on all sides.

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  2. Anonymous10:05 am

    2000 men just twenty miles away who have needs and desires. Oh my.

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  3. I sense that it may be time for you to make a career change so look out when North Wales Prison starts advertising for staff! Others may have noticed that you bear a remarkable resemblance to Prison Officer Henry Barrowclough in "Porridge" and the uniform would certainly suit you.

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    1. Remember " vinegar tits" from Prisioner of cell block H ?
      Thatsme

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  4. From what I hear and read, most jails are hellish places plagued by boredom, sexual assault, vile food and awful cell-mates. If they get the opportunity to do some useful work outside the prison, that sounds positive to me, even if it happens to be cheap labour.

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    1. I agree....when i was in Pittsburgh
      I never heard a bad word against any if the prison workers

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  5. Cheap labour will always be a big incentive for the private companies like G4 who will - and currently are - running a large percentage of the prison service in Britain. I suspect that G4's little accounting errors (like claiming for prisoners who didn't seem to exist) which gained them a few extra million quid, have been largely forgotten in the run-up to this latest super-prison.

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    1. Sounds terribly American...

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. @jacquelineand - yes, you are correct

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  6. My only experience with anyone "incarcerated" came when I first started in dentistry more than 25 years ago. I accompanied the dentist to the "correctional facility" in Alaska where inmates we saw were handcuffed and shackled to the chair while one guard stood there while they were worked on -- Use your imagination to fill in the blanks here, because trust me, I thought of it, and it was stressful to be so close to someone that had killed someone.

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    1. I beot they would have been nicely behaved with you

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  7. Prisoners in the USA are paid less than $1 an hour, a great incentive for local employers, though most states have a lot of restrictions on the kind of work prisoners can do to keep from destroying the local job market, but not much incentive for the prisoners. Until we teach employable skills in prison, and help people address the underlying reasons that they committed crimes (poverty -mental health - substance abuse chief among them) we will continue to lock-up far too many adults in the prime of life. Our prison system is a national disgrace.

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    1. David well said.
      Sometimes we forget that rehabilitation is the way foward

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  8. Yonks ago I worked in a federal penitentiary, although not as staff. I was monitoring and supervising an asbestos abatement project... and had to be vetted by the FBI in order to do so. As the only woman on the project, and at a time when women weren't allowed to work directly with the male population, I was an object of interest to many of the prisoners... for various reasons.

    I was a potential target for a small group who wanted to start a riot; for another group I was someone to watch over... and that group warned the guards of what was up and helped get me out of there safely; it still puzzles me that they took the risk. When I showed up again the next day I did get a lot of grins and thumbs up from guards and prisoners alike.

    I wouldn't step foot in a prison now, since it has become big business the atmosphere has become much more brutal.

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    1. Humanity and caring won through in ths example
      Nicely told

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  9. That is one sweet photo of Winnie.

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  10. My first reaction is that people are generally in prison because they have done something pretty awful. They aren't poor souls who have had a bad turn of luck. That they provide free labor for the penal system seems to be about right .. and it keeps them busy, which is the problem with prisons, they sit all day and cook up things to do and those are not things that are good.
    I suppose it is really a case of having to be there to really know what one is talking about - so I am just happy I have not been there .

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  11. Notes from abroad, the majority of prisoners are in for drugs, non payment of fines and non payment of TV licence

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  12. Notes from abroad, the majority of prisoners are in for drugs, non payment of fines and non payment of TV licence

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  13. corbieres, and they go to Prison for that ?? The US Penal system is so overworked and prisons are so overcrowded, I believe a lot of people are given lighter sentences instead of adding one more to the prison.
    non payment of a TV license ?
    Here they have those "chain gangs" ( no real chains involved anymore) and they do road work. I think the prison system here is pretty bad .. there seem to be too many criminals and nowhere to put them.

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  14. A good friend of mine was His Excellency the Governor of some small island colony (I'd better not say which one). Whenever he wanted some gardening or building work done he'd simply phone the local prison and ask for someone to be sent over. It seemed to work OK; I met several of the inmates, they were all nice, hard working, guys.

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    1. I grew up in North Carolina. When the "chain gang" came around, my mother would lock all the doors and not let me go outside to play. It was just like the movies, chains on their ankles, guards with rifles .. and a big dog .
      My mother was always nervous when they worked around where we lived ... I wanted to go see them :) I wanted to pet the big scary dog lol Basically in some ways I have not changed.
      Cro Magnon, a penal colony on an island sounds like something in a film :) Was Robert Newton there ? :)

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    2. Im day dreaming of COOL hand Luke

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  15. Is anyone familiar with the Worricker trilogy, where the British PM is profiting from building US prisons around the world. (with Bill Nye) In the states the private companies collude with the individual states to build private prisons, as long as the state ensures the prisons are filled to capacity. Hence the incarceration of jaywalkers, petty traffic fines and lemonade stand entrepreneurs without permits. Also cops can now legally shake down and take cash from anyone, stating it is drug money. China uses its prisons as call centre operations. BTW what did Aunt Gladys think of your LUX poster?

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    1. She is almost registered blind so thank goodness she missed it

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  16. lol I Bill Nye the "Science guy: ?

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    1. lol is right, sure can lose credibility when you rush. Bill Nighy.

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    2. I love Bill Nighy !! I want to see if I can find it and watch online.

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  17. I have been watching Orange Is The New Black and as much as I thought I knew about our prison systems here in the US (and disliked them), I have discovered that I know nothing. They are horrible. I hope the UK system is better for all.

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    1. How true is the TV show as far as life in a women's prison ?
      I never watched the show .. but I am sure you are totally correct in thinking the systems in the US suck.

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    2. There must be another way eh?

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    3. The prisons in the states, now, suck hairy green donkey balls... and not very well. Kids are incarcerated in adult prisons, some as young as 10 - 11 years old. Often they spend massive amounts of time in solitary confinement.

      This is not restitution and rehabilitation; it is vengeful, medieval and corrupt. For-profit jails and prisons are big business and the operators are threatening to sue states, or pull out of their contracts because deliveries of prisoners are slowing.

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  18. I agree with Ms Moon - my first husband worked in the Prison Service, albeit as a Civil Servant , and he found the prisons he worked in were on the whole fair places. It does seem since those days (25 years ago) they have gone downhill somewhat.

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    1. i have a sense that the wrexham prison will be a flagship
      Lets hope so

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  19. I would think that in Wales a farm prison would be very worth while. Not only do they provide fruit and veg for the prison population but any extra is sold to the surrounding communities. We often see on the tv different prisons doing worthwhile things but I don't think it is the norm at all prisons. More often than not all you see the inmates doing is lifting weights and working out in the gym.
    And on another note, John, you really should treat yourself to a pedicure!!!

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  20. I wish there was much, much more emphasis on rehabilitation, and reconnection with life outside prison here.
    Winnie looks totally blissed out.

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  21. Lovely Winnie, pure bliss on her face.

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  22. You know she is happy when you can tell she is happy ... :)

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  23. The county road commission uses prisoners for ditch clean-up. They were working as janitorial staff at the elementary school years ago when my son was in kindergarten, somehow I couldn't agree with this practice - trusties or not. I don't know if they still do it or not...

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  24. There's you a local job...

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  25. Winnie is so tolerant to put up with all that face pulling from Mary. Good that you've given her some respite, John.

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  26. We were once doing some research in Pierre, South Dakota Archives. A young woman was busy re-filing items and doing other work. She wore an orange T-shirt with the word PRISONER printed large across the back. Jerry said, "Well, I don't think that's very appropriate work attire. But it IS a funny T-shirt."

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