To think it can’t be that a hard to keep drugs out of prisons

[Stoveding]

it Shocks me every time I hear about how ride it is with known dealers inside.
Surely, if there was a proper will, it could easily be all but eradicated?

the stories we do take with a pinch of salt - everything is documented

But we do know some have been true more concerning is why the women working with them were not protected more

The sadest cases are those that get lost in the system, that get into trouble through petty crimes, they don’t understand how the system works and can’t make it work for them

I don’t think people understand how disenabling prison can be. If they are in prison with mh issues they often suffer more thankfully there is more support when they leave but many have addictions and all are angry by the way they have been treated and the system not that they don’t feel they should have been punished (if they do think that and some most probably do they know to keep that quiet)

Well I hope you are in line for a pay rise and get some more fully trained staff to work with

PhaedrasChocolate

Was you addicted or often used other drugs before spice ?

I was really shocked when I saw someone high on spice they couldn’t attempt to walk had to be held up by two people had no idea where they were

Please don’t feel you have to answer

I feel so much for the victims TBH.

Their voices are rarely heard.

keyboardkate

Well said, totally agree with you.

Sundance.. I love your passionate post and agree with pretty much all of your post (although I disagree re: assaults - staff are often assaulted and only recently a staff member in a remand prison had a prisoner stamp on their head requiring significant hospital treatment)

There are people out there who recognise the challenges of the prison service, care about the lives of prisoners and their families, want to see change and feel as passionately as you. Wish there was something we could do, but I fear money is the main issue, and funding prisons does not win votes for any political party.

There r some of us who work in prisons that care just as much as the prisoners themselves and their families/friends about changing the system. To be honest, it's bloody tough to work in such a punishing harsh system sometimes. Please know some staff genuinely do care

Thank you @ParkheadParadise.

Very true ~ increasing funding for prisons is a vote winner for nobody.
I have no doubt there are many prison officers who care and have a vision for how the service should be improved. However, the power and funding is not in their hands.
Just like the police, officers would want to respond to more calls and quicker. NHS doctors would like to give more time to patients.

Sadly, public service is the poor relation. Nobody in government takes any action til the public servants down tools.

Enthusiasm I don't mind at all.

I was always a weed smoker and tried to change to a legal and cheaper alternative. Big mistake.

In the 90's I took a few pills here and there but nothing major, but i clearly have an addictive personality.

I was never in that much of a state but I would have been in far more of a mess had it carried on.

Sundance brilliant post, which I agree with.

Thank you

I’m pleased you were able to manage and to stop taking it

I can tell you now having worked in prison healthcare that prison conditions are punishing
The filth, the lack of rehabilitation opportunities, the dirty protests, the most mentally ill people I’ve ever seen in my career being held in maggot infested filthy cells.

About 80% have mental health problems, addiction, learning disabilities. Many are repeat offenders for petty crimes who know no other home than prison.

The prison officers hugely depleted in numbers, poor healthcare, vulnerable prisoners being targeted by gangs. It’s not a walk in the park.

I’ve known people disembowel themselves they are that unwell

So no, I don’t think most people realise just how bad things are

If they are not buying drugs the nhs is supplying tramadol and pregabalin. Most people’s way of coping with what life has dealt them is to feel nothing, to anaesthetise themselves

Of course you get the gangs, the more hardcore prisoners, the murderers and the sex offenders but unless you live next to one prison that is a sex offender facility the majority are in for low key offences. Prison is a roof over their head albeit horrendous conditions

We had a patient once that was crawling with maggots. How is this right?

That is the punishment - not being there when your child is born, or takes their first steps, or when your wife's mother has cancer, or when your son gets his karate grading or your friend dies or your family get made homeless. Not knowing where your lifetimes possessions are, or what your girlfriend is doing, or whether any of your friends even remember you. Not touching grass, not sitting on a comfy chair, not having a single hot meal, not eating bacon, not seeing the sea

Oh well, on their release they can do all of the above.

I don't care if there are drugs in prison. I think taking drugs is another form of punishment. I would not want to wake up to a come down in prison or have to deal with an addiction behind bars. As long as the drugs stay there and it isn't harming anyone on the outside then it doesn't worry me. I don't think that is harsh. People are usually there for a good reason.

And what assistance is given to victims of horrendous crimes? Nothing really.

May need another thread.

I think a few of the people who have been more damming in this thread need to watch Prison on all4. This is a high, though not max security prison, currently (it has been in the past - my dad worked there many years ago) and the conditions are hardly a party for inmates or staff.

There was a governor I wanted to slap, in this week's episode, as he seemed to care more about the targets he needed to meet than prisoner or staff welfare.

Absolutely agree funding is the main issue because lack of funding means less staff, less training, less support for those with mh issues, less drug/alcohol/rehabilitation programmes

The conditions that are as described above is disgusting how can we expect staff to manage and for prisoners to move and be ready to integrate back into society

People don’t want to hear that prisoners need investment time and money but they do as far too many return and that ends up costing more financially and more importantly impacts society children growing up with parents in jail that vicious circle too often repeats

@NameChanger22 as a prison officer who has had her ribs broken by a prisoner high on drugs I would ask you to rethink what you just wrote.

@Sundance65 your post is very well written and I agree partially with some of it. It's not that simple however. The staff working on the landings really are interested in stemming the supply of drugs. We really are. How do people like me, go about it? It's the powers that be that don't allow the funding in order for us to effectively do anything about it.

I have severe nerve damage, my colleague has a broken eye socket an reduced vision, I had my rib broken, another colleague attempted suicide. I could continue on. I don't know an officer who reports a paper cut... not sure which prison this was in but our nurse would have laughed at this.

Whilst I think your post is extremely eloquent and I understand many of your points which are on some level, true, I still think you have a fairly one sided view point.

If you saw the number of inappropriate and illegal photos that were sent in to the prison service, many of which are also laced with drugs you'd understand why the email system has been introduced. I've seen some awful things sent in to a particular wing that have mentally left me scarred.

In the prison I work for ( non uniform / civilian ) I also have a radio/wear a big black belt with a pouch that holds keys, have a whistle etc. I have lone prisoner contact ( maybe up to 15 ) have a couple of prisoner orderlies working along side me . Yes prisoners get paid for working ( low pay a couple of pounds a day) but from that they have to buy things like stamps,a card to send their child a birthday card, writing paper, telephone time to phone home. They can also buy food to supplement what they are given. Deodorant, soap,toothpaste ( prison issue stuff is very very low quality ) and this is at outside world prices ( sometimes a little more expensive) I'm not saying poor them, just giving an insight to live inside.
In the B cat that I work in they eat all their meals in the cell ( I know a lot of people assume meal times are like the US movies served in a big hall ) They are in their cells for easily 15/16 hours a day more if not working and at weekends 22 hours as no work and no association .

Jeffrey Archer explains why so many prisoners end up on heroin, and come out of prison more addicted to drugs than when they went in. When Ann Widdecombe had the bright idea of randomly testing prisoners for drugs, lots of prisoners switched from cannabis to heroin.

Why? Because cannabis takes a month to leave your system, whereas heroin can be flushed out in one day by drinking lots of water.

A case of politicians meddling from behind a desk in Whitehall when they don't know what goes on in the real world.

BluePrintedLove - Sorry that happened to you. You do a job most people wouldn’t chose to do. Can I ask what made you decide it was the career for you? One of the main reasons I wouldn’t want to do your job is because of the possibility of that happening to me. I think if you work with dangerous criminals there is always a strong possibility of something like this happening.

Are you blaming the drugs or the person? I think dangerous criminals are more than capable of violence without drugs. There may have been many occasions when you escaped being harmed because the criminal was too drugged up to act in this way.

I’m not saying we should be giving drugs to criminals. I’m saying that I don’t personally care if they get them, because I don’t see drugs as a positive things for them. Drugs are not a reward, they are a punishment. I also don’t care too much if child molesters get beaten up in prison. I do think prisons should be a bit of a punishment otherwise some people use it as a holiday from real life.

I do care if child molesters get beaten up in prison. I care because some equally horrendous thug who has probably killed hundreds of young people through their dealing in drugs has probably done it, joined by some burglar who has made it impossible for people to feel safe in their home ever again or some murderer who has killed some innocent passer by just because they wanted their phone. I care because these vicious and dangerous thugs think they are suddenly morally righteous because they are not a child molester - and that gives them the right to practice their thuggery on other people because society approves!
We have to be more civilised than that - more civilised than them.

They can get spice in on any book or newspaper. Small time dealers can earn more money inside than they do outside. It's a never ending battle just like drugs on the outside

@DesignStatement there is no “equally horrendous” to a child abuser.

There just isn’t.