A long whine in the Groan from an ex-prisoner. The general gist is that the government’s plans to sell off old nicks for redevelopment and house cons in new prisons is, er, bad for the felons…
Prisoners’ families are completely innocent, but serve a huge emotional sentence of their own. My now ex-girlfriend suffered endlessly as a result of my move. Rather than being a tube ride away she now needed to take an £80 train ride and the day off work. I used to have more visitors than available slots for visits, but I was lucky to receive one visit every fortnight in the super prison because of the distance. I felt extremely distressed and increasingly vengeful towards the system that was causing the support of my loved ones and my connection to the outside world to wither.
Demolishing city-centre prisons and building huge human warehousing far from people’s support networks is undoubtedly going to lead to some of the poorest and most unsupported people travelling further to be face-to-face with their loved ones.
I think we are supposed to feel sympathy. I am clearly missing the sympathy gene. The only thought that goes through my mind is; can’t do the time, don’t do the crime. And if you really gave a shit about your loved ones’ deprivation as a consequence of your incarceration, you wouldn’t have committed the offence in the first place. You, and you alone are to blame, so, er fuck off, frankly.
Skype! Problem solved.
Also what you said, it’s nobody’s fault but his own that he is in prison. Yes his girlfriend is innocent but he should have thought about her before he broke the law as well.
Agreed!
Plus you have to be a lifetime repeat offender to get put away these days anyway. I have much more sympathy for those that have had their lives ruined by his crime…
“If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.” – Norman Stanley Fletcher.
“I felt extremely distressed and increasingly vengeful towards the system …”
Ah, yes. It’s the fault of ‘the system’ you’re in chokey, isn’t it?