So this is a cushy life

So this is a cushy life

Outrage over prisons is best saved for the reality: ever more overcrowding and damaged inmates

Erwin James responds to this pile of crap with a well written and well thought out counter argument.

Here we go again. Contrary to what we are constantly told by liberals, do-gooders and bleeding hearts, prison is just a great big wheeze. Life inside is so cushy that none of the "lags" want to escape - or at least that is what the Prison Officers Association would have us believe.

Glyn Travis, the association's assistant general secretary, said this week that "members of the public are climbing over prison walls to take drugs into prison". He was referring to HMP Everthorpe, a category C "training prison" in East Yorkshire where, earlier this year, an investigation found that a drug dealer had indeed scaled the prison walls several times to deliver contraband to a prisoner through the bars of his cell window. The prison responded by moving the recipient of the illicit goods and bolstering security. It was a scandal, and a mark of shame on the competency of the prison officers at Everthorpe that such a farcical situation was allowed to happen - a failing that Travis chose not to mention.

Instead he decided to drag out the old chestnut about the enviable lifestyle apparently "enjoyed" by prisoners, particularly at Everthorpe. Life was so comfortable in there for the prisoners, according to Travis, that even though the intruder put ladders up to climb over the walls, "none of them tried to climb up the ladders and escape". Though, hang on a minute ... weren't the prisoners confined in their cells at night behind locked steel doors and heavily barred windows, far from the drug dealer's ladders?

But Travis had another, louder bee in his bonnet. He went on to say that the public would be "appalled" by the plethora of perks being enjoyed by the nation's rapists, murderers and paedophiles. "Prisoners receive a wage for being in prison," he said. They also "receive a bed, a TV in all cells, free telephones" and "breakfast in bed on many occasions". Excuse me while I splutter into my cornflakes. They receive a bed? And breakfast in it? Is that right? No, actually it is not. While it is true that they do get beds, most prisoners receive a breakfast pack consisting of a small portion of cereals, a third of a pint of milk, a tea bag and a sachet of coffee and sugar, which is normally handed out just before night-time "bang up". It takes determination not to consume this during the 12 hours or so until the doors are opened. Those who succumb end up with no breakfast at all.

Meanwhile, compared with call box prices on the outside, prisoners are charged exorbitant amounts for phone calls. And yes, those lucky enough to have jobs will receive about £8 a week. The unemployed - the majority at present - get £3 a week. None of this translates to a cushy life capable of "appalling" the public. I think that if people really knew what went on in their name in our prisons, they would be ashamed.

In response to Travis, Juliet Lyon of the Prison Reform Trust pointed out that as prison numbers have rocketed by 26%, staff numbers have gone up only 9%, and their training has been cut to just eight weeks. "As our overcrowded jails turn into warehouses, with prison suicides and incidences of self-harm at record levels, staff are being pushed into acting as nurses and turnkeys," she said.

There is no doubt that prison officers have a genuine gripe about their working conditions, but disingenuous claptrap will do little in the long run to further their cause. I hope the justice secretary, Jack Straw, treats it with the same contempt that Travis has shown to the people in prison whose safety and care his outburst has compromised.

· Erwin James is a writer and former prisoner
erwinjames@erwinjames.co.uk

So much for the POA claiming prison is too soft