Reform Groups - Speak to us, not for us

Reform Groups - Speak to us, not for us

By: Ben Gunn - HMP Shepton Mallet

Lifer Ben Gunn implores those who campaign on behalf of prisoners to enter into dialogue with them.

For such a generally unpopular group of ratbags, we have a lot of groups who have much to say on our behalf. There's the Howard League for Penal Reform, the Prison Reform Trust, NACRO, Unlock … the list goes on. All are concerned, in their own way, with prison reform or prisoners’ rights and conditions.

Having had dealings, if only briefly, with most of these groups over the years, I have often wondered just how much use they are to us on the landings? I hope that's not an unfair question.

If there is one thing these reform groups seem to enjoy, it’s a bloody good conference. That's a room full of the Great, Good and Well Meaning snaffling down canapes and wine in between lectures. The phrase ‘preaching to the converted’ was hand-made for occasions such as these. Look at the guest lists carefully and you will see that it is often the same people wandering from meeting to meeting around the finer spots of London.

These people love hobnobbing with policy makers. That's civil servants, government advisors and ministers to you and me. They are often consulted by government, and they produce reports and proposals at a rate that scares the life out of anybody concerned with the tree population.

Some are paid due attention - even if the policy makers move very slowly to adopt new ideas. So I will not dismiss this aspect of their work - anything that adds to the understanding of prisons is welcome. In campaigning, the Howard League has been doing excellent legal work on behalf of children in prison and provoked many changes. Again, this can only be welcomed and appreciated.

However, the feeling still remains that for the majority of cons, these groups are an irrelevance. This may be for two reasons. Firstly, that such groups are often in competition with each other, particularly when it comes to raising funds. Secondly, none of them have any meaningful relationship with cons on the landings. They don't talk to us, even when they speak for us.

This shouldn't and needn't be the case. If there was a regular flow, a deep channel of connection, between these groups and us then we could both benefit and speed up the changes that we all want. And I don't mean the current type of connection which involves the odd letter published, the occasional conference at Grendon or filling in an annual survey. I mean substantial and long term relationships.

For example, the Government has recently conducted a consultation exercise as part of its response to former prisoner John Hirst's win in the European Court, which ruled that the blanket ban on our having the vote was unsustainable. I found this out by accident. Not having access to the Net means that even getting the legal judgement is hell, and taking part in a consultation over my rights is impossible. All the penal reform groups have made their representations to the Government but no-one, no-one, bothered to consult the only people this issue effects …us. Even the reform groups didn't bother.

Was this an oversight? No. It is only the latest manifestation of an attitude that sees us excluded from the game, even though the result effects only us. Why are we so ignored? Are we unworthy? Are we too much hard work? Too unsavoury? It is far easier to be a prison reformer when you don't have to deal with prisoners. It’s like helping the poor by donating to Oxfam - that's easier than getting closer to the Great Unwashed.

Why should these groups deal with us? What would be the benefits? I see two results. The first is attitudinal; by forging connections with us it empowers us, reminds us that we actually are part of the debate, the game, and occasionally have something to say that's worth hearing. After all, if prison reformers don't want to know us, who does?

Secondly, there are real advantages in pushing for positive change. We could provide the information that these groups then use in their presentations to policy makers and the public. No one knows the reality of prison, except prisoners. An obvious point, I know, but one that needs to be made. The Prison Reform Trust, for instance, produces the various Prisoner Information Books (in league with the Prison Service). They tell us what the system thinks we need to know. It doesn't tell us what prisoners actually ask to know. But then it wasn't written by prisoners, who know what we need to know, it was written by civilians who presume to understand our daily experience.

Here's an offer - when the next edition is written, myself and others would love to be involved. And I mean at the centre, not the periphery. This is but one example of how we could help reform groups to help us.

The present bee in my bonnet is prisoners organising themselves in order to press for change. In the politest possible way - of course. We are now allowed to form "representative associations". The power of organised groups scares the life out of the system, so they must be a good - and potent - force.

Why have we not taken advantage of this opportunity? More to the present point, why have prison reform groups not offered their assistance to us in forming and making such associations work? This could be the most significant change in the penal reform landscape in generations. A collaboration between organised cons working on the inside, coupled with the policy influencing channels of the reform groups, could transform the prison world.

Why has this not been considered? Is it because prison reformers don't actually think we are worth the effort? Or that they are just looking after their own patch? Or do they think we are neither responsible nor capable enough to join their game?

Here's the really depressing bit. Inside Time newspaper is the only avenue for prisoners to make themselves heard. And yet I cannot recall one response, one contribution, from a penal reform group. It makes me wonder if they even read it. It's beginning to look as if these groups are doing the same thing as the Prison Service - trying to influence our lives in the way they think suits us; without bothering to ask us what it is we are really interested in.