Overcrowding In British Prisons

In this discursive essay, I’m going to be writing about how bad the British prison system has become and what the government should do to fix it.

Overcrowding is the main problem in many prisons across the country, causing serious criminals to be mixed with smaller criminals. Because prisons are expensive and take a while to build, overcrowding occurs as many prisons as they aren't designed to hold as many inmates because some cells are built to only hold up to a maximum of two people. However, they are being used for four people which for the prisoners will mean very cramped conditions. This can cause tense on others and many prisoners have mental issues which can cause a lot of fighting and high risk of suicide. In North Wales, there has
been a new prison built costing £250 million making it one of the largest prisons in Britain holding a significant number of over 2000 male prisoners. Hopefully, this will reduce some of the overcrowding in other prisons and further prisons will be built in the near future.

These problems are made worse by the fact that drugs are already available in prisons particularly "legal highs", also known as new psychoactive substances (NPS). Sold under names such as Spice and Black Mamba, these can make prisoners act violently and cause strange behavior towards others. It is shown that 64 deaths in prisons were caused by these NPS and this is why they have been forbidden, however many inmates will still find some way of getting access to the drugs with contacts on the outside world who will find a way of delivering them into the building. An interview from an ex inmate says that people in HM Wandsworth prison where he served his time " Believes many turns to legal highs because they feel totally adrift from their friends and family", meaning many people are dying and overdosing due to missing their loved ones.

Clearly, prison sentences are not successfully in rehabilitating prisoners as many of them end back up inside. I think the prisons in the UK should be more like Norway Prisons as 80% of their criminals never commit a crime again as they have learned their lesson, making their country a safer place to live in. The prisoners in Norway are allowed to take walks along the lakes that are designated around the prison, have cookery classes, gain access to modern mac computers and have access to three different facilities including a modern kitchen and access to a collection of DVD’S that they rent out. It is very modern and only 20% of them end back up inside. One of Norway's prison officers says, "You want to be living next door to someone nice and not angry" and that’s why they offer so many facilities to help the prisoners to become a better person. This is the reason why many prisons in Norway are closing as they are not needed anymore as less people are committing crimes and less cells are being used.

To address the situation the government is giving thousands of prison officers across the country a pay rise of between £3000 and £5000 a year to boost the number of staff and hopefully this will result in less riots as there will be more staff to control this. For example, the Strangeways riot perhaps could have been prevented if more staff were on duty that night to stop the prisoners causing a disturbance for near enough a whole month causing pain and stress for everyone around them as they were refusing to come off the roof as they wanted to get their message across about how they were being treated in the prison.
Another strategy that the government is finally putting in place help for those who have mental health issues and are in need of it due to self-harm and attempts of suicide. The government have invested in training for the staff in mental health awareness so they know how to deal with an inmate when they are at risk of attempting to take their own life. The prisons have offered more help especially in the first twenty-four hours to those prisoners that are hurting themselves.

Although the convicted criminals are in jail for a reason, they still deserve the right to an education and life experience as this will help to rehabilitate them when they get out.
Many of them are in for summary offence crimes for example not paying fines and some people are in due to others abusing them which made them commit petty crimes and that's why they need to turn their life around and this is why prisons give them work experience to help them for when their sentence is up so they can find a job. I know in one of the prisons in the UK, HP Shotts prison, offers work experience to everyone and in this the men build garden benches, garden stools etc. and they are then shipped to B&Q. They also get people into art classes and different types of workshops to build things for nurseries and high schools. By doing this they are setting them up for when they get out of jail as sometimes before they never used their brains in the world and only used violence and now they get to experience what it’s like to have an education.

In conclusion, the British prison system is going terribly wrong but we are gradually making changes to this to help people who are in need of it and are trying to turn their life around into something good. We are investing more money and time into these prisons and are hoping for the best outcome for a person after their sentence. However, criminals are not in there for a holiday, they are also in there as a punishment and shouldn't be allowed luxury gifts, but they also shouldn't be made to feel sub-human in any way while behind
bars.