ITV's Strangeways gave an authentic glimpse of life inside, but the prison service still obstructs real journalistic inquiry, writes Eric Allison
For years, I have preached the need for more media access to our prisons. My mantra reads: we know what goes on in most of our public institutions, schools, hospitals and the like; why should we be (mostly) ignorant of life behind bars? Especially when the way we treat prisoners will have a significant effect on the way they treat us when they are released.
Therefore, I watched with interest ITV's recent three-part documentary revealing life behind the walls of HMP Manchester, Strangeways.
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The series, with impressive viewing figures, was always going to be a curate's egg for ex-cons like me. I knew it would be a promotional exercise for the prison service (otherwise they would not have allowed the cameras in), but it conveyed an authentic glimpse of prison life; an existence far removed from the "holiday camp" popular perception. And it showed that prison staff have a lot to put up with – well, at least while the cameras were rolling. The main pressure on staff, across the system, is the need to deal with people who should not be there; the thousands siphoned into prisons since the Thatcher government's closure of secure mental hospitals. Prison staff are not mental health nurses, and prisons – noisy volatile places – are the last place we should put those with mental health problems.
To read more click here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2011/jun/02/prisons-locking-media-out?CMP=twt_gu
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