What is the purpose of prison.

Typo.... its

Alison - try googling the Home Office official site - will you believe their statistics?
Try also googling the composition of the judiciary by gender, ethnic origin and education. Or look at some links for racism in the police.

Alison if a corrupt prison officer brings drugs into a prison, it will only be detected if another prison officer tells the authorities. Prisoners aren't going to tell and there is collusion between officers. Good officers might tell, but they are unlikely to notice if it's hidden from them.

It's so easy to take drugs up to a prison wing, and sniffer dogs are rarely taken round the wings. Guard dogs are used around prison yards and perimeters, and sniffer dogs are used when family visitors are going through to the visits rooms, so drug smugglers know that the only way to go undetected is to wraps drugs in cling film and insert them down below (this is where mobile phones go, too!). They have been known to put them in babies' nappies and as a consequence, babies now have to be searched.

At some prisons like Risley, prisoners can get near the prison walls when doing the gardens so drugs smugglers will throw them over the wall at appointed times on the off-chance. Very frustrating to have this happen when you're working in the prison because the whole place is put on lock-down and we go nowhere till the threat to security that has been noticed is resolved and the central locking system de-activated.

Many senior prison officers choose to turn a blind eye to drugs - they regard them as a pervasive part of prison culture and think they have more important things to deal with, like targets and performance-related pay.

You only have to look at the faces on a prison wing, or the racial identity on probation officers' files, to see that black and asian people are over-represented in prisons. Prisons near international airports have even higher numbers because of customs arrests, especially black women who have been forced to act as 'drugs mules' for suppliers in their home countries.

Love to ask ex prison officers..why oh why do they not teach prisoners to read & write?..am I wrong is it 1/2 of prison population illiterate?..by the way I think you prison officers do a fantastic job,you brave lot...nursing was bad enough!

They do teach prisoners to read and write, if the prisoner is willing to learn. Every prisoner goes through induction and their numeracy and literacy skills are assessed. Education is available to them, ranging from basic skills to degree level for long term prisoners. Same in every probation hostel, we have to report on what skills they have within 1week of arrival and support is offered, individually or in groups, by specialist teachers who are based in local FE colleges.

The Offender Learning Programme in Prison and Probation is an established movement for all offenders who are imprisoned or placed on Probation. Any offenders sentenced to Unpaid Work will still be assessed and offered education as part of their work hours. It's been running for some years, and the contract for provision of the literacy and numeracy programmes is regularly reviewed and put out to tender to local colleges to ensure that standards are improved. Tutors have to be very experienced and suitable for working with offenders.

sflip.excellencegateway.org.uk/pdf/embedding%20lln%20in%20offender%20learning%20-%20guidance%20for%20trainers%20&%20advisers.pdf

Many offenders who are offered this education will not access it for different reasons - mental illness impeding their ability at the moment, refusal to participate (several offers are made by different staff and teachers), learning disability preventing progress, learning difficulties such as dyslexia are not an obstacle and all the tutors are trained to teach via different media and according to adult learning styles.

Approx half of all prisoners are assessed as dyslexic.

Lots of rubbish here from those who have never been near a prison or a prisoner. Too many people are happy to believe the claim that thousands of prisoners become addicted to drugs whilst in prison. The fact is that most offenders are drug users long before they see a prison. Universal testing of young offenders on reception at one YOI in the mid 1990s showed that over 80% had been using drugs in the weeks immediately BEFORE being admitted into custody. Random testing on reception at the same YOI in the early 2000s showed that about 95% had been using using drugs BEFORE being admitted into custody.

Given the increased ease of access to drugs in the community since 2000 it seems highly improbable that the situation has changed. It's quite foolish to blame prisons for the fact that offenders are almost universally drug abusers when drugs are such a large part of the recreational activities of so many people in society. When politicians see no shame in admitting to drug abuse before entering public life is it any surprise that they deprive prison staff of the powers to diminish drug trafficking?

A significant reason why it is not difficult to smuggle drugs into prisons is the liberal attitude of politicians and the influence of the prisons inspectorate. Closed visits and non contact visits are frowned upon; searching body cavities is not allowed; and the inspectorate continues to emphasise a requirement for prisoners to embrace their visitors, thus creating precisely the conditions that facilitate drug trafficking. Stringent and justifiable measures to prevent drug trafficking, no matter how strongly prison staff argue for them, have never been on the agenda of the inspectorate or the politicians.

Grannies and grandfathers should note that this whole sad saga of drug abuse started with the trendies and hippies of the 60s and 70s - the grannies of today have a lot to answer for.

It would be prudent to remember when asking why prison officers don't teach prisoners to read and write that most prisoners have had the "benefit" of 10 years or more of state funded education. Prison staff can't reasonably be expected to make up for 10 years of professional neglect by teachers.

I have re-read all the posts on this thread and nobody has said that people first become addicted in prison, as far as I can see. I expect that if you did a tox screen on any large group of young people you would find that a very large proportion had taken drugs of some kind in the preceding days - why should people entering prison be any different? However, if the supply of drugs entering the prison could be cut down, and treatment offered, perhaps more would leave prison 'clean'.
I wonder why people ignore all statistics that do not fit their preconceived views of what 'criminals' are like?

Have you read what has been written? It isn't prison officers that teach, but education people who are brought into prisons. Those who have had 'the benefit of 10 years of edcation' might have been in and out of care, missing school or having it disrupted for this and other reasons.

Drug abuse pre-dates the 60s, and is prevalent in cultures that have not gone through what we experienced here in Europe.

Body cavities of prisoners are searched, and on many an occasion mouths of visitors are searched, including professionals, but rarely prison officers.

Many prisoners try hard drugs for the first time in custody, but will already have used ecstacy and cannabis in the community.

Who is this person? Granny bashing again I note! The term 'angry' comes to mind. Why?

Well I was a teenager in the 60s and have never been offered drugs and therefore never tried them! Maybe I have just led a sheltered life?

Yes, I think you have, Alison!

I've never used or been offered them either!

You didn't mix in the right/wrong circles, obviously!

Quite. I was a good girl I was.

Not now though, eh, jeni?

I have never even smoked a single cigarette (but I have drunk a lot of wine!)
It doesn't make me feel superior though - I just didn't like it when I tried.
Please will everybody read all the thread and try to address the issue of why people are in prison and whether it is useful, for them and for society.
Whenim64 talks from experience - I can only speak from the research I have done, but I do have knowledge of children in schools at the bottom of the heap. My years of teaching made me very sympathetic towards them, and made me feel very lucky that I had not had the same chaotic life myself.
It is easy to feel smug if you have had a loving, stable home, a decent education (even if you had to work hard to achieve it later on in life) and have a reasonable sense of self worth.

I see quite a lot of ex offenders in my job!
Prison does not to improve them. In fact many have been in and out of prison for years!

I have read all the thread, Greatnan - I always do.
It does seem that some offenders can't or won't be rehabilitated whatever tactic is tried, but that may be because they know no other lifestyle. It would seem, in the case of black boys, that more should be done before they get to the point of offending or mixing with gangs - but what? Sometimes intervention is seen as interference by the families involved.

Perhaps more could be done to prevent racists making false accusations, stop racist police targeting young black men, ensure there is a representative balance of black judiciary and politicans, stop racist prison officers discriminating against black prisoners.

But what, when? Attempts have been made, but nothing on earth will alter some people's mindsets once ingrained. Racism will always be with us, I fear.

Exactly, when. I think it is being assumed that black men commit more crimes, rather than the fact that black men are more often arrested, charged, found guilty and given a custodial sentence. Do the words 'head', 'brick' and 'wall' spring to your mind?

Institutionalised racism allows racists to thrive. If politicans, judges and those in authority stopped turnng a blind eye to racism, we might make some progress as our society becomes more multi-cultural. They seem to be afraid that black people will gain more power and turn the tables on those who have oppressed them, so don't give an inch unless made to.

.......let's get back to the debate about what prison is for. to enable corrupt prison officers to abuse their power No, I didn't mean to say that, really