My son has been in High Down prison now for four weeks. 

Just received a letter from him saying that although the prison has gym etc, none of the inmates have access to these due to under-staffing.

He also, at the time of writing, was on lock-down as they did not have the staff to allow prisoners out for association resulting with inmates being in their cells 24 hours a day? 

I rang to book an visit on the booking line number and was told "no, this is not the booking line" and had the telephone curtly put down on me. 

I phoned another number and asked for the booking line number as said I had rung the number given and was told it was not the right number. I quoted her the number I had rung, which she confirmed was the right number. She replied "oh go on the internet and book it".

I went onto the internet and booked a visit.

Unsure whether I needed to confirm this by phone as well, I phoned up the prison on the latter number which was answered by the lady I had spoken to earlier.  When I started to explain to her she said "oh whatever! I told you go on the internet!"

My son said it's a complete shambles in there.

Trouble putting numbers on pins for prisoners to be able to ring family etc. This is not just a recent decline as prisoners told my son, as soon as he arrived, there is no gym and near enough impossible to get on a course.

My question is this: how does this help to rehabilitate?

It needs to be addressed immediately or all that will happen is you will end up with angry, frustrated prisoners - the complete opposite to rehabilitation.

Name and address supplied

 

 


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