STEPHEN
SCORER
Unsafe & Unsure
Men in prison: 82,056. Women in prison: 3,919. Data: Gov.uk, Nov 2016
On February the 28th 2017 the sixth prison in Wales opened in Wrexham. HM Prison Berwyn was named after the local mountain range which lies to the West of Wrexham and although not fully operational yet, with only one of the blocks opened for the inmate’s arrivals, with the other blocks opening before the end of the year, the governor, Russ Trent, has stated that the emphasis was on the rehabilitation of the men. He also added that the staff would call the prisoners “men” and not what they are ‘prisoners or inmates’ and Prison Officers will have to knock before entering a room… really! With the prison cells referred to as ‘rooms’ and to carry on in that light, I would like to welcome the naughty men, who have had a slap on the wrists, to the newly built 3-star hotel Berwyn.
The location for the prison was eventually selected in September 2013 and the building work started in May 2015. Even though the prison was built on the old Firestone factory in the Wrexham Industrial Estate, it still raised a few eyebrows and from the start there have been concerns over local house prices and safety concerns. I live around 5 miles away from the site, so I should be safe enough. I have also been lucky enough to work in a few of the Estates workplaces which has given me some advantage and knowledge in the placement of the prison.
The Category C Male adults’ only prison (sorry hotel) is said to be one of the largest in the United Kingdom and Europe. Costing a staggering £250 million pounds to build, it is no wonder then, that it has all the mod cons a hotel would wish for like twin bed cells with en-suite, television and computer. The computers will have no internet connection, but the men will be able to arrange visits, order shopping and help with any course work. There is also a telephone in each cell with approved numbers for the men, so they can call their families if their stash of sweets or other medicinal necessities are running low!
The prison will consist of three main hotel blocks which will hold 700 men each. Each block has four floors with a solid divider in between floors two and three, providing a safer and better living environment for the men. So, each two-floor section will have around 350 men with two-bed rooms, which makes 175 rooms to be divided between both floors. This would mean a room count of around 88 on each floor; that is 176 men on each floor! I fail to see how this can provide a safe and better living for them - what happens when overcrowding starts in the near future?
“The prison is run in a collegiate system, like Oxford and Cambridge universities, and is split into three blocks of 700 so the men have more of a sense of belonging. At the moment, only one block is operational. The blocks are broken up into 24 communities, which can hold up to 88 people.”
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One of the most alarming messages to come out of the prison is that Governor and his staff have said that each community can be of differing origins; separating each and split accordingly with regards to race, religion and even, maybe, sexual preference. So, if the aim is to help the men integrate back into society, why would you make mini segregated societies in a dangerous environment like a prison? The authorities should be doing the exact opposite.
What with the scout group being formed for the children of the men and with the inspirational quote posters adorning the walls with sayings like, “Look to the future with ambition and hope” and my favourite, “Big journeys begin with little steps” for them to read every day, what can go wrong?
But for me, the one outcome which just does not seem right is that they have mentioned one section could even accommodate some armed forces veterans… What?
Don’t get me wrong, we do need to help with the recovery and health of our many armed forces veterans, but to put them in a prison? Is this sending out the right message to all our serving military personnel? ...If you are a lucky soldier you might get to live in that nice prison in North Wales when or if you get to go home. Now get out there and serve our people and protect the country... Or maybe this is a cunning plan to pre-empt the first prison riot by having its own army on site.
"When Nelson Mandela was in custody, he wrote about the importance of normality. The more normal you make it on the inside; the easier it is to transition when they get out."
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Mr Trent, a former Royal Marine, who was seen as a troubleshooter has said that the facility will be run on ‘Mandela Rules’ - a United Nations standard aimed at making life in prison as similar as possible to life on the outside. The three prison blocks will have access to the very well fitted out gyms, a sports hall, a multi-use games area and a high-quality 3G football pitch. They will also have access to workshops, an education block, a health and well-being centre and even a multi-faith centre. How’s that segregation looking now?
We can help the recovery and escape of the men by getting them superbly fit (the only thing missing is a swimming pool). Then we can help them gain qualifications to assist them in their future. The men even have a workshop to aid in this, gain much-needed hands-on development in making the tools to escape with – practice does make perfect at least. They can get their bodies in tip-top shape at the health centre and before they escape they can go and pray to their god, making it seem acceptable in their minds and their lord's eye.
On the day of an escape, with little or no local knowledge required, the escapees can find the prison has provided them with everything they need. They have access to a bank and a post office next door, various garages on the estate (especially Demon Tweeks a motorsports parts supplier), but the best part is, only a few hundred yards from the prison, there is a gun manufacturer who makes shotguns and rifles.
So what would you do? Personally, I would go and get a gun, then get money from the bank or post office before grabbing a fast ride out of the estate and then onto freedom by taking the ferry to Ireland only 50 miles away… Easy!
Do I think this could happen? I hope not and realistically it shouldn’t, but there is always that doubt in your mind.
Do I feel Unsure of the safety and running of the prison? At the moment… yes.
Do I think it is safe? Time will tell, but at the moment I feel more unsafe than safe.
Footnotes
1 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/01/britains-cushiest-jail-super-prison-i...
2 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/01/britains-cushiest-jail-super-prison-i...
"This is an essay I wrote for a competition on which I placed second, the picture prompt was of handcuffed hands holding onto prison bars."
Laughter is the best form of medicine?
Last year whilst sitting in a group of like-minded people for a mood management session, one of the other “sitters” mentioned that they would sometimes if confronted with a difficult situation, just burst out into laughter, no matter where or when!
So this prompted us all to try our range of laugh’s so to speak, some being a bit nervous than others in the group and obviously held back from a full-on stomach buster. So I went away and wrote this poem for the group on the subject of laughing, it did have the desired effect whilst they were reading it and after.
Laughter
When I chortle I can feel less mournful
My laugh when evil sounds more primaeval
When I cackle I can leave unshackled
My laugh when confused leaves others bemused
I snicker at other people's knickers
My laugh of joy when I play with my toys
My giggle makes my bum wiggle
My laugh when happy makes me feel less crappy
I often titter at a quitter
My laugh from relief lessens the grief
I can chuckle so much my legs often buckle
My laugh when nervous can mean I'm uncertain
I always snort at those who fall short
My laugh when shocked cannot be topped
I snigger when it makes me feel less bigger
My laugh of mirth should be given a wide birth
My guffaw is the mother lode... Hurrah!
I hope you have enjoyed this poem and hopefully, it also made you laugh or even a little smile or maybe a stomach buster was needed.
"This was an article that I put together for the web site 'Time to Change Wales', it was added to the blog page."
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Which One Would You Choose?
Has a relative newcomer to all of this writing malarkey (since early 2016) I have found that one of the hardest things to achieve is finding and actually getting into a writing group, especially one that you can feel comfortable with.
I joined my first writing group in early 2017 which coincided with my first year writing anniversary and if we fast forward a year I can safely say that I have found the group in whole as a wide range of contrasting storytellers and poets. The group is very friendly and welcomes all newcomers no matter what ability or level of writing they are penning, it is always with a smile and with open arms and over the last year I have found that the group is a very knowledgeable one, which helps when you are first starting out on your own journey of creativity, at the end of the day we are all still learning no matter how good we think we are.
On the other end of the sliding scale of writing group choosability is the kind of group that can often alienate new and aspiring writers and in part, I somewhat blame myself for this one?
When I first started to look around the local area for writing groups it seemed I was hitting a brick wall in my search, the ones I found were long gone into the memories of lost writing groups and travelling would become a major factor to join up with the larger groups based in the cities and major towns which are dotted around the area. With the larger groups which do welcome you, especially on their social media sites (I do follow them) I decided against joining up with these, mainly because I felt that I would not receive much if any benefit from such large groups, I am hoping this will change when I become a more accomplished pen smith and I feel much more comfortable in what I am writing.
After another short internet-based search, I found out that there was a defunct writing group that was based in the small village that I lived in, so I used my knowledge and contacts as an ex-community councillor for the village to put word out to gauge the feedback and to see if anyone would be interested, this was done via social media and also by word of mouth.
To my surprise there seemed to be some budding writers and artists that would like to form a group. We held the first few meetings in peoples houses, which like any fledgeling group this should be important, homely and welcoming.
But this soon changed when two much more established authors joined the group, do not get me wrong they were very helpful and willing to share past experiences, but it did have a negative effect on the group which as now been mothballed and will probably be another defunct writing group.
Early 2018 and fast approaching my two-year writing anniversary I was approached by the local carers association (to which I am a member) They asked me if I would be interested in coordinating a creative writing group just for the carers in the area, how could I refuse.
So knowing that this group would at best be made up of 6 to 7 fledgelings in the writing sense, I decided to basically run this group from a fun side, with the aim for the group to eventually run itself, all I would do would provide the themes and activities to hopefully aid them in their own creative writing journey.
If I can be brutally honest, this would have been the type of group I would have liked to join when I first started out, something or anything to help me on my way.
The first of these meeting was a meet and greet and for me to see what kind of level and expectations the group held, in the first meeting I gave them a couple of fun activities to help me gauge the kind of level we would be at.
Before these though, one of the group asked about writer's block and how do I cope? Firstly I told them not to worry too much at first about hitting a block, let's get there first, but to help them I got them to write the letters of the alphabet down one side of A4, the aim then was for them to just go down the page and write the first word that came to mind that started with that letter, thus you will have writers block no more!
I went on to explain that if they are in the middle of writing something and they feel they have hit a dead end or that dreaded wall, they can use this idea and when they will, more often than not they will find that they will write down words that are linked to their writing project, which I should help in the progress of that.
Another activity from the first meeting which was aimed at getting those creative juices flowing was to write a pen-picture of an animal. Just a few descriptive words on each line, then after 10 minutes of hurried creativity I read these out for them to try and guess what animal it was, this was fun and went down very well and it had the desired effect of getting there creativity flowing.
One other fun activity that seemed to enjoy was one I used for character creation and with the group, I used the pictures and cards from the children's game ‘Guess Who?’ (readily available online)
Yes, you can look at these cards and the many faces to see a man wearing glasses, maybe wearing a hat. But what else can you see and make out from just a simple picture, how about the facial expressions, hair colour, eye colour, skin colour, thin or fat face?
If one of these cards was a man wearing thin-rimmed glasses would you automatically think he was some kind of academic or how about someone wearing a cowboy hat, does that make them a ranch worker? Even the shape of there noses could lend itself to open ideas and are they happy, sad or doing anything else with their lips and mouth? A fun game that can be very useful to budding writers that might find themselves stuck for ideas when trying to create a character.
So there you have it, very different writing groups, be honest and ask yourself… Which one would you choose?
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"This was an article that one of my fellow Whitchurch Writing friends asked me to put together for their own blog page."