Some people might argue that prisoners deserve what they get, so why should we make things nicer for them?
There are good reasons why we should all care about what happens when we keep prisoners in squalid and inhumane conditions.
Reason 1
If we want to call our society civilised and decent, we cannot treat some citizens without dignity, their lives lived in enforced secrecy and enforced inactivity and in unsafe, unhealthy even violent conditions. Many of the prisoners in Wandsworth are young. What if it was your son, brother, husband, grandson? Prison is not reforming offenders, it is damaging them. This is happening in our name.
Reason 2
The result is that men who have committed or been detained for a crime come out of prison in a worse state than when they went in. They are often homeless, jobless and without support. It is not surprising that between a half and a third of those released go on to commit more crime.
Reason 3
The mental health of prisoners in Wandsworth is so low and help so sparse that some will become dangerous to the public.
Reason 4
The UK is bottom of the league in Western Europe. We imprison far more people than other Western European countries in worse conditions and with worse outcomes.
Reason 5
Wandsworth – our own local prison, our neighbour– is one of the largest and one of the worst prisons in England.
Reason 6
The system costs taxpayers just under £50,000 a year for each prisoner but achieves very little.
So we should care as compassionate human beings, potential victims, UK citizens, neighbours and as taxpayers.