MP Robert Buckland, the current
Minister for Prisons, didn't respond
to our request for comment. A Prison
Service spokesperson said: "The
ageing prison population poses
challenges but inspectors noted
last year there is already good work
going on with the NHS and local
authority partners to adapt prisons
for their needs."
“They should be thinking about
a different type of custody entirely,"
says Clarke. "To put it crudely, an old
peoples’ home with a wall around
it. Older or disabled prisoners don’t
need the levels of security in which
many of them are held. We’re missing
opportunities to think imaginatively
about a different type of custody.”
Paul Grainge says that groups of
prisoners he’s consulted on the idea
have been split almost 50/50. “I don’t
know why HMPPS or the Ministry of
Justice don’t start looking at secure
care home models.”
“The narratives of our prisons are
constructed by three main groups:
journalists who haven’t been to
prison, script writers who haven’t
been to prison and politicians
who haven’t been to prison,” Carl
Cattermole explains. “Factors like
homelessness, poverty, prison, PTSD,
poor health—they all feed into one
another. If you don’t get into one of
them, then you’re unlikely to get into
any of them and you surf above it all
without knowing anything about it.
And people don’t want to know about
prisons. They don’t want to know
anything about it.” nYou can donate to RECOOP by visiting
recoop.org.ukREADER’S DIGESTAUGUST 2019 • 81Author and prison activist
Carl Cattermole