AUGUST 2019 • 79READER’S DIGESTThe Care Act was great in that it
provided the local authorities with
the responsibility to provide those
services, but there's still a long way
t o g o .”
A particular victory for RECOOP
has been the development of their
four-day resettlement courses, and
formalised buddy support training,
which aim to reduce the anxiety that
surrounds release and give inmates
the tools to live independently.
Both schemes are sorely needed
across British jails. “We spoke to a
gentleman less than two weeks ago,”
Grainge explains, “who'd been given
four hours’ notice that he was being
released, having served over 50 years.
The plan was to give him a phased
support package, but it didn't happen.
He’s not even seen decimalisation,
never mind hybrid silent cards,
chip and pin, Google pay, all the
technology we take for granted.”
Former inmate Carl Cattermole, who
spent time in five different prisons for
a non-violent offence and is now the
author of Prison: A Survival Guide,
explains, “The prison system is good
for no one but in particular for older
prisoners. In prison you’ll wait six
months just to see a dentist, let alone
the complex health needs that older
inmates might face. I’m diabetic so I
saw first-hand the inadequacies. If you
have a complaint, more often than not
it’s ignored. The prison system is so
over-stretched, they have no time for
the medical complexities of the older
generation. I pushed one guy up and
down to education in his wheelchair,
because there were no staff available.
Because there’s no capacity, younger
prisoners fulfil those caring roles.”
Carl’s experience is far from unique.
As one inmate told the Prison ReformTrust, “I can’t get my wheelchair
through the door of my room. When
it’s mealtime someone has to collect
my food and bring it to me. I’ve been
told that officers aren't allowed to
push me. I would be lost without the
support of my friends.”
“Institutionalisation is something
you never get over,” Carl reflects. “It's
like building a concrete structure in
a forest. The ivy can grow back, it can
get hidden, but there are still lumps of
concrete beneath the surface.
I think it’s much harder to adjust into
the community as an older person
than it is if you’re coming out in your
twenties or thirties.”“ONE MAN WAS GIVEN FOUR HOURS'
NOTICE THAT HE WAS TO BE RELEASED,
HAVING SERVED 50 YEARS”