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If the state of prisons is the judge of a nation, we are failing
A NATION can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners, observed Winston Churchill.
Whether this profound observation crossed the mind of Mr Justice Mackay last week while deliberating on the tragic case of Ryan St George we shall not know, but his judgment certainly reflects it.
Today, Ryan, a young Camden man, has been left severely brain-damaged and confined to a wheelchair, because of crude neglect by the staff at Brixton Prison.
Ryan, an epileptic, who had fallen off an upper bunk in his cell, had been left for 30 minutes on the floor, gripped by a seizure.
The High Court judge didn’t mince words. He described the delay as “culpable”, partly because of the “arrogant” attitude of a prison officer.
To add to the tragedy, Ryan had been incarcerated for the relatively minor offence of shoplifting.
If this were an isolated case it would not have thrown a shadow over our prison system today.
However, it isn’t.
A demonstration on Saturday in Whitehall by campaigners and relatives of young men and women who have met their deaths while in custody brings the tragedy into painful relief.
Nearly 600 prisoners die each year in custody.
Among the campaigners is a doughty mother, Pauline Campbell, whose young daughter committed suicide in a Cheshire jail. Mrs Campbell is determined to bring about changes in the system.
She is a tenacious demonstrator, bombarding the press with her views. She won’t let it go.
Who can blame her?
Many thinking politicians must agree with her. They know the system smells.
They know about the awful overcrowding, prisoners locked in their cells for 23 hours a day, poor medical treatment for inmates, if not at times virtually non
existent, as amply demonstrated by what happened to Ryan.
They know, too, that most prison staff are in despair, aware they do not have the space or the facilities to meet the endless admissions of prisoners from the courts.
Recently, prison staff broke the law and went on strike, largely about the prison crisis.
But thinking of their political skins first, the politicians are afraid to appear soft and humane in the glare of headlines from the tabloid culture of the media.
To allay what they believe is the public mind, their language speaks of tougher and longer sentences and more prisons, making the British system one of the worst in Europe.
When will politicians gain the courage to lead and not to follow?
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