Comments & Speeches

Minutes later he was dead. Gareth was a 4’ 10’’ mixed race 15 year old who was restrained to death by three prison officers in 2004 in Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre, privately run by G4S. Gareth was killed through the use of the Orwellian-sounding ‘seated double embrace’, a manoeuvre in which the victim is essentially folded in half while sitting down, head thrust between legs, while a grip is maintained on the back of the neck and the arms are pinioned.

The words of a ten-year-old, talking about the emotional strain of not being able to see their mother, currently on lockdown in prison, as recounted in a recent report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights.

The memorably alliterative phrase used was 'punitive passions pulsate' and the unsettling emotions evoked by this telling expression centred on an encounter whilst undertaking a weekly office duty.

At the time, probation officers were allocated a weekly office duty, which meant dealing with a myriad of possible casework challenges and this particular office duty seemed fated to encompass the full range of troubled and troublesome client contacts.

The negative individual and societal consequences of our current use of short-term imprisonment are well documented. The system of short sentences is summed up in a recent Justice Inspectorate report as keeping individuals, “locked in an expensive merry-go-round of criminal justice processes”.

When it finally overpowers us, it will not be by CCTV alone, but by ambient and interactive sensors scraping our data, and algorithms ceaselessly scanning for anomalies, with facial recognition tech maybe bridging the two. Will the pandemic bring this Orwellian moment closer?