The long shadow of imprisonment
The heavy price being paid by prisoners from the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown is well-documented.
As my colleague Roger Grimshaw recently noted, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, is concerned about the cumulative effect of the prolonged and severe restrictions on prisoners' mental health and well-being.
Roger goes on to float the idea of a "prisons covenant", setting out principles and safeguards that would benefit staff and prisoners alike. In the more immediate term, we will continue to make the case for vaccinating all staff and prisoners as soon as possible.
Even in the best of times, imprisonment exacts a heavy toll on prisoners. And these are far from the best of times. But as a new study points out, the shadow prisons cast is long; one whose effects ex-prisoners feel long after release.
I was one of the co-authors of the study, though my own contribution was relatively modest compared to the detailed data crunching and analysis done by others.
What does the analysis tell us? As the lead author, Paul Bebbington points out in a summary he has has written for our website, ex-prisoners manifest far higher rates for a range of psychiatric problems than the general population.
As Paul writes:
...ex-prisoners suffered greatly increased rates of current psychiatric problems, including anxiety and depression, psychotic disorder, post-traumatic disorder, substance dependence, and suicide attempts. They had twice the rate of anxiety and depression seen in the rest of the sample, even after adjusting for trauma and current socioeconomic adversity. They also appeared to have experienced difficulties dating back to childhood: deficits in attention, hyperactivity, autistic traits.
As he goes on to point out, without effective liaison between prisons, the wider justice system, and mental health services, ex-prisoners' vulnerability to ongoing mental health problems are only going to continue.
Beyond these important policy and practice considerations, the research reminds me of an essential truth. Prisons are harmful places; far better at damaging lives and compounding problems than they are at helping and healing.
Improved coordination between institutions and services is certainly needed. So is serious action to reduce unnecessary imprisonment and shrink the footprint of our prison system.
As Roger Grimshaw concludes, in the article I mention above:
...the infinite extension of prison capacity to suit sentencers’ judgements and meet the wishes of governments is self-defeating. It will only be curbed and reversed if policymakers start to acknowledge fully the reality of imprisonment and act responsibly in the interests of us all.