CHAPTER 1: AIMS, AMBITIONS + ASPIRATIONS

Project 2 drew on themes of self-help through reflection and meditation. This project will seek to specialise, and provide a means of self-help to particularly vulnerable individuals in Preston.

Female prisoners as a particularly vulnerable group have been used as an example. Shifting perceptions is an important place to start. Most women in prison are victims as well as offenders:

• women made up 22% of all prison self-harm incidents, despite making up only 4% of total prison population. over 1/4 of suicides occur during the first month of a sentence.

• the rate of suicide attempt is 5x higher inside prisons than out.

• 46% of female prisoners have attempted suicide before.

• over half of the women in prison have suffered domestic violence.

• 53% of female prisoners reported experiencing emotional, physical or sexual abuse as a child.

• approx. 17 000 children are affected by maternal imprisonment each year.

Furthermore, more women are in prison for theft-related offence, than for violence, robbery (theft by force), sex offences or drugs combined. This fact should open the question of whether most of these women are really a danger to the general public, and if a sentence is an appropriate punishment.

This project will therefore seek to empower these vulnerable members of the community, and challenge public perceptions. An extensive and supportive rehabilitation scheme will be necessary to offer the women the skills they need to readjust to freedom, and re-integrate into society. The scheme must be sensitive, and conscious of the fact that many of the clients may be disadvantaged by far more than just their prison experience.

Another ambition of this project will be to foster a sense of autonomy and community within Preston. This feels especially relevant as we find ourselves recovering from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The UK government now face a resentful and distrusting population, who continue to suffer the consequences of indecisiveness, dishonesty, and fatal delays in action.

As the virus loosens its grip on the way we live, the transition back to a restriction-free world presents interesting opportunity to make positive environmental lifestyle changes. I question what lockdown habits we may hang onto. Throughout the earlier days of the pandemic, self-sufficiency felt more important than ever, as national food-shortages and hysterical stockpiling left the shelves of supermarkets barren. Many used the time at home to learn new skills, like bread-making or gardening.

People also relied on local shops more, recognising the importance of supporting small businesses during difficult times, and preferring to reduce travel. The value of community is widely appreciated in times of hardship, and often forgotten with prosperity or ease. Self-sufficient, resilient communities create opportunities for locals and can control more aspects of the way they live. Another ambition of this project will therefore be to engage a community, and reap the social and environmental benefits.

Preston suffers from pockets of extreme deprivation, with many derelict areas of boarded-up shop fronts and unpopulated, decaying buildings. By developing a derelict site, the ambition of ‘reform’ can be extended to the urban environment.

CHAPTER 2: CULTURAL/POLITICAL/ PHILOSOPHICAL/SOCIETAL POSITIONINGS

THE PRISON EXPERIENCE = THE DEATH OF IDENTITY

Dostoevsky’s semi-autobiographical memoir recounts four years at a Siberian katorga, where he served a sentence for his involvement in the Petrashevsky Circle, a progressive, anti-tsarist Russian literary discussion group.

He describes the harsh physical conditions of the labour camp, those he encountered, and the intense and unbearable sense of restriction that plagues the prisoner’s psyche.

UNIFORMITY AND INEQUALITY

‘habits, customs, laws. Were all precisely fixed.’

‘beyond this , there are light and liberty, the life of free people... one thought of the marvellous world, fantastic as a fairytale. It was not the same on our side’

‘a great gate, solid and always shut; watched perpetually by the sentinels and never opened.’

‘the centre of the enclosure is completely barren. Here the prisoners are drawn up in ranks, three times a day’

‘It was the house of living death’

‘Long, low, stifling room, scarcely lighted by tallow candles and full of heavy and disgusting odours’

4

‘The soldiers on guard are suspicious, and clever at counting’

Surveillance States And The Erosion Of Freedom

Foucault criticised the power of the modern bourgeois capitalist state, idealising a Marxist, anarchist utopia. He radically argued that contemporary systems of authority were less humane than medieval ones, and better at obscuring their inhumanity.

Foucault uses retribution frameworks as a primary example, asserting that the public execution and torture of the Middle Ages allowed the convict to preserve his dignity and become an object of sympathy, while the executioner became the locust of shame. The transparent nature of punishment left room for public opinion and challenge: it was not uncommon for riots to break out following an execution.

Though a cruel abuse of power, Foucault argued that this system was no more damaging than the modern prison, which operates entirely behind closed doors, and is therefore impossible to resist.

BENTHAM’S ‘PANOPTICON’: the prisoner learns discipline in a constant state of uncertainty, never knowing whether he is being watched.

Foucault also questions fundamental freedom in a modern society, which is constantly monitored by advanced surveillance systems. Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon unknowingly predicted this existence, where we are equally restricted outside the prison as we are within.

The threat of punishment is as much of a behavioural control system, with the risk of being sentenced disproportionately higher for some groups than for others.

HMP Preston is a Category B prison housing 757 male inmates known for its issues with overcrowding and violence. A report from the Prison Reform Trust revealed that it was England and Wales’ most overcrowded prison, with 90% of inmates sharing single cells.

‘The Preston Approach’ was coined to describe the obstructive control and restraint methods rife among staff, as well as the comparatively high number of assaults against both prison staff and prisoners.

The everyday context of this proposal will be a supportive rehabilitation centre aiming to help female ex-prisoners reclaim a sense of identity and independence. The scheme will offer psychological support and opportunities for employment and education.

The extraordinary context focuses on anarchist ideas from Foucault, and the current public sentiments of betrayal and distrust at the hands of the government. The second function of the scheme will be a settlement moving towards small-scale self-sufficiency, to set an example for wider Preston.

This will directly benefit the ex-prisoners, and potentially other vulnerable people at risk of offending, as these groups are marginalised from the rest of society in many ways anyway. For example, it is far more difficult for somebody with a criminal record to find a job. If desperation, hopelessness or anger was what provoked an individual to perpetrate a crime in the first place, surely ending a prison sentence with even fewer opportunities ensures reoffence for many?

Self-sufficiency will empower ex-prisoners, providing them with ways of not having to rely on a system which they may feel has failed them before. The wider community of Preston will benefit in the same way.