Reading your description of how the Home Office has chosen to ignore research on the beneficial effects of good nutrition, it occurred to me that politicians have a hard time trying to fit everything in with their agreed dogma. Because the research results don't fit into the current dogma of the Labour Party, or the Tories, then politicians will ignore them. To what extent do you think that a desire to look tough on crime for the benefit of the media, or to fit some ideology, prevents policy makers from using approaches which can be seen to work but don't look right in the news? John Small, Faversham, Kent
I fear that there is a lot in what you say. The mythical man on the Clapham omnibus is seen to be a right-wing hard-liner as far as crime and punishment is concerned. Too many politicians play to these prejudices in the mistaken belief that it is what the public wants, and that they must be seen to be tough. I wish that the public would point out to them that the present rate of re-offending is failing them by not protecting them. If this became the cry of the public, politicians would start to worry about their re-election. As so many are now professional politicians, with no other skills to fall back on, I suspect that some would change their tune. Once this happened we might see more following.
I read your article on Holloway with interest. I have just come out. It was my first time in prison, and I was totally unprepared because my case did not expect a custodial, especially for a first offence. The filth thrown out of the windows still exists. I was there for six weeks, and there were five suicides. I suffer nightmares from the crazy screams and cries through the night. I worked in the gardens, carting huge amounts of rubbish. The male officers looked on and laughed; I suppose the respect is just not there and they enjoyed seeing a woman demeaned. I was lucky because I have a loving family who fought tooth and nail on the outside for me, but my time there made me withdraw into myself because I was scared to say anything to anyone. I do not know what I was supposed to learn from this, I just felt wiped out as a person and human being. Oh dear, there is just so much I could say about Holloway and how things could be improved so very simply. Why isn’t there anyone I can talk to about it? Name and address withheld
I am very sad to hear that, despite all that has been publicly professed about changes in Holloway by the Prison Service, the same old situation still obtains. If you want to talk to anyone, could I suggest that you contact the Prison Reform Trust, 15 Northburgh Street, London EC1V 0JR, and ask to speak either to Juliet Lyon, the director, or Lucie Russell, director of a campaign called Smart Justice, designed to alert the public to what is going on. The PRT produced a report about women in prison. Lucie Russell ran the Big Issue for ten years and so knows both the issues and how to challenge them.
I understand that Ms Anne Owers, Inspector of Prisons, is concerned about the growing population of prisoners with sexual convictions. Why does this country not follow Germany's example and do away with the lure of compensation for alleged victims (except in extreme and utterly proven circumstances)? Apparently in the late 1990s, Germany all but stopped compensation and allegations dropped by 97 per cent. There are thousands of guys protesting their innocence. They are not all lying, although many are. Helga Speck, Egham, Surrey
The straight answer is that I do not know. Have you mentioned this to your MP?
What do you think about the new “super” prisons that Mr Blunkett is planning to build? Won’t they make it even harder for prisoners’ families to visit and keep in touch? Name and address withheld
I hate them! The USA, from where many of these ideas stem, has introduced what it calls "Techno-prisons". In them up to 2,500 prisoners, and likely to be more, are confined more by electronic security measures than staff supervision. Visits take place over a video link, from a centre 150 miles away. This is a downward path that must be abandoned. Our large prisons - Liverpool, Wormwood Scrubs, Wandsworth for example - are failing largely because they are too large and impersonal.
By their nature prisons are out of sight, out of mind. Why should politicians care about making any changes when most of the voters never get to see what conditions are really like? You published some of the terrible things that you saw, but do you think that any of that publicity has really made a difference? Name and address withheld
I don't know as yet, but I shall be interested if, seeing the evidence that, so far, has only gone to politicians and officials, less than that has come out in the media, encourages a change of attitude among the public. If they asked why so many people came out of prison and re-offended, costing the country £12 billion per year, they would be doing a service to the cause of better treatment. The figures are an indictment of the present system. Voters do not see it for themselves but should question why it is so ineffective - and failing to protect them.
What is the best way to deal with the problem of Jamaican "mule" prisoners? Is it really sensible for the Jamaican Government to build special prisons there? Frank Robinson, Headingley, Leeds
These women have been enticed into becoming mules by money. They have no intention of living here, but in Jamaica and elsewhere. Of course they must be punished because they have broken our laws and are damaging our society. But, by being in our prisons, they occupy valuable resources of staff, facilities and money, that could be better spent on challenging the offending behaviour of UK prisoners, so that they do not come out and re-offend. Ideally I believe that they should be sent back to Jamaica or elsewhere as soon as possible, so that the Jamaican authorities can try to prevent them from re-offending related to living in Jamaica.
The same should apply to UK citizens sentenced to imprisonment abroad. The problem however is that we must be certain that the punishment element of being imprisoned is not undone by their being immediately released on return home, which is why I believe that there should be international discussion of the issue before we start building any prisons in Jamaica. I understood that it was not Jamaica building more prisons but us offering to build them for them, because of the problem the numbers of mules cause. This is an international problem as I have found in prisons overseas, over-crowded with "foriegn national" prisoners. If building prisons for them in their own country, where they will serve the remainder of their sentence, eases the overcrowding problem here, that would be very welcome.
