Most people are aware of the horrendous conditions in prisons in other countries around the world, as our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will always highlight the horrors in foreign countries’ prison systems, creating the impression that we here in the UK are much, much more civilised, and we do things in a more humane way.
Of course that is bullshit, yes there are prisons around the world that are far more brutal and have more disgusting conditions, but here in the UK our prisons are at bursting point. That in turn causes a rapid deterioration in already difficult conditions. Violence in prisons is rising, but then what do you expect if you throw people with substance addictions, mental health problems, learning difficulties, and a host of other problems, into under staffed over crowded and often brutal conditions.
Prisons are not an answer to any of society’s problems, they are garbage cans where the nuisance, inconvenient, people are dumped by the state, a place to intimidate those who would dare to oppose and challenge the injustices of the present exploitative capitalist system we live under. Prisons and a civilised society are on opposite sides of a wide chasm.
Of course that is bullshit, yes there are prisons around the world that are far more brutal and have more disgusting conditions, but here in the UK our prisons are at bursting point. That in turn causes a rapid deterioration in already difficult conditions. Violence in prisons is rising, but then what do you expect if you throw people with substance addictions, mental health problems, learning difficulties, and a host of other problems, into under staffed over crowded and often brutal conditions.
Prisons are not an answer to any of society’s problems, they are garbage cans where the nuisance, inconvenient, people are dumped by the state, a place to intimidate those who would dare to oppose and challenge the injustices of the present exploitative capitalist system we live under. Prisons and a civilised society are on opposite sides of a wide chasm.
The Empty Cages Collective are excited to announce a Tour of Northern England this September.
Where: Hull, Leeds, Sheffield, Durham, Manchester and Lancaster. Full details of locations and times to be announced. Please note if you live in a northern city or town and have capacity to organise a date – please get in touch.
When: 25th – 30th September 2016
British prisons are currently recognised as undergoing one of the most serious deteriorations of conditions in living memory, recently exposed as being the most violent ever recorded.
In November 2015 the British government announced plans to build 9 new mega-prisons across England and Wales. These massive, minimally staffed facilities, far from resolving any of the prison estate’s serious underlying structural issues, are only going to subject greater numbers of people to their abusive conditions.
This September, the Empty Cages Collective and Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee are going to be speaking throughout the North on the impacts of these developments, and the emerging network to resist them.
For more info: info@prisonabolition.org
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