The (new?) ideas around social rehabilitation in prison - now referred to as the Scandi model - look like just one more case of us forgetting (or our political class wilfully ignoring) social innovations of our past....

As Anne Owers points out English prison governor, Ian Dunbar was a innovator on rehabilitation, acknowledged by the Norwegian Prison Authorities, but whose work has been buried by the subsequent agenda of prison solely as punishment.

#prisons #politics
h/t Observer letters

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Rachel Sylvester praises the Scandi model being pioneered on wings in two troubled London prisons – but this is not a Scandinavian invention. It was pioneered, 40 years ago, by an English prison governor, Ian Dunbar, in a concept he called “dynamic security”. Its three pillars were physical security, staff-prisoner relationships and purposeful activity. The Norwegian prison service has cited Dunbar’s work as the basis for its own approach. So, unlike football, it is just coming home. In fact, it never left – but it has been overwhelmed and undermined in our overcrowded and crisis-ridden prison system. Prisons are part of an ecosystem, which include an overstretched probation service and underfunded community mental health and support services. Prisons will continue to be over-used and under-performing unless we also find a way to invest properly in “not prison”. Dame Anne Owers Former Chief Inspector of Prisons, Aldeburgh, Suffolk

Its becoming clear (but was also pretty predictable) that early release of prisoners to reduce pressure in the prison system, merely transfers capacity pressures to the probation system;

of course, with still insufficient work on rehabilitation & education *within* prisons, and a probation system already failing to work properly, in the long-term such actions may well just increase recidivism & worsen the prison crisis...

We need a better strategy!

#prisons #politics
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c39e3y1y2zjo

RE: https://flipboard.com/@globalnews/global-news-cu8h0oq4z/-/a-Ds_0FyFnRP2jQqNG9RW65w%3Aa%3A749442239-%2F0

keep an eye on this. #MAGA #GOP #Republicans want to turn all #prisons & #ICE dentention centers into slave-work concentration camps.

this is them preemptively feigning to care about slavery. they want to extort other countries into accepting #USA slave labor.

this is what the #deportations are about ― #slavery.

"As #prisons go, #EasternStatePenitentiary in #Philadelphia was unusually luxurious. For one, it had flush toilets — beating out even the #WhiteHouse in making the upgrade, #museum exhibit developer #BethTinker told me on a recent tour.

But if plumbing reflected the #penitentiary’s commitment to #prisoners’ physical well-being, its biggest innovation was more spiritual. Eastern State housed the first #synagogue inside a #US #prison, complete with a #Torah #ark and #nertamid, or eternal light. That restored sanctuary — a short walk from gangster #AlCapone’s former cell — is now newly open to the public in a museum exhibit, Freedom through Faith: #Judaism at #EasternState and Beyond.

“It’s a place really of humanity, when you’re not getting a lot of humanity in this space,” Tinker said.

The synagogue, founded in 1922, hosted holiday celebrations and weekly #Shabbat services."

https://forward.com/culture/838196/eastern-state-penitentiary-synagogue-philadelphia/

From the light of freedom to a concrete tomb,
The fall was great and swift.
My soul cried out in a mighty boom,
How could it come to this?

Clamped down, trapped stuck,
Paralyzed in a tiny cage.
Had fate left me not a drop of luck?
Was there reason for this rage?

Told to lay down and die,
Something deep inside me stirred.
I can’t be caged I have to fly!
Not yet am I interred.

They can take my body, tie me down,
It matters not a bit.
My spirit still runs wild and free,
So in freedom here I sit.

~ Ross Ulbricht
Apr 30, 2024

It seems his artistic vision finally became reality.

sources

https://freeross.org/uncageable/

https://rossulbricht.substack.com/p/uncageable-poem-and-drawing

#RossUlbricht #DreadPirateRoberts #SilkRoad #USCourts #CriminalJustice #Prisons #Prisoners #Poetry #News #Crypto #Poem #FreeRoss

@poetry@a.gup.pe @poets@a.gup.pe @writers@a.gup.pe @infostorm@a.gup.pe

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Hand drawn image of a man interred in prison. He is kneeling in his cell between the bunk and desk cabinet, envisioning a scene above his head of a couple holding hands and giving thanks over food and a crowd seated together and a couple in the distance holding hands.