London's bastilles
Sir: The two well written letters in the SPECTATOR of 14 April interest me very much. One is written by a man who claims he spent a few days in Brix- ton Prison four years ago. Only a few days, mind you. The second letter deals with a security re- port by Lord Mountbatten.
It is the first letter which interests me most of all. It has become quite the fashion for people who have been to prison to come out and criticise them unfairly, with what appears to be a biased chip-on-the-shoulder attitude.
I have been in prison, not just for a few days or a few weeks or a few months but for years. And not just one prison, but many prisons in Eng- land alone, including all the London prisons, and I can only say this. Prison is prison, and for the most part, if people do not like going to prison then they should think about this before they commit crimes against society. The food may at times be nauseating. but so is food at a lot of places outside, and believe it or not sometimes worse, but, as a man who has spent, off and on, the last twenty years in prison, I can only say, and many old lags will agree with me, that if you think the food is bad in prison today, then you should have been in prison twenty years ago. The food in prison has improved considerably over the years.
As regards the architecture, this is largely a question of mind over matter. There are people outside who haven't yet got a house to live in or a flat, whilst others still live in slums. I am quite certain Elizabeth Fry would be able to gain en- trance to any prison if she were alive today. As regards hygiene, well, this is an old story. Over the Years, new lavatories and more lavatories have been built, modern too; and old recesses have been taken down and new ones installed; much larger than the old ones and more of them.
Prisoners get ample opportunity to use these facilities throughout the day and evening. What %ith Classes and so forth, prisoners are not locked tip as long as they used to be.
if prisoners are often unable to use the toitets; this is not .the fault of the prisons or staff, but, largely anyway, due to the selfishness and-thought- lessness of their fellow prisoners who on exercise, for instance, use the toilets for smoking and sitting down, instead of what they are really for. Prisons are not, by any real means, unhygienic. This is nonsense. Prisons are properly serviced by prisoners themselves, swept, scrubbed, polished and all the rest of it. I could write enough about prisons to fill the SPECTATOR. I am amazed that, as an editor, John Papworth should think himself quali- fied to write the letter he has written based on only a few days in one prison. Even Lord Mount- batten can hardly judge such a matter in so short a time. To understand the life in prison, one must need to spend at least a few months inside. No disrespect to Lord Mountbatten is intended, I can assure you, but I would not like to comment on his report, which actually, I believe, deals with security, though I could write quite a bit about that also. Perhaps 'Her Majesty's Government' will ask me to some day. Who knows!
With regard to the last part of John Papworth's letter about the Red Cross and so forth, I can only say that if the Red Cross are striving in their own way to help our country out in Aden, then more power to their elbow, but I hardly think it fair to compare the two, that is, our prisons and Aden.
However, may I suggest that it might be a good idea if many of the men in prison had been better disposed in putting themselves at the ser- vice of their country instead of being criminals. Ernest Heaton 135 Praed Street, Paddington. London W2
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