If we're not healing prisoners, we're unlikely helping them, nor us!

Prison; a punishment apparatus when one is convicted of an offence & the courts decide there is no alternative but to incarcerate for retribution, or risk to the public. The use of prison as a punishment for serious crimes is a relatively new ideology. It was only in the 18th century in UK law that capital punishment was abandoned for crimes other than murder, and shaming sanctions were deemed outdated (Howard League, 2022). At the time prisons were built to respond to crime, the public, policy makers or politicians had no real understanding of Childhood Trauma, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), or Toxic Stress. They certainly didn't understand the complexity of how they can impact on behaviour throughout the life course, and how this was likely to disproportionately affect the poor. Just as importantly, the justice system and those that construct it through legislation had no understanding of the modern coining of the term of Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE). Maybe they didn't care too much at that stage in history, but either way, they were none the wiser.

The public discourse about prisoners, offenders or criminals is often that these individuals fail to take responsibility for their actions. However, I'm going to attempt to articulate why this is not too dissimilar to the criminal justice system itself. In fact, not only does the justice system not take responsibility, it catches victims within its neglectful, overwhelmingly powerful mechanisms and could do with a bit of restorative justice or reparations itself. Just some acknowledgement to those it's harmed due to its brutal approaches of many that enter it. Those that have already been victims of social harms including inequality, stigma, exclusion, interpersonal and community trauma, structural violence, and racism.

I will provide you with a personal micro example. Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) is defined by the Home Office as "an individual or group taking advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, control, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18. The victim may have been criminally exploited even if the activity appears consensual." (Home Office, 2022). In my memoir book, titled Your Honour Can I Tell You My Story, I outlined that as a 16 year old, I was groomed by several adult heroin dealers into selling large amounts of heroin. Rendering me a naive child entangled in an adult web of deceit and criminality. I was still a child by law because I was under 18. I was also addicted to heroin myself which further exposed my vulnerability. Experiences that we're driven by being excluded from school and being placed in care for several years, due to my mother's inability to keep me and my siblings safe resulting from her capacity issues from childhood trauma and her care experience. I was eventually caught selling heroin and sentenced to prison aged 17 for 18 months.

Reflecting back on this experience as an arguably educated University Teacher, I wonder whether my youth incarceration was for retribution, or risk to the public? Within this context, I can't think of anyone else that was more a victim of this circumstance than myself. Maybe those I sold drugs to. However, they were often selling the drugs they recieved from me to pay for their drug addiction. A war on drugs, or a war on the vulnerable communties that drugs pervade, break and decimate?

When sentencing me, the judge stated that he needed to "make an example of me because heroin has become an epidemic, and people 'like me' needed to know the law would not tolerate drug dealing, regardless of someone's age". Not that I would recieve it, but I would appreciate reparations on two counts: one, because we now accept that even though I was before the courts as a 'young offender', I was also a victim of exploitation which is a term I never heard of course. Secondly, that the judges statement, the pre-sentence report and risk assessments that labelled me a sophisticated high risk criminal meant no one throughout my prison sentence thought of me as vulnerable. Instead as a criminal mastermind that would influence my peers. This in my view was a complete misjudgment of my character, circumstances and power within the offence of possession with intent to supply. I arrive to this conclusion, not just due to my lived experience, but including 15 years risk assessment experience as a justice practitioner. I have dealt with these experiences personally, on several levels. I have to recognise that we continue to learn due to an ever growing body of evidence as we progress through time and change perceptions of what unfolds in our communities. It is certainly worth some level of reflection for the sake of others.

We are currently diverting children away from the youth justice system, and as result reducing children being sent to prison in very impressive numbers. Of course, a welcome approach to youth crime from the perspective of myself and many others. However, we must never forget that many like me caught up in our very expensive and overcrowded prison system were not afforded this protection of diversion and prevention. Fortunately for me, I've become a University Teacher, Husband and Father. Unfortunately, that is not the case for many of my peers I navigated the Young Offenders Institutions (YOI) with. Just because people, particularly the vulnerable attain the title 'offenders', should not stop the public asking questions about their treatment by the justice system.

Criminal responses are important, and if we want people with convictions to care about our well-being as a community, let's make sure they know we care about theirs. The justice system for many of us that have experienced it first hand, attempts to be part of the solution, and often becomes part of the problem. It would be helpful for us as a public to expect higher standards of the justice system. We should expect the justice response to hold prisoners to account, and also heal people that have been victims of what can be a very unforgiving social system throughout childhood. We should want prisoners where possible to be the next University Teachers, Authors, as well as dedicated Fathers and Husbands. This takes an acknowledgement that if the justice system is not healing prisoners, it's unlikely helping them, nor us!