Pandemic Prison Litany
[Crescendo]
Its
broken
Its
noisy.
Where
are you?
How
long have you been there?
One
Hundred and Eighty-Two Days [1]
Incarcerated.
Imprisoned
without trial.
How
many of you are there?
They
claim they do not know.
We
did ask.
The
hidden injustice of the Covid 19 Pandemic:
Somewhere
deep in the prison system.
Its
broken
Its
noisy.
It
stands in need of total reform.
Where
did all these semi-illiterate guys come from?
What
is wrong with our schools that so many guys leave education barely able to read.
There
is no correlation between literacy and intelligence.
There
is a frightening set of links between homelessness and prison: why is no one
talking about that?
Its
broken
Its
noisy.
Sod
the re-nationalization of the railways. That does not need any courage or political
leadership.
You
want to demonstrate courage and political leadership.
Make
a manifesto commitment to the re-nationalisation of the entire Criminal Justice
System.
Every
sodding bit of it: The Courts, the wagons, the prisons, the Probation Service.
The
whole sodding lot of it.
That
would show courage and political leadership.
It
is immoral, un-ethical and plain wrong that anyone can make a pound of profit
out of any part of the Criminal Justice System.
The
clue is in the title.
It
is that simple.
Its
broken
Its
noisy.
They
are all very fit and bored.
Our
roads are full of potholes.
The
Council does not have the money to fix the potholes.
Someone
needs to put the two together.
Its
broken
Its
noisy.
The
children in our schools should be sent to prison.
Every
one of them.
At
least once.
Better
twice.
As
part of that thing they call the National Curriculum.
It
is supposed to teach you stuff.
Well
sort out school trips to the local prison.
Then
they will learn something.
Its
broken
Its
noisy.
The
over-crowding is at crisis point.
The
Press Office at the Ministry of Justice is working overtime to keep all the
fights and fires out of the news.
Its
toxic.
The
Government has lost control of the Prisons.
They
are lying to us when they say it’s alright, and everything is under control.
No
one has the courage to say that.
Its
broken
Its
noisy.
There
are no easy answers.
But
doing nothing is no answer.
Want
to shit your pants?
Make
a Freedom of Information request to the Ministry of Justice about how many of
our prisoners are not UK nationals.
Then you will shit your pants.
Its
broken
Its
noisy.
There
is a quick and dirty solution.
It
will ease the fights and the fires.
But
no one has the courage to do it,
let
alone be mad enough to say it.
Put
the two together.
It’s
not difficult.
[loudly]
Its broken
[pause]
[quietly]
Its noisy.
Copyright
©
Lottie E. Allen
The Feast of the Transfiguration
6 August
In
the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty
[1]
182: the number of days that you can be held in custody in England, without trial
under “exceptional circumstances”.