Helping prisoners escape
Martin Marsh
It might be a good idea to help people to 'escape' from prison. One assumes that a person in prison is imprisoned not only in a physical sense but also by their attitudes. In this new system there would be, in each prison, an 'escape officer' who would act as a consultant, advising prisoners how to escape in the shortest possible time and giving them support and encouragement as needed. The escape officer would offer prisoners a series of choices of escape routes (long ones, short ones, difficult ones, easy ones, ones involving social activity, or without) at each stage.
'The shortest escape routes would depend on an active choice of difficult tasks'
In order to protect society and to satisfy society's demand for stiffer penalties, the shortest escape routes would depend on an active choice of difficult tasks, social commitment and commitment of leisure time to learning social inventiveness. The advantages include:
- Any change in attitude would be more profound because it would be based on their own motivation, and demonstrated actively by their series of choices.
- Completion of an escape route could be a source of pride and redemption to an ex-prisoner. They could present future employers or critical neighbours with a certificate showing that they had escaped from prison in a short period of time compared with their original sentence and detailing some of the choices which they had made on the way.
- It would be difficult to fake reform - a person would be altered by their own choices.
- It would be a humane way of introducing tougher influences upon prisoners - because they would choose these options themselves in the full knowledge of their implications.
Martin Marsh, 32 Midhurst Avenue, Muswell Hill, London N10 3EN (tel 081 444 5685).
Previous / Next / Table of Contents