unhappy men and women are not criminals in the ordinary sense, but sufferers from mental illness.
Instead of being subjected to the hugely expensive process of criminal justice and imprisonment – a process likely to make their condition worse – they should receive medical treatment for mental illness in hospitals or secure care homes.
No one knows this better than those at the sharp end – the fellow prisoners of mentally disturbed inmates and the prison staff who have to deal with them in difficult and sometimes dangerous situations.
I spent a few days of my seven months as a prisoner in the hospital wing of HMP Elmley in Kent.
It was almost the worst period of my sentence. Screams from the disturbed occupants of the neighbouring cells at night were one problem. Another was the behavioural abnormalities of about 15 inmates collectively known as ‘The Fraggles’ (from the TV series Fraggle Rock).
One of these sad characters, with a rolling-eyed twitch in his face, addressed me aggressively on my first morning over breakfast.
‘I know who you are! You’re General Custer. I know what you did to those Cree Indians,’ he shouted. He kept this
up for four days, incessantly giving deranged military salutes to ‘General, sir’ (i.e. me).
I met another troubled character in the showers. His body was criss-crossed by angry red scars. ‘I can see you’re looking at me mars,’ he grunted (that’s slang for scars).
‘Can’t really miss them, can I?’ I replied.
‘No, yer can’t,’ he said in an affable tone, ‘but don’t worry, I don’t do violent. I done ’em on meself. But I’m all right when I take me pills.’
As I got to know the mars man better, he told me he was a schizophrenic who had been in and out of prison for years.
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