Day 11: The Lock up

It was time for the trip to the department of corrections. An early start after the 21st birthday was such a bad move. But got up nonetheless and still found it a really interesting visit. Also knowing where the priosners go after being caught and prosecuted by the court is quite intriguing.

When a prisoner enters the department of corrections they are given an identification which is stuck with them the whole time while in prison and if they commit another offence. They are assigned to level 2, which indicates how dangerous they are and how many privileges they are allowed. Level 1 are for people that are considered highly dangerous and uncooperative, which get less privileges (bed and toilet, with less time out of their cells). However Level 4 they gain more privileges such as televisions, more time out of cell, access to dog training facilities and different acitivites. The way in which they can go from level 2 to 4, after 2 months, if they have good behaviour they can access the varying facilities which were not already accessible to them. However if doing something bad, can result in decrease in levels. This is different from the prisons in the UK since most of the prisoners get the same amount of time and privileges.

While we were there we saw the different areas that the prisoners were in. So level 1 with the highly dangerous criminals. It was a bit weird seeing them out of their cells when we were looking around. Felt a bit intimdating but they wouldn't have done anything since there was 3 guards with us.

I did ask about the number of psychologists that were in the prison, which there were about 3 of them. Was wondering if they needed a psychology assistant. And the guide gave me a brief overview of what they do, by assessing them before coming into the prison, different therapies that can be administered to change their behaviour (CBT) etc.

The level 4 inmates could take part in a dog training programme which was something I hadn't heard of before. What they do is that they have certain dogs in the prison for a set amount of time and are walked around the green by the inmates. They are trained to be rescue dogs, dogs for the blind and the elderly. So they are providing something back to the community, which is good. Maybe an idea for the British prison system.

Just before we finished the tour we had a chance to go to the armour and a chance to hold a couple of guns (All not loaded, of course). Had the chance to hold a pistol, M60 (I think that is the name) and tear gas launcher. And we had a demonstration of what the riot shield was like. This one had a tasered, so that if someone touched it, it would shock them. Luckily none of us had to volunteer for that and one of the staff was the guinea pig for it.

Overall, it was only a short day but learned a bit about what goes on in the prison. Would have been good to have a talk to the psychologists there. May try and talk to the forensic psychologists that are in the prisons back home to know a bit more about the position.