Britannia Radio

POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG

Doughnuts & Diversity. Ruralshire, England 2011.

Police to be deployed in prisons!

March 29, 2011 by inspectorgadget

My sources tell me that the wheels are about to come off certain HMP establishments in the next few months; who will look after the Home Office prisoners? and the plan to end police overtime payments for that little job? Certain Police Ministers have a lot of growing up to do before we all throw them out at the next election. This has already happened in NI.

This time, unlike the usual MO of moving prisoners to local police station custody blocks, we will be stationed inside the prisons with soldiers, on the wings, doing the prison officer’s jobs. This is an extremely dangerous situation. The culture inside prison means that inmates are left with very little option but to act as if they are consumed with hatred for the police. This is known as ‘displacement thinking’ where an individual blames the agency that caught them for the fact that they are locked up, instead of the real reason; their own law breaking.

Prison Officers are one step away from this thinking. They may be running the prison but they are not seen as responsible for the prisoner being there in the first place. In addition to this, police officers generally hate prisoners. We feel this way because we know how bad a person has to be before they are locked up; you are only dealing with the very worst of the criminal underclass in prison, and also because we deal with victims, we see the pain and suffering caused by their feckless and random violence and criminality.

The next few weeks represent an opportunity. An opportunity for individual police officers to witness for themselves, as they stand on a prison wing surrounded and outnumbered by people who would gladly see them dead, that it is we who hold the line in this country, yet we are the ones who have been singled out by the very government we protect for the harshest treatment. Not only budget cuts, but a pay review and a raid on our pensions.

Before this lot are done, which will probably be at the next general election, I can foresee police and Army personnel being called in to run many essential services. Again, how ironic that both organisations are being sucked dry to keep bonus’s in the City flowing. One wonders what kind of people these coalition politicians are, biting the hands that feed them.

Still, we can’t do everything at once. I admit to being excited by the thought of getting rid of the last lot. How wrong was I on that one!.