This weekend I had the special privilege of visiting Feltham YOI youth prison to see what it’s really like inside, meet some young prisoners and help in a very small way setup a front line mental health service run by inmate volunteers.
In many ways, I wish I had visited a prison much earlier in my life as it dispelled a lot of myths and let me develop compassion towards those who have been incarcerated.
I’m still not sure how I feel about a system that deals with people who have come from socially impoverished and abusive backgrounds by locking them up. It’s a really complex social problem.
And well done to the officers who work in that environment day in, day out.
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